steroid injections sideeffects?

I've had two cortisone injections in my disks and after the second injection I started developing hives. The Dr. told me it couldn't be the cortisone since I didn't have a reaction to the first injection. I started getting this squeezing pain in the center of my chest which I knew was related to the allergy because I had the same thing 15 yrs. ago when I found out I was allergic to Ibuprophen. I went to the ER and was given a cortisone injection and benadryl. Was sent home with a prescription for oral steroids and something to keep me from itching. I went to an allergist and was told it may be from the cortisone. I am sure it's from the injection, I have the hives everyday. I've now gotten it down to a breakout twice a day, at night when I go to bed and when I wake up. I take an H1 blocker which is Xyzal and an H2 blocker which is Cemetidine. These are prescription but you could take Zyrtek and Zatax which is over the counter and it does the same thing.
If anyone has had hives from a cortisone injection, how long do they last? I am going on a month now and don't see an end in sight.

It looks like this post has been inactive for a while but I wanted to add my own story since it seems that there is little on the internet about steroid injections and their side effects. I had two steroid injections one week apart for what they call posterior facet syndrome resulting from whiplash (car accident) and a poor ergonomic work station. The great news is that my neck hasn't felt this good in years. The bad news is that I am ridiculously hungry every two hours and am eating everything in sight. I have never felt this way before and so I finally mentioned it to a coworker who suggested the steroid injections might have been the culprit. So, I googled it. I haven't found much except for posts like this one but I must say, YES it does seem to be a very real side effect.

I have a history of eating disorder (Bulimia/Anorexia) and while I am recovered now and maintain a healthy weight and very healthy relationship with food, I feel like this constant hunger and subsequent weight gain is quite challenging. Mostly, I feel that my eating is out of my control. I am STARVING and eat big meals only to be hungry two hours later. When I first got the injections I could not sleep the following two nights. My pants are tight and the weight does seem to be coming on in my mid-section. I hope that my body normalizes soon. I wish that someone would have warned me about these side effects. I would have still gotten the injection, since they helped the pain, but I may have set up more of a support system for myself around the hunger and weight gain.

I had a series of 3 steroid injections into my ribs for costochondritis back in 2004. I developed cushings syndrome as well from it. The pain mgmt dr never told me this could happen and said that is because it is very rare. My face blew up, I had the buffalo hump, gained a lot of weight and was extremely depressed. I would say it took about 3 years to get back to normal. I had to see the endocrinologist regularly to have him check my cortisol levels and adrenal gland function. Last year was the first year that they were normal.

I just got my first shot today. Ive been getting the lidocaine or some sort of numbing thing for several months and my CT scan finally came back with information regarding the degeneration in my neck. Funny that, because the pain did not start until my car accident two years ago.

While they were injecting, I had tremendous pressure around what felt like my heart. I got a twinge of it again in recovery but it seemed more like a shoulder thing...sort of in front of my right shoulderblade (on the front of my body)

I am now 8 hours past injections--all I really know is that it was a steroid and he put it in 4 places in my neck, followed by my regular numbing shots. I couldnt really feel the stick (due to topical numbing) but the crunching sound of him going into my spine was very unnerving.

I did get a zoom of energy right after that lasted several hours, but I typically do when the pain is reduced with the lidocaine. Unfortunately, overdoing it has left me pretty tired.

I seem to be chilled as well--but that may be because here in Toronto we are having a cold spring (it's only about 19C/65F right now)

To add insult to injury I had dental surgery three days ago where they removed root canals and put in implants. Serious mouth pain LOL I think I am a glutton for punnishment.

Because I am in peri-menopause I have the darkening facial hair already, plus I already am being treated for anxiety, so Im hoping this will be a walk in the park that frees me from the pain!

I AM GLAD THAT I AM NOT ALONE ON THIS. I THAUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY WONDERING WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING WRONG. I GOT THREE ROUNDS OF CORTISONE INJECTIONS ON THE BALL OF MY FOOT. I WAS TOLD THAT I HAVE A FRACTURE AND HAVE TO HAVE FOOT SURGERY. BUT I WORK AT A GYM AND HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO DO SO AS MY JOB RELIES ON HIGH ACTIVITY LEVELS I.E. AREOBICS, TRAINING, RUNNING AND I DONT WANT TO HAVE TO STOP. MY LAST SHOT WAS LAST JULY, HOWEVER I HAVE GAINED 20LBS IN JUST UNDER A YEAR, I HAVE ANCE WHEN I NEVER USED TO, I MY MONTHLY CYCLE IS OUT OF WACK AND I HAVE NOTICED A CHANGE IN MY APPETITE IM ALWAYS HUNGARY. IT FEELS HORRIBLE TO HAVE GAINED SO MUCH WEIGHT WHEN I AM SUPPOSED TO BE A ROLE MODEL TO MY CLIENTS. I AM AT A HUGE DISADVANTAGE HERE. I HAVE BEEN READING UP ON THIS CHUSIONS DISEASE, IM GOING TO MAKE AN APPT FIRST THING TOM. HOPEFULLY I CN GET SOME ANSWERS.
AMANDA

I am so glad that I finally came apon this site. I injured my back at work in August 2008, and was treated with Medrial dose packs (oral steriods) however, the treating doctor didn't want to me to take the packs as directed, he wanted me to take 3 pills 2-3 times a day, for the first week and the second week take 3 pills once a day. After that, I got 2 trigger point injections, 1 epidural injection, 4 facet injections, and another trigger point injection. My face ballooned, I was covered from head to toe in purple stretch marks that appeared over night, I literally woke up the next morning and they were there. I had a 'buffalo hump', depression, mood swings, heartburn that made me feel like I was having an asthma attack, couldn't sleep, gained around 50lbs in 2 months, blurry vision, rapid hair growth, lose of taste, if I ate anything with chocolate in it, I thought it tasted like dirt and terrible headaches. My menstrial cycle stopped completely.

After my last trigger point injection, I started having sharp pains in my stomach to find out that a very uncommon side affect of steriods is Kidney stones, so I had to have emergency surgery to have it removed, and because I was going under anesthesia, they had to give me another injection in my IV, stating that because my body wasn't working properly I wouldn't come out of anesthesia without it. I was dianosed with Cushing's Syndrome about a week before my surgery in December 2008. I suffered from October 2008-July 2009. That was when my menstrial cycle returned. It is now October 2009 and I am still battling the weight gain, stretch marks, and the constant craving for food. The hair that grew did start to just fall out, DO NOT WAX IT, bleach it, I know its hard, but thats one thing my Endo said to not do, if you shave it, it will always be there, I bleached mine, and eventually it fell out. I still have depression because I'm trying to adjust to this new body image that I have now. I am not aloud to have any type of steriods and I have to be careful to not get stressed because it triggers it, and makes you puff up again. It just takes time to get out of your body.

I hope that my story can help you. I couldn't find a lot of information regarding the condition because it is so rare. If anyone has any question feel free to email and ask. I am willing to help in anyway. I wish I had that when it was at it's worst.

Amanda

I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis 2 years ago. I am currently on Remicade and it helps with everything except my lower back pain. After trying various pain pills, physical therapy, lidocaine patches, and even buying my own TENS unit, nothing was working so I went to a pain management doctor. He looked at my MRI and said that I needed 3 rounds of epidural steriods, one per week. So I got 3 within a two week period on 8/18, 8/25, and 9/1. About 2 days after the third injection my face blew up, I got a hump on my upper back and the inside of my mouth erupted in white patches, accompanied by the worst heartburn I have ever experienced. At my follow-up appointment on 9/9, the doctor told me "about one in 20 women experience these side effects" and "they should go away within 3 to 4 weeks." It is now 10/21 and I am much much worse. I don't even have a neck anymore, it is so swollen. My whole upper body is blown up like a balloon. My upper abdomen is so distended that I look 9 months pregnant. My eyes hurt, my vision is blurred, and it looks like I have globs of vaseline in them. My legs are so weak, I can barely climb a flight of stairs. If I am sitting on the floor, I can't get to a standing position without help. I went to my regular doctor and he said I have Cushing's syndrome. The pain management doctor NEVER told me about any of these possible side effects, and if I had known I would never have had these shots. I have gained so much weight that I can only wear sweats with an elastic band and big baggy tops. I'm exhausted all the time and just getting out of bed is a huge amount of effort. I have had to take a medical leave of absence from my job. I hope this helps someone who is considering this treatment. I just wish I had known.

Does anybody know about dangers black market of steroids. They can miss label them and when somebody is buying then he/she can not be sure what exactly has he/she get for their money.
Do you know anybody that is using steroids from black market?

I had 2 cervical epidural injections about 3 weeks apart for a herniated disc from degenerative disc disease back in September 07. By the time I went for the second shot I should have known something was wrong, but I figured the symptoms I had started showing were from the pain and stress of my condition (this started in my late 20's). It wasn't until around the holidays when my aunt the RN looked at me and said it looked like I had Cushing's that I realized something was really wrong.
It was then that I really examined what had happened to me since the injections:
I was constantly hungry and I gained at least 50 lbs (and I'm only 4'11") which included lots of stretchmarks,
My menstrual cycle stopped (for the first 5-6 months, and irregular since then),
I had horrible mood swings, I would start yelling or crying at the drop of a hat,
I suffered from muscle weakness and fatigue, it got harder and harder for me over that winter to go through my daily routine,
I got worse acne than I had ever had as a teenager,
I regularly got canker sores in my mouth which I had never had before and scared me,
and I had terrible difficulty concentrating and remembering things, which may have been the worst part of it because I was (am) a college student so my GPA suffered and I was set back a few years from dealing with all of this. (and I hope I didn't forget anything)

The acne lasted a few months, the muscle weakness maybe 6 months or so, the canker sores were around for a few months, after about the first year the weight started to drop off without any kind of diet change and I have about 8 pounds to go to get back to my original healthy weight. The memory loss and lack of concentration receded more slowly, but is mostly better at this point, but the moodiness was the longest running problem, I definitely feel more like myself at this point, but I'm still irritable and I cry disturbingly easily.
By the way, I was never diagnosed with Cushing's, but it is quite clear to me at this point that that is what happened to me. I was sent to several different specialists to try and figure out what it was, but the expensive medical bills and the incompetence of many of the doctors encouraged me to figure out what was wrong on my own. I was not told about any possible side effects of the steroid injections and I feel like the medical profession really let me down by letting this happen to me and then denying that it's even possible, when clearly it is, and I'm not the only one.
The really sad thing is my pain came back about 9 months after the injections. I decided that I would go see a chiropractor on my own since the clinic doctors had proven themselves to be incompetent, and within two months of seeing her I was pain free and have been since with monthly adjustments. Demand alternative treatment options, don't let your physicians bully you into ineffective treatments with possibly crippling side effects.

Good Luck to all of you and thank you for sharing your experiences.

I had this cortisone injection into my spine and the short term results were amazing. I was pain free for the first time in about two years. I was delighted and had not realized how crippling the pain from my back had become until I was free of it. BUT, the pain eventually returned after about two months. At this time I insisted on having the disc removed from my back.. I am happy to report that this was over ten years ago, and I made a complete recovery from the operation/surgery. I do all kinds of sport, and I have never experienced the sciatic pain since the operation.

Thanks Marsha, I am having several of those same side effects. The heating up and cooling down is the worse along with wooziness. I was already easily overheating due to MS, but now it is twice as bad. Thanks for confirming what I felt was the reason for feeling this way. :-)

I had 3 steriod injections, if i had known about all of these side effects I would have never gotten them. I have hot flashes,panic,facial hair growth,bruising all over,some weight gain. Not to mention I still have back pain!! Now I am going to see a sugeron,so hopefully something can get done. I know i am calling my doctor and asking them to test for cushing syndrome! I would never recommend those shot to anyone!!!

I am so glad I found this site! I was in a car accident in February. I got rear ended on the freeway going 65 mph. My car did not have much damage, but I have three herniated discs and a shoulder impingement from this. I have been having chiropractic treatment and physical therapy for 11 weeks now, with little improvement, and my orthopedic surgeon wants to do cervical epidural injections. He said nothing about the possible side effects and only told me that"80 percent of patients respond well to this and that it is not an invasive treatment'. I felt unsure about the injections at the time, but they were starting to look more attractive to me as my pain has not abated, and I'm having more numbness and tingling in my neck, arms and hands.My mother has MS, and when she was first diagnosed, she was given Prednisone. She had many of the symptoms that all of you had described. Thank you all for your posts! It is great to get HONEST information, rather than fluff from doctors who gloss over details just to get more of your money! This has helped me reach a decision that I will DEFINITELY NOT have these injections no matter what my jerk orthopedist says to me! What pain relief I may get is not worth going through the possible side effects- I'd rather live with it!

I just found this site and wanted to tell what happened to me. I had multiple steroid injections and got the opposite of Cushings, a type of Adrenal Insufficiency like Addisons. Steroid injections not only go into the spot for pain, but then travels through the rest of your body and your body shuts off your own cortisone, thinking it has surplus. Most people when the steroid injection wears off, their body kicks back in, and starts making cortisol again, but for a few unlucky people like me, the body doesn't kick back in and you can crash from loss of cortisol when your stressed or sick.

The ironic solution was to put me on hydrocortisone pills for about a year and then my body luckily kicked back in and started making cortisol, again so I no longer need the steroid pill. Now if I even get one steroid injection, I'm back in trouble. Hope my story helps others.

My symptoms where, I was mostly tired to the point of trouble staying awake during the day, to severe muscle pain in my lower legs. When I took a walk, and was fallowing my sister, she seemed to go faster and faster than mea nd I couldn't catch up, but it turned out I was going slower and slower, no matter how hard I pushed myself. It was like the movie where you run and run and the door goes farther and farther away, like your never going to reach it.

Im so happy to have read all these posts. i thought i was going crazy. I have broken out all over my face chest and back , and have facial hair (mustache) that ive never had before, im feeling depressed, tired.. I had facet joint injections(lumbar spine)and then another 2 weeks later. I was supposed to go get another one in 2 weeks..thank god i looked all this up. Now im canceling. Its ridiculous they dont inform u about the side effects. I hope i dont have cushings.