Sitting at the surgery center awaiting my first.
Anyone had these before?
If so what for & what was your experience.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GrumpyBiker,

I've had about 6 sets of 3, so 18 total plus a bunch of RFNA's. The first set worked for almost a year, then they got less and less effective.

I had them in the L5/S1.

Then I finally had the surgery and only had 1 set of injections since then, which was about 10 years ago.

Good luck

About 15 years ago, after a week sleeping on the hardwood floor, I gave in and had 2 done at the same time on my lower back. I was in a lot of pain prior to the injection but it really seemed to work for me. Had a little numbness/nerve damage that gradually went away over the following year.

After 15 years I am still good. However I am careful about the way I lift, etc.

I have spinal stenosis.

I have had 4 of the injections over the past 4 years, the first ones, 1-2 were effective , 3-4 not as much.

Important to not be active at all right after the injections, and rhe next day too. Activity during that time reduces the effectivness.

Of course, if your back hurts, you want relief.

My wife gets them. They help her lower back pain.
She says it hurts for a few hours immediately after, but then it gets better.

Just left.
My Dr. said my first injection will only be effective for about 1-2 weeks.
Then I'll need at least two more.
The length of pain relief increasing between each injection.
With the hope / expectations being 5-6 month of relief.

Man I hope so. I've been fighting this spinal stenosis & Sacrol Torsion for 3 yrs as of next month.


Really pain free experience. Wasn't expecting that.

I had one injection for a very painful injured disk. When I woke up the pain was gone and I haven’t had any pain there since. That was 14yrs ago. Before I found the doctor who recommended the injection I had another doctor tell me I’d probably have to have surgery and be off work for 3 months.

I have had 5 of the injections. The first injection gave me headaches so bad that it kept me out of work for 4 days. I was told maybe they touched a nerve in my spine. I was pain free for 3 months. After getting the others, I was pain free for shorter and shorter durations. Headaches with each shot. It wasn't worth it in the end so I live with the pain until it will be time for surgery when it gets too bad.

I just had one yesterday, my 6th, I have 2 small herniation's in the Lumbar spine with stenosis in the L4facet joint. I get 3-6 months relief and my goal is NO SURGERY!

When it wears off it happens fast, I go from feeling pretty good to bad right hip pain that runs all the way to my knee and Deep left buttock pain. i`m one of the lucky bilateral pain suffers.

I had chymopapain injections years ago. It was a pretty new technique and the side affects were not good. I've used chiro over the years with pretty good results.

I get them annually now (give or take a month or two). I can say my first injection 5 years ago wasn't that helpful, albeit that was x-ray guided. My injections now are cat scan guided and can hit the exact spot they want. A lot of this depends on how well it is placed based on your MRI and symptoms. Mine isn't so much for lower back pain as the shooting pain from my lower back through my butt and outer leg, it definitely helps that.

As others have mentioned, it will cause some numbness day of injection (normal) and don't expect to be doing a lot of walking that day. Otherwise it's good to go in my opinion. As my spine doc has told me, they do seem to get less effective "at some point" but it isn't like your body builds up an immunity to the steroid mix they inject. He says they honestly don't know why they begin to lose effectiveness, but as long as they continue to work it prevents a surgery which is a win in my book.

I've had two for spinal stenosis. The first gave complete relief for four months. The second gave 50% relief for about 3 months.
Most recently I had a nerve ablation on one side to stop the pain from facet joint arthritis. The results supposedly last 3-12 months. I get the other side done at the end of the month.

So far it has been quite successful (given only one side done so far).

I had that injection back in 89. It took a few months to kick in but it cured my L5S1 pain.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I've had two for spinal stenosis. The first gave complete relief for four months. The second gave 50% relief for about 3 months.
Most recently I had a nerve ablation on one side to stop the pain from facet joint arthritis. The results supposedly last 3-12 months. I get the other side done at the end of the month.

So far it has been quite successful (given only one side done so far).

I was wondering if Radiofrequency Ablation was the next step if / when this current treatment looses its effectiveness .

quote:

Originally posted by kx90:
I've had about 6 sets of 3, so 18 total plus a bunch of RFNA's. The first set worked for almost a year, then they got less and less effective.

I had them in the L5/S1.

I've also had six sets of three,at L5S1, and lately at L4-L5-S1 from 2013 until this year. The first two did the most good. Not so much with the subsequent 16. A couple of days relief, at most, but other wise meh. Your mileage may vary, depending on your exact impingement.
 

I just had my 2nd one a couple weeks ago. It helped a lot with a problem I was having, but I still can't walk very far before my right hip starts hurting.

I guess you can only have one every 3 months. I'm hoping I can make it to November and then get surgery. I have 3 places where the nerves are being pinched. Not crazy about surgery, but I don't like where I am right now either.

I had one set of 3 shots just between my shoulder blades for a bulging disk in my neck. The bulge pushes on the medial nerve to my left arm.

I know you know what the pain feels like.

The first shot felt like an elephant sitting on my chest and w/i a few days the pain in my arm was receding.

W/i a week I was able to sleep on a bed vs in a chair propped up.

I finished the series of shots and it has worked for me. (3 1/2 years so far) I still get shooting pain in the arm and bad position can bring the bulge back to bother me-but the shots really kept me from loosing my mind due to the pain.

Do the shots actually treat inflammation and disc bulging, or is it just a pain blocker?

I just finished up a set of three to isolate which disc they will be operating on in April. I had sciatica so bad I couldn't do anything for several weeks and it did relieve that. I have to be careful until the surgery because I don't want that stuff to come back.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Do the shots actually treat inflammation and disc bulging, or is it just a pain blocker?

For me it was a pain blocker.