Epidural Steroid Injections?

Day after surgery. I'm walking around PAIN FREE! Minus the sore incision in my back. I am so happy I just cry! I felt like my life was over. I am restricted to only walking, sitting and laying down for the next 6-8 weeks. I will do everything they say. I will not be amoung the 14% who reherniate their disc!

The surgery is the best thing for my herniated disc.

As soon as the surgeon saw my MRI, he put me on the surgery list for the next available slot. Which was 1 1/2 days after being admitted to the hospital.

I am crying tears of joy with you!

Very Merry Christmas!

Sciatica a few times in the pasy when I fell in a contorted position in the ice playing hockey (45 years).  Would go to a chiropractor.  Lie down on a low bench, cross one leg over the other and he would snap my shoulder in the opposite direction.  Heard a pop...walked out like the sciatica never happend.  Did this about three times over a few decades.

Six years ago, different story.  Chiro didn't work, pain injections didn't work.  Had an MRI and went to see a neurosurgeon.  Found out that I had a bove spur literally "crucshing" (doc's word) the sciatic nerve at L4/L5.  Simple laminectomy to shave off the spur and part of the calcified disc at L5.  One day hospital stay...good as new in a few days.  All sciatica gone.

Had a new knee installed in March and developed some sciatics on the left side (same as the new knee) becuse my SI joints had locked up from walking "funny" with the knee pain.  Five chiro visits fixed the problem.

Now it's back but this time BOTH legs simultaneously.  Only thing that causes this is lumbar stenosis as verified my my MRI last week.  L2 all the way through L5...oen or both sides.  Narrow canals and spurs impinging on all the nerves exiting the spine at those lumbar levels.  Can barely walk...always bent over so I avert most of the pain.  Surgery in the next 6 weeks or so to take care of it.  Simple open, remove spurs, bore out the canals, shave back some disks, close.  Should be as good as new virtually immediately.  Like the first L4/L5 surgery only more vertebrae involved.  No problem...get it done.

So you see that there can be a lot of reasons why you have sciatic pain from simple hip alignment issues all the way through lumbar vertebrae causes.  Imagery of the lumbar region plus hips and pelvis will help both a chiropractor and neurosurgeon pinpoint the actual cause of your pain and direct you to the proper treatment.

One thing is sure: drugs only mask the underlying cause of the pain.  You have to solve that problem and not focus on the pain.  Hope this helps. 

I had a steroid injection for sciatica.  about eight hours later, i felt like I had been dipped in a vat of gasoline from the waist down and someone had struck a match to it. I was in miserable pain, had pins and needles and burning fire and leg cramps and my toes turned all different directions. The sciatica pain is now diminished but now both legs burn and sting. I do not know which is worse, but I've been told these steroid shots can do damage to the arachnoid which is a covering of you nerves and cause an untreatable condition called "arachnoiditis" --very painful.

I have suffered greatly with sciatica for 8 months.  I have taken NSAIDS, Tylenol, and pain pills.  I went through weeks of PT. I walked (often in pain) 10 miles per day.  I continued to do my PT at home (and still do).  I finally agreed to the epidural steroid injections.  The first one helped quite a bit.  The second one helped a lot more.  The third one had minimal effect.  All in all, I would say the steroid shots were worth it.  That said.  I am still not back to normal and may try a chiropractor next.  Surgery is my last resort.