Epidural Steroids/Facet Injections

I have had a L4/L5 disc replacement 2 years ago and still had back pain after.

I had C.T. guided Steroid Injections into my L4/L5 facet joint 3 months ago and it did absolutely nothing.

I just had a Myeolgy CT Scan with a contrast dye injection that showed narrowed nerve canals at L4/L5 requiring a back fusion of L4/L5 and ‘Decompression’ Surgery to make the nerve canal bigger/take pressure off the nerves.

Physiotherapy and Chiropractic Therapy also  did nothing for me.

10x Pain pills a day also had little effect with Pain relief for me.

Lots of bedrest, very little bending/physical work/sitting/driving and walking is the best form of pain management until surgery.

I was diagnosed with stenosis.  Prior to laminectomy surgery in the L4-L5-S1 region, the neurosurgeon had me try spinal injections by a pain Doc.  I had 3 sets of injections.  There was some relief after the first set, but the improvement faded away after 2-3 weeks.  Following the second set of shots, the relief was even briefer (10 days).  By the time I made the appointment for the 3rd set of shots, the pain Doc said it was unwise to continue trying to cure my symptoms with steroid injections.  Note that whereas the injections should have taken 10-15 minutes, they took over 30 minutes because he had a difficult time avoiding all the arthritis spurs along my spine. 

The laminectomy surgery was partially successful in that it completely eliminated the numbness in my legs.  However, the pains in my feet (peripheral neuropathy) are worse now than before the surgery.  A year after the surgery, the neurosurgeon did a Medtronic spinal cord stimulator (SCS) trial where he inserted an "electrode" along my spine, in the same vicinity as where he had done the surgery.  That electrode was hooked up to a portable device used to control the intensity of the signal that was supposed to counter the pain coming from my feet.  They deliberately do a 3-4 day trial before they install a permanent SCS device.  In my case, the SCS signal was more uncomfortable than the pains from my feet, so I stopped the trial after 2 days.  They removed the electrode.  I'm now back on Amitryptlin and Gabapentin to reduce the neuropathic pains.  The same neurosurgeon wanted to try a newer SCS this past Summer, but I had read enough horror stories on this website that I decided not to go ahead with the newer SCS.  Several patients on this website reported having much different (negative) results from the permanent SCS installation than they had experienced during the trial.  My symptoms are different than most folks on this website, in that I have never had any back pain, the peripheral neuropathy is intermittent, rather than constant, and I'm not diabetic.  If/when I can't get to sleep due to the intermittent pains, I take a Tramadol pain medication.

??The neurosurgeon won't do any more surgery on my lumbar spine, fearing that it could "make my spine unstable".  So, I'll have to wait for them to improve SCS devices before I try that solution again.  Bottom line is that the steroid shots undoubtedly work for some conditions, but not all.  There is some risk whenever somebody is poking around your spine, but they are minimally uncomfortable, and I wouldn't hesitate to try them again, if I could be assured that they would provide relief.  As you can tell from my wording above, I'm not a Doc, so I'm not rendering a professional opinion herein!  Good luck.

I have had 2 back surgeries and I’m in more pain now than before the ops, my advice would be to think very carefully before going down that route.

I was having physio done privately until a few weeks ago but the only thing I’ve gained is I’m walking better than before I started but expensive way to end up only walking better but still all the pain.

Im sure others, who have had surgery, would agree with me when I say I was expecting a miracle that didn’t happen!

I was taking a lot of pills but nothing seemed to ease the pain so with my GP’s help I have stopped nearly all of them including Tramadol and Morphine. 

This sounds like a real downer of a message but please think carefully before going the surgery route. With regards to injections I had a couple of lots of steroids quite a few years ago but they didn’t make any difference in the pain at all.

Doctors don’t advise bed rest nowadays with back pain but I find this is the only way I get any ease.

Please let us know how you get on.

Linda x

Don't know about cervical but I had bi-lateral stenosis at lumbar L2/L3 that was fixed in one day by an LLIF (lateral fusion...see picture).  90-minute op, overnight stay, no brace, no rehab, immediate pain relief.  Maybe they have one for the cervical vertebrae...