Posted: 7/1/2013 4:49:16 PM EDT
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I have been having sciatic pain from a herniation my l4-l5 disc for almost 8 months now. At first, the pain was excruciating but it gradually improved. I've done oral steroids, PT, chiropracty, and regular stretching, all of which, I think, has been of limited help.
There has been talk by my doc of doing a microdisectomy which I am fine with. The doc also wants to try an epidural injection. My question is, does the injection do anything, anything at all to solve the problem (herniated disc) or is it just pain relief? |
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It treats the symptom by blocking the pain. It will not cure the underlying disc problem. That was my initial impression. That being the case, why would I bother with this step as opposed to going straight to the microdisectomy and getting this fucking nightmare over with? While the pain is bearable from day to day, I have severely restricted range of motion in my left leg and pain medications aren't going to help that. Also, considering the side effects I suffered under my last pain medications (dexamethesone, a steroid, and neurontin) I'm not excited about more medication. I consider those aforementioned side effects to be unacceptable in the medium or long term, and I'm told those injections can last for months at a time. |
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I have two herniated discs in my neck c5-6 and c6-7. I had the epidural, which took about two weeks to work but as others have said, it's pretty much just for the pain. I still have loss of strength in my right tricep and numbness/tingling in my hand, which I understand is common herniations in the lower neck (brachial nerve is affected). I have surgery scheduled about two weeks from today. Without it, according to numerous docs, I run the risk of the weakness being permanent.
I can't speak to the lower back, but I pretty much can understand the pain your probably suffering. Best of luck. |
| I worked on a Spine Inpatient unit for my nursing school role transition (unpaid internship basically). Saw quite a few microdiscectomies and similar procedures and the procedure and recovery seemed pretty mild for an ortho surgery. Very small incision, maybe two, and a day or two for recovery in hospital followed by light duty restrictions for a little while longer. I say get it done with, the epidural is just to mask the pain, and they are not without risk. |
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I worked on a Spine Inpatient unit for my nursing school role transition (unpaid internship basically). Saw quite a few microdiscectomies and similar procedures and the procedure and recovery seemed pretty mild for an ortho surgery. Very small incision, maybe two, and a day or two for recovery in hospital followed by light duty restrictions for a little while longer. I say get it done with, the epidural is just to mask the pain, and they are not without risk. Thanks for the input. I'm actually also going to get a 2nd opinion on this as well, just to cover my bases. If the 2nd doc recommends the injection I guess I will go through with it, but I'd rather just have this shit done. It's a 2mm herniation, it can't be that hard to fix. |
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I had one, worked for a while. Meds and not doing stupid stuff works better. Won't let em cut me. There's a joke in the industry...what's the first thing you get after your first back surgery? . . . . Your second back surgery.  <-- has had 6.
Far lateral herniation at l4/l5 (left side). Two tries at the discectomy, reherniated, fusion (from the back side) and then the fusion failed, re-fused from the front, still having problems with neuropathy, had a spinal neuro-stim implanted-then 4 days later when it became excruciatingly apparent that it was infected, had a spinal neuro-stim removed. I've had 4 or 5 cortisone injections and had multiple test procedures to see if RF ablation would work. The cortisone injections did nothing (one left me pretty much entirely immobile for nearly a week) and the bi-lateral, multi-level injections to see if RF ablation was an option were about twice as much suck as it sounds like (8-10 injections along my spine per go). Good luck. |
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I worked on a Spine Inpatient unit for my nursing school role transition (unpaid internship basically). Saw quite a few microdiscectomies and similar procedures and the procedure and recovery seemed pretty mild for an ortho surgery. Very small incision, maybe two, and a day or two for recovery in hospital followed by light duty restrictions for a little while longer. I say get it done with, the epidural is just to mask the pain, and they are not without risk. Thanks for the input. I'm actually also going to get a 2nd opinion on this as well, just to cover my bases. If the 2nd doc recommends the injection I guess I will go through with it, but I'd rather just have this shit done. It's a 2mm herniation, it can't be that hard to fix. No prob, hope you get some relief. Back pain is a bitch. 
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I worked on a Spine Inpatient unit for my nursing school role transition (unpaid internship basically). Saw quite a few microdiscectomies and similar procedures and the procedure and recovery seemed pretty mild for an ortho surgery. Very small incision, maybe two, and a day or two for recovery in hospital followed by light duty restrictions for a little while longer. I say get it done with, the epidural is just to mask the pain, and they are not without risk. Thanks for the input. I'm actually also going to get a 2nd opinion on this as well, just to cover my bases. If the 2nd doc recommends the injection I guess I will go through with it, but I'd rather just have this shit done. It's a 2mm herniation, it can't be that hard to fix. No prob, hope you get some relief. Back pain is a bitch. To be fair, I've healed a lot over these past eight months, but there's been little to no progress for the last 2 or 3 months. I think I need this fixed because the constant foot drop will eventually screw up my knee And I've got enough shit going wrong already without adding that to the mix.
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