Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire had spine injection yesterday...

I learned a lesson about advice from a doctor on whether or not I wished for some sort of anesthesia. (no [bleep] I spelled that right the first time or spell check quit working)
I suffered from a nasty throat infection on my first deployment on the Germantown LSD42. So a doctor in Subic Bay looked down my throat and said he wanted to clip, he said clip, off a lesion and test it. Said he wanted to give me eight shots in the back of my throat to numb things down. I figgured the quick clip, he said clip, would be the lesser of two evils. Tough Marine said just clip, remember, he said clip, it off.
Big mistake. He did apologize after the fact and said he should have insisted I get the local. Ever since then, doc says it's gonna hurt I want something that rhymes with demerol.

I guess I've been lucky with my three herniated discs. The first (when I was in my 20's) healed up all by itself in about a year. The next 2 healed up almost overnight after cortizone injections. I strained my back a little last Tuesday when I picked up a case of oil in my garage wrong (bent over at the waist). I took it easy until yesterday when I got in a hurry and picked up something wrong again and got a muscle spasm in my lower back (my first) and went to my knees. I quit working and made it into the house getting a muscle spasm every few steps. Today right after lunch I started getting muscle spasms about every 3 steps so I laid down in bed with a cold pack. I called my doctor to see if I get get a prescription for muscle relaxers and have my Daughter pick it up for me. They said I'd have to come in for an examination and I told here I couldn't get out of bed. The muscle spasms have let up a little but they seem to be more painful than any of the herniated discs I've had so far. I've heard of people getting back muscle spasms but had no clue they were so painful.

I cannot remember even one day I have not had at least one spasm in the last eleven years. Sometimes they face plant me but usually I can stay up.

I've had back surgery for 2 ruptured discs, I've had a total of 3 injections before my surgery, and approximately 7 after surgery, Never once havin a sedative before getting them. I asked the Dr. why people ever get the sedative, cuz I never felt they were painful enough for one. Evidentaly I have a really High pain tolerance. But the last one I got, bout shot me off the table!I now have Severe Nerve damage, and am gettin ready to have a Neuro stimulator implant put in to stop the pain signals from reaching my brain. this whole back thing is for the birds!! anyone that has never dealt with it has no earthly idea how horrible it can be!! hope you get better!!

been in pain most my life because of my knees but still i used to think it was horsechit what some people take for their back...than i bulged a disk and found out what pain really was.....after my back if someone told me they were taking a shot of heroin for relief ild say more power to them, the day i was rolled into the OR i was ready to sacrifice one of my nuts with a dull spoon if a doc gave me a 50% chance of it making the pain in my back going away

Scott-I feel sorry for you if you get back spasms every day. I only went to the ground on the first spasm and had to pull myself up with my arms by holding on to a nearby ladder. After that I carried a mop handle to hold onto when I had a spasm. Yesterday I had a spasm that lasted 5 to 10 seconds everytime I did any movement that required my back muscles to contract even slightly. I was bacically incapacitated all day. No spasms so far today. I've been taking lots of Ibuprofen and using ice packs.

Generally, they are not that painful.

Here are some additional facts: first of all, in regard to the rash of meningitis due to comtaminated steroid which happens to be Depo-medol (or in the generic, methylprednisolone)--it comes from one compounding commpany, NECC, located in Mass. Most of the cases are in the east, a few in the upper midwest. Some of the drug was shipped to SW states but hopefully the story broke before any or much of that was used.

Low back pain is the number one medical problem in western civilation. Backs are complex, made up of multiple potentially pain-producing tissues. A common malady, age-related, is degenerative disc disease, bringing the vertebral bodies closer together "pinching" nerve roots or touching (indenting) the dural sac initiating neuropathic pain. A variation of this is a herniated or ruptered disc much like a bulge on an old rubber inner tube. This can do the same as the above. Little joints called facet joints that run from the cranium to L5 and on both sides of the spine can be arthrotic and abnormal. They usually cause pain in the back, hips, and groin but not usually radiculopathy or "sciatica" (pain, numbness, weakness going down the legs, usually the back but variably, in the front also).

There are different types of injections for each of the conditions above as well as oral medications, and surgery, spinal cord stimulators, physical therapy, manual manipulation (chiropractor), etc. Not all of these work for everybody but some one or a combination of these will help about everybody, at least to some degree. Unfortunately, surgery should be gone into only when you are about at the of your rope as 33% of those folks will experience recurrent back pain.

The primary injections for the back are selective nerve root blocks, interlaminar epidural steroid "floods", facet joint injections or facet median nerve blocks. These can be done at any point on tje spine and are only done now with fluoroscopy, a live x-ray machine that helps you drive the needle ro the target which is harder than it seems as you need to be able to visualize in three dimensions.
Most practitioners inject two medications, the steroid that usually takes 3-7 days to work and which will hopefully bring the inflammation down thereby bringing relief, and a local anesthetic which will almost immediately numb angry tissues with resultant immediate relief; however this works only for an hour or two.

There are various steroids, varying in relative strength and length of action. Betamethasone is one of the strongest and longer acting. There are also solumedrol, cortisone, methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, etc. Often times a series of these--most practitioners will stop at three within a six month period to prevent side affects from the steroid and to refrain from shutting down your very own adrenal glands from producing "your own", not a good thing--will be given for maximum affect.

Patient usually have an IV strarted for two reasons: pain medication or sedation may be needed and it provides a route for other meds should the patient experience an allergic reaction or a syncopal one (fainting), or other untoward reaction.

While the back problems mentioned above are predominantly located in the lumbar spine (L1-L5), with most problems at L4-5, they can variably occur in the neck causing cervicalgia and radiculopathy or symptoms running either or both arms, less frequently, they can occur in the thoracic spine.

Well, that's a thumbnail sketch of these problems. Feel free to PM any questions--I take fine rifles, shotguns, and inside info on elk hidey holes as payment .

Kidding; really

Just had the spinal injections 4 or 5 hours ago. As for me the Jury is still Out for now. I never felt any serious pain, mostly uncomfortable as is with all needles in my body. The best part of the whole procedure was seeing my Dr. had a Camo lead protection thing on. Too funny.
I am hoping it works for me. Basically it hits me in the lower back and then I have a minute or so to either sit down or fall down as I loose most all muscle control in my legs.

Back in 2008 I screwed up my Back With Sciatica Nerve Problems, got so bad I had to lay on the floor to put my pants on. Had three injections to help fix up my back, BUT my doctor insisted that I was put under each time.

It ended up the best thing I ever did it worked miracles for me.

Jury is still out. I too didn't know the real definition of "spasm" until I fell on the floor.

I totally know where your coming from(even though I dont have um.... well thats one sacrifice I cant make!) But I do know what you mean. I hurt so bad constantly, I'm irritable, crabby in general, I try really hard not to complain, and to be in a decent mood. Most of the time I hide my pain pretty well. But Im having more and more days that I hurt so bad Im in tears. I literally hide and cry, because I dont want anyone to know how bad it is. There are days it hurts so bad to walk, or hurts so bad to just sit down, that all I want to do is scream!! But I have a family, I have a job, so there is NO just givin in to the pain. Im allergic to 90% of all the pain meds they have givin me, so im taking these really mild ones now to try and just ease it enough to function at home and at work. They arent working all that well. I dont sleep good because along with the back issues I suffer from Restless leg syndrome, which is only compounded by the nerve pain. yay me! Most days I would love to just stay in the bed, and not have to wake up and move. But I cant do that, will be accused of being Lazy for doin that! so I trudge on, try and suck it up, but it aint any fun, thats for sure!! hope anyone that deals with this stuff gets some relief. I just hope I can get some soon, other wise Im not sure what i will do!!

consider yourself lucky!! I'm glad they helped you out,and your doing better!'

I understand how you feel. There is no surgical help and they have found nothing to help with my pain. My body acts weird with pain medications. If I take enough to dull the pain I will wake up in about 48 hours. That is not the way I will live my life. I too try my best to not let it show and I believe my pain is my problem and I should not let others pay for my problems. I do my best to stay positive and not let anyone know when I feel like crawling in a hole and pulling the ground over me.

I will offer this advice. If you think about it the pain you feel is not in your back, it is in your brain. Keep the pain at bay by not giving in to it. Keep your mind and body busy. Do not let the pain win and you will be surprised how well you do.

I should add that chronic back pain can have significant ramifications including social isolation with depression. Some of the classic antidepressants like amitriptyline can have, additionally, analgesic properties (pain relieving) as well as helping you sleep when taken at bed time, both very important as most of you know.

I feel for chronic LBP patients and I am serious when I say to PM me with questions. I don't claim expertise but have been doing this work for nigh on twenty years in addition to giving anesthesia.

I accept high quality rifles ad shotguns as payment but will defer all payments for campfire members.

I just went for my pysch evaluation, Im in the process of getting a neuro stumulator implanted. Dr. have tried everything, I have been on multiple meds for depression that are supposed to help with nerve pain, and so far I'm either allergic to them or I become allergic while taking them. Same goes with different meds for pain. I've only been going through this for about 3 years now. I can't imagine dealing with it for more than that. I'm hoping to have the implant done sometime at the end of oct. or early nov. on one hand it doesn't seem like that long to wait, on the other hand when you hurt like this every day, it seems like a lifetime away!
Having pain caused from nerve damage is weird, its hard to describe it to someone,best I can come up with is its like a toothache in your lower back and down both legs, with days that it feels like someone is pouring hot lava down a tube in the back of your leg.
I try really hard not to think about the pain, I go go go, i work take care of my house, my family, the yard, everything, I hurt horribly the whole time, then when I can actually sit down to relax in the evening, I cant sit down! because then the restless leg syndrome kicks in. and I can sit still!! I pace and pace, its god awful! so now I not only have the normal pain shooting down my legs, i have that heeby geeby, crawlin outta my skin kinda pain to go with it!! they have me on a low dose pain meds, called nucynta, they dont do much, Ive tried every kinda of pain patch imaginable, and every pain med up to, like the oxycontin, and morphine. I just HATE the way they make me feel!! and they keep me up all night which is another issue, and that is I cant sleep worth crap!!! so im exhausted ALL the time!!!sorry didnt mean to go on and on!!! just one of them nights!!! tiem to pace the house!!!

amitryptaline worked real well for me for a number of years till my body got used to it and it quit working....thats a weird one, you think its doing nothing so you quit taking it and you then find out just how much it was doing for the pain...near as i can tell it acted like a dimmer switch on the pain, just toned it all back a few notches making it so the day to day pain wasnt so bad....still had the spikes on my bad days but it made most days better...only side effect i had with it was dry mouth for about an hour or two.....

on those people that dont like how opiates make you feel, it may be worth sticking them out.....after awhile your body becomes used to them and alot of the weird feelings and such go away....i had all the same issues as everyone else in the beginning but after awhile, especially with the time release stuff it got pretty easy to tolerate....if all you have been given was normal vicodin and percocet it would be worth asking your doc for something thats the same amount but in time release form.....

you take the same amount over the course of the day but instead of the roller coaster of the big dose followed by a quick taper off and than back up again when you take the next dose in a couple hours, its a controlled dose twice a day that only allows a lil in your system at a time.....keeps yah much more clear headed and the like....

everyone in chronic pain is depressed according to pain docs....

I am NOT and don't say it again! neither am I grumpy!

Tngirl , looks like you've tried just about everything ....have you tried Acupuncture ? Did not work for my bone-on-bone pain , but worked great on some shoulder nerve pain I had for years when only Cortisone worked every 6 Months . Went to a Chinese Acupuncturist who was also an Orthopedic Surgeon in China . 4 or 5 Treatments and the pain was gone ! recurred in about a year and I took another 4 treatments and then all pain gone for years . My pain was somehow related to whenever it rained or snowed . My Orthopedic Surgeon says he was taught there is no correlation to the weather , but he says his Patients have convinced him otherwise . He also says that any Alternative Treatments ( like Acupuncture ) are worth a try . Good Luck and hang in there until you get that implant . Just thought of something else ....German friends wife had to go thru some painful treatments and used Meditation Techniques and some use Music combined . I think you can buy Tapes or CDs on Meditation for pain .