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Texas Cop

Texas Cop

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Do any of you gents have any experience with epidural steroid/nerve block/pain killer injections? I will be receiving a series of 6 in my L4/L5 vertebrae, and should those prove effective, they are going to do something more permanent to 'reset the nerve ending'.



drew
 
dpricenator

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Well i watched my wife get on for the delivery of our children. Other than having to penatrate your spinal chord with a huge needle, it did not seem too major. My best advice would be do not look at that BIG ASS NEEDLE
 
cvm4

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I believe my dad has had a couple of them in the past year or so. You just gotta bear with it.
 
eyetek

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Texas Cop said:
Do any of you gents have any experience with epidural steroid/nerve block/pain killer injections? I will be receiving a series of 6 in my L4/L5 vertebrae, and should those prove effective, they are going to do something more permanent to 'reset the nerve ending'.



drew
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There are a couple of different options, you need to find out if they are talking nerve stimulation or pain pump.

Both are the most popular treatment for pain these days.

The nerve stimulation is an implantation of a very small probe that is placed in your spine to send a small electrical charge that stops the pain signal that is sent to your brain...kind of resets the pain signal.

The Pain pump is an implantation of a very small catheter that is placed in your spine to send a small intrathecal dose of narcotic to treat the pain. The idea behind this one is that intrathecal narcotic dosage is far less than oral dosages of the same pain killer and it treats the exact spot of the pain and it does not circulate through the entire body.

Hope that helps, ask your doctor to explain what he is thinking of. They both require outpatient surgery, some places do this in outpatient surgery centers, while others require you to go to the hospital for this same day surgery.


Good luck!

eyetek
 
CWS

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Eyetek than man!! Good luck Drew. I remember same with the wife on our second. Dont look.
 
Texas Cop

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pharm, as far as I understand, they will just give me a local in the area, then stick away...

Eyetek, they are going to start with just injections of the steroid/pain meds, and after a series of those, if they prove successful, then they will implant the nerve stimulator. Thanks for the response!


drew
 
dpricenator

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I don't think so, but i could be wrong. I think they use local anesthetic to numb the skin where the will make th big injection. The procedure for an epidural is the same wether or not you are having one for child birth or for any other reason. You sit on the edge of a bed and bend over so your spine is curved out. And the doc pushes a BIG ASS NEEDLE into your spine, through the cartlidge of your disk, and into the spinal colum where the drug renders the nerve numb. Depending on where you put it depends on how much of the body is affected by the numbing affect. I'm not so sure numbing s the right word, but you don't feel pain anymore. I'm now expert, and have only seen it done for the purpose of child birth on both my kids. It does not look like it's too bad, but it is a BIGG ASS NEEDLE
 
gui_tarzan

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My wife had a series of shots a few years back for Facet joint pain. They put the nerve block in her back with a BIG ASS NEEDLE that looked like a piece of conduit. They put her out completely for every treatment though because the BIG ASS NEEDLE would have hurt like a sumbitch even with a local. They gave her a steroid shot with a little needle to ease the pain from the injections with the BIG ASS CONDUIT SIZED NEEDLE.

Do you feel better about this now Drew?

:hysterica :bouncetau :headroll: :rolling:

Sorry bud, just pulling your chain. Just tell them to make sure you're out cold and you won't feel a thing.
 
Texas Cop

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They'll be sticking into my L5. The problem is with L4-L5, but the theory is that they inject the lowest problem vertebrae, and the medicine can/will travel upwards into the adjoining vertebrae..


drew
 
Texas Cop

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Well, I can say that wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting...It was possibly the wierdest experience of my life...There was no real pain, but I could feel the needles (yup, plural, 4) going, then I could feel them being moved around into position, and the fluid going in, all the while I watched it on the x-ray monitor. Was actually kinda cool to watch, the meds were put into my L5 vertebrae and traveled up to the 4...1 down, 5 more to go...


drew
 
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