Epidural Steroid Injection

[billanschell]

Has anyone out there had an epidural steroid injection as a form of pain management? I assume these differ somewhat from facet injections, which have been covered here, and I found only a couple of posts about them in the archives.

As part of my ongoing mission to try EVERYTHING before resigning myself to my knee and ankle pain, I went to a well-respected Seattle pain clinic today. As usual, the doctor had read none of my files sent to him by previous doctors, and didn't even know I'd had a spinal cord tumor. He had no experience specifically with SCT patients, but had dealt with spinal cord injury victims. I had asked specifically about a nerve block, and after ascertaining that my pain is "central" (doesn't react to his poking around), he suggested an epidural steroid injection.

From what I can tell, these have mixed results. There are some risks, but very low odds overall of anything going wrong. I want to try everything, but am not 100% sure about this one. So far I've already tried: baclofen, neurontin, lyrica, xanax, methadone, vicadin, biofeedback, acupuncture and many physical therapists; so this would pretty much round out my credentials as a willing guinea pig.

Please let me know if you've had any experience with this...

Thanks.

--Bill

[supv26]

I had it done a year ago and had relief from the pain for about 6 months only. Since then I have had a radio frequency neauroblation and it has worked better so far. It has been a little over 6 weeks and I can say it has worked pretty good. I still have pain if I do some physical labor. This afternoon I did a little job of moving some gravel in the driveway and I sure am paying for it now!

[billanschell]

Well that's certainly encouraging. If you don't mind my asking, what were the pain symptoms that the injection gave you relief from? I'm interested to see whether they're similar to mine (mainly extreme knee tightness and squeezing ankle pain).

Thanks.

--Bill

[supv26]

My pain is mainly in the surgery area now. Most of the nerve pain caused by the tumor is gone now. Since surgery the area of the laminectomy has been very painful. I have had facet joint injections and an epidural with both of those only working for a short time. I had the radio frequency neauroblation about a month ago and it has worked much better as long as I do not do anything to phyical.