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Posted 11/22/2010 5:01 PM (GMT 0)
Hi I am having an epidural (nerveBlock)in L-4 I am scared but I Can't have another surgery. 12 is enough. Can anybody ease my tensions .I have no body here to take care of me for 24 hrs as the doc suggested am I going to be able to function on my own,or am I going to have to find help? Thank you
Posted 11/22/2010 5:16 PM (GMT 0)
 

     Hello rockin48!

      Welcome to the CP forum!

      Sorry to hear of your troubles with the back. I have had six or so of the Epidurals, amd the only thing that is very important, is that you have someone drive you home. They sould not let you drive afterwards, and should explain all of this beforehand. Also, you should have stopped any asprin five to seven days before the epidural. Please to call your DR, and confirm all of this. You should not really have any problems, but there is always a chance. Make sure you put an ice-pack on the incesion area for a while, and this will help the soreness to be less. It may take three to five days to see any results, and two to three weeks for the maxium effect. Many of the Dr's recomend two of them to get the maxium effect, so please do follow up if you dont think you got the results you were looking for. If they offer sedation, take it! wink

    SE wink

Posted 11/22/2010 5:20 PM (GMT 0)
I Rockin48 and welcome to Healing Well's chronic pain forum. I am glad that you found the forum but very sorry that you have to be here. At least by coming here you will be with others that can relate to suffering with CP. Somehow, it makes feel alone at and by coming here you will have plenty of company, we all suffer.

I have not had ESI's so I cannot be of help on this subject as having experience. Many here have had the ESI's done and they are usually done in a series of 3 spread out over weeks time. Some have said they are painful and some say they are not painful. It depends on the technician a lot and also what the person's pain tolerance is as well. If I were you I would ask the dr to give me some light sedation before the procedure, some do, some don't. I do not know of anyone needing help though when they went home. On the day of the procedure you will have to have someone drive to to and from the drs office. They as a rule do not cause you to need help at home afterwards. Most patients are advised to rest a day or so and then they can resume their normal activities. Did your dr not explain any of this to you? Sometimes if the ESI's don't give much relief by the 2nd one the dr will not go thru with the 3rd one. You might also want to do a search here at the forum on epidurals and you can pull up info quick about them, as they have been discussed here in the past.

Anyway, I wanted to pop on here and tell you welcome aboard. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.
Posted 11/22/2010 5:27 PM (GMT 0)
You probably should arrange for a ride home from the doctors' office as sometimes it impacts my legs, slowing my ability to hit the brakes. Also, sometimes I get very dizzy after an epidural so I wouldn't want to drive.
However, if that is just not possible, as long as you're not getting general sedation, just let your doc know that you are planning on driving home yourself. My PM will check out my reflexes & test for dizziness before releasing me -- it's happened maybe once or twice. I will say though that one time when I was planning on driving home, after 2 hours I still wasn't cleared & had to call a cab.

Other than that, I wouldn't worry. The epidurals usually work better if you can take time to rest & ice the injection site for a day after the shot. I find I get better relief when I take the day off work, but I haven't always done that. Assuming you are currently able to care for yourself & don't need to be lifting any heavy objects (10lb +), I can't see why you couldn't go home alone as long as you can safely get back to your house.

With all the surgeries you've been through, the epidural will probably seem like nothing. I agree with SE that other than the very short term benefit of the local anesthetic, the real benefit of epidurals doesn't kick in for a few days. I've been hit-or-miss with getting a benefit from them, but this last time it really, really helped.

good luck!
frances
Posted 11/23/2010 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
PS - I know some people get them in 3's. I've never done that. Partly b/c my insurance will not cover them without 6 weeks in between unless there's a very, very good reason & then my PM has to scream at them and mail off a mountain of paperwork justifying the extra epidurals. If your doctor is suggesting multiples, be sure to check that your insurance will pay for numbers 2 & 3.
Posted 11/23/2010 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
What Francis mentioned is important, call the Doctor's office and see if you can arrange to
have a ride home, or they will send you home without doing the injections, then you might
not want to go into work for a couple days until the sedation completely wears off and they
will tell you not to drive for 24 hours. Other than that you just need to ice your back around
the injection site, ice on ice off 20 minutes every hour or so, as you will be sore...
Pretty much you just be sore for the first 24 hours. I usually don't get much relief from
them anymore, but could be because I get a build up of steroids in my system from
other health issues...
***Make sure to make arrangements from the clinic for a ride home!
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Rockin48)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
healing Hugz
Posted 11/24/2010 2:30 AM (GMT 0)
I haven't had a lot of different types of treatment for my back pain, but the ESIs I've had have been fairly low on the side-effect scale (no weakness or anything) and the first one I had was extremely effective. The pain disappeared literally instantly and didn't return at all for about six months. I just had my second one about three weeks ago, and my doc hit a nerve or something--for a few days I had stabbing pains in my lower back. Wasn't as effective this time, but still something I'd recommend.

Kiwi
Posted 12/13/2010 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hey there, I've had 1 never block done and it worked for me around 3 to 4 days.. not completely but somewhat took the pain down. Then the doctor wanted to do 2 more.. I was ok with it til  rec'd the dread bill!!!!!!! 1000 bucks out of my pocket I said no...and yes yes yes get someone to drive you and take you back home, hubby did for me cause I was told I couldn't drive, even though I felt ok and thought I prolly could have.

Hope all works out for ya

Trouble

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