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Question about facet injections

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 1/16/2011 5:15 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, I just had facet injections 10 days ago. It seemed like they hepled for a few days and now the pain is coming back. It seems like it is acting like a muscle spasm in that area. By the time I got off work Friday I had decided to stop in at the grocery store. I barely made it through the store and couldn,t wait to get home,by the time i made it home I was in such pain and tears I didn,t know what to do. I took a couple of pain pills and waited till the pain went away. Anyways My dr. had told me to make an appt. with him in 6 wks. to see him after the injrctions. Does it take this long for the medicine to really start taking effect. I,m in so much pain at times i just keep taking pain pills. I don,t want to be a baby and have to call him and say hey this isn,t working when i just need to give this some time. Please help with any suggestions. I don,t know what to do. Do i just wait for 4 more wks. to see if these injections will work ,,what do i do? thanks
Posted 1/16/2011 11:22 PM (GMT 0)
Is your pain level the same as before you had the injection or worse?

If your pain level got better for a few days and then returned to pre-injection levels this is not uncommon with the first go round. If this is what has happened there really is no point in getting an earlier appointment.

If your pain levels are worse than before then I would suggest getting in touch with the doctor who did the injections and get an earlier appointment to check things out.
Posted 1/17/2011 12:41 AM (GMT 0)
What Jim said is good, but maybe also try Ice compresses to see if that might help.
Others, will come by with more advise, this website is good for support, next time
when you get the injections done maybe take a week off work to recover, as the
injections can be hard on the body. Sometimes it can take a week or so before the
injections fully kick in and begin to work.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Mickey1028)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
well wishes and healing hugz
Posted 1/17/2011 2:03 AM (GMT 0)
The pain level is about the same but it seems like every now and then a muscle spasm hits or it seems like a sharp pain that won,t let up for awhile. This is the second go around forthe injections. He said it was very important to let him know how I felt the first couple of days and if they did work for awhile he would go in and burn the nerves. I also have firbromyalgia, so it,s hard to say if any of the pain is from that which i,m sure it is. I do the ice and heat and of course pain pills. It,s just depressing at times which i know isn,t helping me at all. I goto My family dr. on tuesday so hopefully she,ll up my welbutrin or put me on something else. I know the injections can be very hard on the body.. A year ago I had gone to a pain management and i had a series of 5 shots and they worked great for about 8 months and the reason why i,m going to this surgeon is he did my carpal tunnel and kne surgery,,did a great job and he said he would do my injections. He,s a spine specialist. So maybe In a year my back problems became worse. Thanks so much for answering I will try my best to hold on for the next 4 wks. Give the injections a little more time.
Posted 1/17/2011 7:19 PM (GMT 0)

   Hi Mickey!

    I wanted to say that I am sorry you are stuck in a pain cycle right now. That can make already long days even longer! *hugg* I saw that you mentioned it was your first time recieving injections? A long time ago when I received my first series of injections, I was only given a small amount. I was also asked to fill out a pain journal for those first few days. Once my doctor, at that time, received the information from the journal, then, he went ahead and gave me full doses of cortisteroids about 3 weeks later. It was back when I only had 1 levoscoliosis 3 years ago (I have multiple progressive scoli curves now). The steroids were a God send for nearly 2 years, before my problems became so progressive that I had reached my limit on number of epidural cortisteroids within a given time (severity of deformity is a problem too). about the 4th day the difference was subtle. By day 5 I could finally breathe again and by day 6-7 I was back into action with only moderate pain and on bad day, moderately severe in the evenings. For me, that was a really big deal. Lately they have been avoiding my "normal" series. I have to wait to see what all my latest images say.

      I really hope someone can come buy with their experiences regarding nerve ablation. I have heard some wonderful things. I met a lady who had it done and it was 6 months before she had to have the area treated again. She was still on pain meds of course as she had pain in other areas. She said it was a big decrease in meds for her. I have heard some bad things though. Some folks only get a small amount of relief for a short period of time. Other have so many other problems that ablation of a few nerves didn't make a notable difference.

     I really hope you get some lasting relief this time. It sounds like you have been enduring the pain "express" (cycle) for a very long time. You will be in our hearts here, no doubt. Will you let us know how it goes?

    Stay Strong!
*hugg*
   dani

~~~>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiofrequency_ablation

Posted 1/17/2011 7:47 PM (GMT 0)

    There are so many anti-depressants that are also VERY benefited to severe chronic pain AND fibromyalgia. I take one called Amitriptyline. I hear most folks do not like it. Getting used to each level took about 3 weeks for each 25mg increase. 4-5 months total. It is strong, no doubt. It is a heavy opponent to chronic pain. The strongest with regards to anti depressants, in my opinion. I know first hand how hard the side effects are. Many others do not have such extreme side effects. The hard part about adding in an anti depressant (as you probably already know) is that they take a while to "build up" in your system before you can truly know if it is effective against your pain or not.

~~>  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pain-medications/PN00044

~~>  http://www.spineuniverse.com/experts/fibromyalgia-anti-depressants

     *warm hugg*
          dani

Oh! Before I forget! Do you visit the Fibromyalgia forum too? They would have first hand experience about antidepressants for treatment of Fibromyalgia.

~~> https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=24

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