Injections

Hi everyone, im new to the site and was reading some of the posts on Injections and wanted to share my injections..

I had a S1 injections on Tuesday this week, Mine was very painful...and was almost crying!! my dr went into the S3 or distal area of the joint and injected both short and long term meds for pain.. he said, that these injections are the worst that they do and he hates doing them, because they are so painful...i have Sacroililits would that make it more painful....i didn't do any sedation with the injections and had Cervical Facet injections just last month on both side in 4 joints and did ok with that...but if i have to do it again i need the sedation...it was the worst....its been two days..at the most part i feel better, but still not myself yet and pain and weakness comes and goes...so we will see....the pain was the worst when He was injected the meds and die into the joint, and of course moving the needle around....My pain is even more compromised do to having other injuries and Scoliosis, and its a Comp case on top of it...i need chiropractic all the time to keep from making things worst well they refused and now i have this on top of all my other injuries, maybe now they will listen to what my body needs.........because this could have been avoid....
i have been out of work for over a year and will not be going back to work..so i'm told!!! i will have more injections to come...i have so many bad injuries that have affected my Thoracic Spine also...not sure if there will be more surgeries or not...i have had two already...

Sorry about my vent, most on here have had injection, with some getting relief. I hope the injection helps you but the can take up to a week before you' ll feel it.
Injections are done in part as an insurance proto call and as a diagnostic tool to see if you can get relief from them. It's about a 50-50 chance for relief...from these the doctor then moves into rhizotomies or nerve ablations, ect...every effort is made to try to help the pain and avoid surgery if it can be done. For now try to keep hope that these injections will be of help.
many well wishes

Injections don't work for everyone. In fact over the last 4 years I've got too many to count and I'd say 20% helped at some point (not for long periods of time). My Dr. injections anti-inflammatory in the muscle by my neck which gives me 3-5 day relief. I will say it hurts where he puts the needle into my skin of course (hurts more the following day). If it didn't work for you then don't go back for more.

Hi Pegray & welcome to the board.

I thought I would add in my experiences with injections. In addition to having scoliosis (C4-T4), I also have hip issues due to a car accident in 2004. It damaged the socket and tore my SI joint.

After a few months of suffering, I had a SI injection that didn't help. It was merely done by feel in the doctor's office. However, a month or so later, I had a second one done under a fluoroscope. It, though, made a HUGE difference! I went from having a persistent burning spear pain in the SI to far more mild and more intermittent SI problems. While my SI does bother me here and there, that injection in particular really made a difference.

More recently, I've tried an epidural in my cervical spine. It was done at a spine hospital and was given Versed during the treatment (a short acting benzodiazepine-hypnotic). Unfortunately, that didn't make a difference for me.

However, I periodically get trigger point injections. What I found with them is that they sometimes can help with focused points of pain (along the rhomboid muscle between spine and shoulder blade). Out of the ten or so set of trigger point injections I've had, a couple have made a big difference, though most were a bust. In particular, I haven't found them to help with more diffuse pain, such as the cramping in my upper trapezius.

Let me add that you should seek out a good physical therapist in your area. I've never had any luck with chiropractors, but PTs are a different story. From them I learned some stretches that really help. Moreover, there are some PTs trained in techniques for scoliosis (one this is well known is called the Schroth method). If your scoliosis causes rhomboid issues in particular, have a look at this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41QTV1Vpeg