So, one last chance before back surgery - I had an epidural
 

:rofl: Pregnant woman have epidurals..... and now I've had one.

So, before they do surgery, they wanted to give me an epidural with pain killers and steriods as a last ditch effort. If I have relief, I could have 2 more - max is 3 in one year. I was told I would see pain relief by tonight and steriod results within 3-5 days.

I had it done earlier today - around 10:30 am. When I set it up last week, I was given a choice - with or without anestisia.... so I said with anestisia - knock me the f out!

Well, I show up today and they ask if I had anything to eat this morning, I said yup, they asked if anyone called me last week, I said nope.... and they said they can't do the anestisia. I've had lots of surgery before and I was always told nothing to eat midnight on.... but I figured that since this was just an injection... I would be fine.

So, they offered to reschedule tomorrow... or I could do it without anestisia.

I said lets give it a shot without the anestisia.

So, they numbed the area a bit and then inserted the BIG ******** needle into the nerves around the C3 to C4 disc in my spine. I actually expected pain but it wasn't too bad. I did experience a shooting pain into my right shoulder but not too bad. As they were putting the needle in my spine, they were doing multiple x rays to monitor where the needle was going.

I was told it would take about 10-15 minutes.... but I lucked out and it took about under a minute.

When I left.... I felt ZERO pain. Within one hour, the pain got worse. I'm in tons of pain now.

I expected this to be a waste of time... as surgery is inevitable...but I had to try this.

We shall see how it goes.

If it doesn't work, I will have surgery to have the C3 to C4 fused, C4 to C5 fused, C5 to C6 fused.... and I already have C6 to C7 fused. I will loose 30% of my ability to turn left, right, up and down.

Life is interesting..... but it could be worse.

I know that needle thing. 4 cortisone shots in my lower back when I herniated a disc. The anesthesia hurt like hell, the fluid they pumped in did too, but the cortisone was sweet! Like 20" needle or something.

Good luck

thats sucks james but atleast your positive about it by seeing that it could be worse. I'll just have you load the engine stand in the truck for me:lol:

I was ready to lose it when Karen got her epidural with Jack.....wasn't prepared for the length of that sucker.

Here's hoping this will work out for you James.

- Justin

Hell yeah, I was thinking the same thing! When my wife had our son, I almost freaked when I saw the needle.

Best of luck James, I hope the initial pain wears off and you'll see some relief soon!!!

this brings back horrible memories of seeing my babys momma get her epidural.....it looked like a novelty prop :shock:

dude im in pain just reading this

sorry to hear about your turning radius...good thing you drag race :lol:

cortisone... yummmmm

wow i hope you start seeing some kind of relief i have back problems as well but nothing like that good luck

i had 5 in two years. the thing was, i had one day pain free after the first one, so the doctor was chasing that down. unfortunately, he never found it again. i know all about the shooting pain when they inject, i wanted to grab someone by the testicles and squeeze the life outta 'em.

sorry it didn't work for you. that means surgery (absolutely no picnic, as you know) is inevitable. well, i mean, you could decide not to have the surgery. but then you wouldn't know if you could have been better or not. not an easy decision, and i wish you well with whatever outcome you choose.

Sorry to hear that...wishing you the best...

Thank you all for the kind words.

About an hour after the epidural, I was in ton's of pain. It got really bad Monday night.

Tuesday was really bad.

Wednesday, I had a good 6 hours of relieft from my minor/ mid pain. I still had 2 instances of "electric shock," so that is the nerves being pinched by the herniated disc.

Today was frigin miserable.

I'm going to my spinal surgeon next Friday - I hope I'll be leaving with a sheduled date for surgery - I got nothing left in me.

Give this a try!
 

Sorry to hear that you are still in great pain. I had a problem with my L1/S5 disc and time to time it would swell up and really set me down. I was going to a Pain Management Center in East Brunswick for shots. I actually got two epidural shots (I was put under) and then two series of cortizone shots after that. The first shot seemed to do nothing, but the second and third shot really got the pain under control and by the forth shot, it has gone away completely. The name of the place is the Pain Control Center and they located at 561 Cranbury Road in East Brunswick. Their phone number is (732) 651-1300 and ask for an appointment with Dr. Alexander Levin. He DOES NOT BELIEVE IN SURGERY. It is worth a shot (sorry for the pun)! :nod:

East Brunswick is a little far (a good 1 - 1.5 hours from us). And he went to a Pain Management center. The doc there said if the first didn't help him, the second or third wouldn't help either. It's also in his neck, which affects his ENTIRE body, and it drains him physically and mentally. Having the same issue in the lower back, while painful and physically draining, I would expect doesn't affect someone the same as having the pain in the neck/shoulders/upper back. I don't suffer from either (well, I still have residual neck issues from the first accident, but no where near what he has), but this is what I gather from living with him and speaking with others who have had herniated disks in other places.

the other issue is he also has stenosis at the same spot as the herniated disk, which makes this a totally different thing from just a herniated disk.

His spinal surgeon does not want to do the surgery either. But at this point, they've tried all they could. He doesn't want the surgery either, but he's gone as long as he can suffering with this pain.

G, you just gotta trade him in for a newer model, plenty of women do it lol

that's the worst part. and of course the surgery is a dice roll, too. when my surgeon advised me that there was a chance i could come out worse, i ignored that and went on with the surgery. i am not worse - only god knows the pain i was in before - but i wouldn't call my current shape 'better', either. after all of this, the surgeon wanted to do the fusion. thing was, he only gave me a 25% chance of getting better.

i hope your odds are much better than that. i hope you heal to be 100% of what you used to be.

For some people, that is acceptable. It is not for me. I said my vows, and when I said "in sickness and in health" I meant it. I meant everything in my vows, of course, but this is the one that pertains to this situation.

Yes, this is the worse part of it.

I haven't been there to speak with the doctor myself, but it seems like the doctor thinks the pain will be much better, but he will lose range of motion. But I think any of us would rather lose some range of motion for a significant decrease in the pain, so it's a trade off he's willing to take, I think.

The ONLY reason I suggested to try this Pain Center was that it is another opinion from a Doctor who will try to help you WITHOUT any surgery. If it was me, I would get a 2nd-3rd or more opinions from others. I know that usually the 1st shot does not seem to do anything at all, but given the more shots it seems to kick in. You said that it was about 1.5 hours away from you, but wouldn't it be worth a PHONE CALL just to see what my Doctors thoughts would be in regard to the problem. When I was in his waiting room, there were lots of people who swore that they were told that surgery was the only option and that this process was a life saver. Just my :2cents: and LOL.

oh, in that case, i would do it without question... ive gotten both my shoulders completely reconstructed, knowing ill never pitch again, but the pain has been reduced 85% and after time and gaining your confidence back youll be fine... i hope to compete in the WABDL within the year

edpontiac91, thank you for the information. I really appreciate it.

I'll see my doctor on Friday and we will discuss what is next.

They may come up with another option...... although I doubt it.

I actually have 4 doctors (3 neurosurgeon's and 1 pain mangement etc doc). All four have said they do not want to do surgery so we have been exploring other options.... but every option so far has not given me any relief.

Surgery was discussed in the beginning - more as an fyi for extreme situations.

I personally think it is inevitable.... a torn disc can't be fixed without surgery. The electric shock pain from the herniated disc that impacts the spinal cord/ nerves has been getting progresivly worse. It used to be once in several days. This past saturday I had 8-10 within 15 minutes.

I have put a request in to just have them put adamantium in..... I'm not sure they will do that.... but who knows.