Reaction to a steroid/local anaesthetic injection.

[marie75]

Hi,

I want to know if anyone has had a similar reaction to me when given a local anaesthetic mix steroid injection.

It was 2 years ago now and I am still completely incapacitated.

I had the injection at the back of my head on the left side, immediately afterwards, as I stood up to leave, I fell to the left and had to be helped out the consulting room by a nurse. I sat in the waiting room with the nurse for a while as she said I was having a reaction. Within 20 minutes, my whole left side had gone numb and I could not lift my arm move my left leg or keep my head up, it kept falling back. My speech also went completely incoherent, I could not form my words properly. I could not walk or talk.

After much deliberation I was rushed to another hospital querying a stroke. it was ruled out. I came out of hospital 5 weeks later with no answers.

I am still much the same I use a wheelchair and have speech difficulties.

Any knowledge of this would be gratefully appreciated.

Doctors refuse say it was due to having the injection, they say it is FND brought on by trauma, probably from my childhood - of which I had none.

[Lucy-15]

Hi Marie ..gosh how frightening for you. May I just ask before the injection did you have any other symptoms and was there any mention of fnd at all ? Thanks Lucy.

[marie75 in reply to Lucy-15]

Hi. I had the injection as I have constant eye pain. It has been ten years now. The pain relief I was taking was not working well enough so I had been referred to the pain clinic.

There had never been any suggestion of FND I had never heard of it.

Marie x

[Lucy-15 in reply to marie75]

Hi there ok thanks. Just wondered, as although my injections were in my lower back facet joints to help pain by burning the nerves....it triggered FND ...left foot drop and left leg weaknesss/lack of control of left leg...I walk with a stick but if I do too much am immobile....

Like you I'd never heard of FND before...it really has changed my life in many ways too. Also no childhood trauma etc.....

Not sure if you are in south of england, if so are you aware of new clinic set up by Prof Mark Edwards at St. George's hospital, Tooting , london? They off rehab neuro Physio and things it did help me manage the symptoms.

If elsewhere in the UK or the world, some kind folk on here will probably be able to suggest your nearest FND specialist.

Wish you all the best Lucy x

[marie75]

Hi. Yes sounds same, if I try to do things I end up with my brain going all funny and I can't think. So I forget how to move my left leg, forget how to walk so I can't even try. If I'm on the stairs or just going up stairs I can't remember how to lift my leg. Or I get confused on which leg to use first so none move. I can't remember words I want to say let alone how to say them.

So I end up haVing to stay in bed.

I am going to London in a few months but it is the nuerological hospital, I am staying in for a month which I was really pleased about. I thought I was seeing nuerologists and hoping they were going to look at my brain. But I'm under a psychiatrist. And am having cbt every day! I have already told them no past trauma. I seem to notice any one you see regarding this assumes you have a mental reason for the symptoms.

The thing is I was seeing a pyschiatrist after I came out as my consultant wanted me to before he would help me any further, of which he didn't he just gave up and discharged me, and the psychiatrists diagnosis, after weeks of talking and tests, was that it was not of a mental problem but a physical one and wanted the nuerologists to do more tests on my brain. ... they disagreed.

Hence two years later I'm the same.

Marie xx

[VivienneWaterworth]

OMG! I've not heard of that kind of reaction before, but it sounds to me like the injection has probably physically damaged an important nerve somewhere. I had one of those into my neck and that was like instant fire. I had a numb arm for the rest of the day. My partner had one into his lower back and it stopped his bowels for several days and his bladder for 24 hours. (Fortunately he has a big tank!)

I had an injection between my toes when I had some toenails removed a couple of years ago. Now, every time I stretch my toes out, both feet, I get a very sharp pain where the injection went in. I suspect that the needles (both feet) physically damaged something between my toes, and that whatever was damaged doesn't like me stretching it.

Apart from doctors always closing ranks and denying any other medical person could ever make a mistake because they don't want you suing their colleagues (which puts their own insurance rates up even higher), the sheer number of medical misadventures that happen in every hospital every year is absolutely frightening. If we knew the true stats, we probably would never have another procedure again.

So, what to do with you. I'm wondering if you have your own copies of MRIs, CT scans and their reports, from then, and also from more recently. Then find someone you trust, or a total stranger who is in a different county and therefore wouldn't know the people who gave you the injection, and ask this person to look very carefully at all the imaging to see if there is any evidence of scarring where that injection went in. Also ask if the needle went close to any nerve that could have caused the symptoms you've had.

It is very slightly possible that the trauma to your brain from having that injection could have triggered FND, but hmmm, I don't know. There are people who have a real injury, e.g. from an accident, and the accident heals up but the brain doesn't seem to get the message, triggering an FND reaction. It's slightly possible that this might have happened to you, that the real legitimate and expected (by them, but they would never tell you that before hand, unfortunately) numbness actually went away fairly quickly (i.e. within 24 hours) but forgot to tell your brain, leaving you still numb 2 years later.

I hope you can find answers to this very perplexing medical anomaly.

[marie75]

Hi Vivienne,

I have not seen my mri or ct scan images but I do know they show scarring. But after a neurologist looked at them he said they were from my birth, as I was born at 7 months and a twin - my twin died, and that it was schizencephaly. He then said the scarring was there fore nothing to do with now and the defect on my brain would not of been affected in any way by the injection.

All I do know is the more I try to do around the house, which is very little, my brain just seems to close down I loose everything. It is actually scary that after two years it is still the same.

I would not know how to get my scan results, when I was in hospital they would not let me look at my notes. I asked to see them as the Doctors would not tell me what was in the injection I had been given. I did not even know it was a steroid until afterwards, and they said I was not allowed to see them.

Plus I have now been to three hospitals in my area and all the Doctors rotate around the hospitals so most know me. I think to be taken seriously and for me to trust what I am being told I would want to show a doctor in another country. As here those that work in the nhs also work private.

I actually asked for an independent second opinion on my diagnosis. They said ok but it would be weeks we ended up paying private and it was a doctor from my own hospital who worked in the same team and had seen me on my second day in hospital! To say doctors close ranks is an understatement!

Sorry for long reply but some days I could pull my hair out knowing no one listened or took me seriously.

Marie x

[DNE92]

Hi

If you are in the UK you can do a Subject Access Request to the health board to see your notes. Look at the Information Commissioner's website for more info.

Cheers

Lo