Update - spinal steroid injections, waiting for pain to go

[Sunnyseas]

I’m lying in bed still hoping for some improvement.

Had the injections for lumbar disc degeneration & facet arthropathy a few days ago. A mixture of wear & tear & inflammatory arthritis, probably an RA involvement which I have.

Gentle walking & lying on my side still provides the only relief. Sitting & standing are the hardest & I can’t do them for long.

I’ve been off work for over 6 weeks now with no improvement. It’s very difficult to keep positive.

The steroid injection should start to work after a few days but today is a bad day.

[springcross]

It sounds really unpleasant Sunnyseas, I hope it eases up soon for you. 🤞 x

[Fruitandnutcase]

Sounds awful. You have my sympathy. I had a couple of steroid injections back in the 1980s. I remember what it was like I could only do gentle walking or lie on my back on the floor with my knees bent - and watch while my two boys and all their friends ran past / round me.

The first injection worked straight away and lasted for a couple of years. The second one took longer to kick in but lasted from then until recently when things went downhill. So hopefully yours will work as well as mine did.

I was also advised to take up Pilates - in a small class with a good careful teacher - that would strengthen my core and really things went downhill in May when my teacher has to go away for a month and I didn’t bother to do any Pilates exercises for that month and also ended up with an agonisingly painful sacral insufficiency fracture as well as lots of other problems.

My physio and doctors recommended gentle physio exercises and walking which does work so hopefully once you get on your feet you can find out about strengthening your core. You probably won’t believe it but it does help.

Hopefully you have been given something for pain relief at the moment - even if it’s only regular paracetamol- until the steroid injection kick in.

[rabbits65 in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

To Fruitand nutcase,You mention Pilates.

I too like Pilates but it’s mostly

done with a mat on the floor

and I find this hard now to

get up from the floor with my

balance and bad back . Please

how did you get on with this ?

with your back issues. Thanks

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to rabbits65]

Hi, my teacher is a qualified physiotherapist with a strong interest in osteoporosis, I was so lucky to find her, she can adapt every movement to suit the problems of everyone in our group and her mantra is ‘if it hurts don’t do it, even if it’s something I’ve said to do’.

Nothing should ever hurt and if a physio / Pilates teacher tells you to do something that hurts you then find someone else.

My teacher has a reformer but I do mat work and we stand. Maybe you could find someone with a reformer - it isn’t so low - but with care your teacher ought to be able to help with how to get up.

When my sacral fracture was really bad - everything got much worse when I was trying to get up off the ground - then one day after I had been taking a photo of the cat next door - as I stood up I overbalanced and crashed down onto my tailbone.

The pain after I landed on my backside was just indescribable and I could barely walk. I had been saying for ages I felt as if my sacrum was split in two - turned out it was - and I knew after that that I had to do something about it. It’s a long story that involves waiting hours for someone at my surgery to answer the phone, for a doctor to call back, eventually in desperation an A&E visit, finding myself a new physiotherapist who didn’t try to tell me it was referred pain and finally changing my GP surgery to one where the telephone was answered, with friendly reception staff and doctors who would speak to me.

Anyway up until I landed on my tailbone and finished off the sacral fracture my balance was good and apart from that I hadn’t had a problem getting up off the ground since back in 2012 when I developed Graves’ disease and my thigh muscles got really weak

Once I had the sacral fracture - gosh, I felt really unstable, I could hardly walk, I walked like a robot, at one point I had to go upstairs on my hands and knees, my pelvis felt very, very wobbly - I used to say it felt as if someone had put all my pelvic bones in a Tesco carrier bag and given them a good shake.

So now I always work beside a wall so that if I want to I have something to hold on to / lean on when I stand up - teacher says she doesn’t mind hand prints on her lovely white wall - and if we were doing anything on Zoom ( I do one session in a group of five people and another two at home on zoom) my teacher tells us to get a chair to have handy if she thinks we might need to hold on to something.

We always get up through our sides, and we’re always being told to watch out for the ‘head rush’ then once I’m on my side I roll onto my knees and either lean on the wall or if I’m at home I can lean on the sofa or a chair if I want to.

Since falling backwards in the garden am much more careful when getting up. The physio I saw who referred me for the MRI scans said I mustn’t ever rush - wonder how he sussed out I was someone who might rush?- and that when I was getting up from the table I had to hold onto the table and hold on to kitchen work tops etc.

He also stressed taking care now that winter and it’s bad weather is coming and to watch out for wet leaves and mud. I use my Nordic poles for extra balance when I am out walking - I walk for about an hour every day, I haven’t come across a physiotherapist who isn’t in favour of Nordic walking. His bottom line was move carefully and don’t rush.

Sorry to go on - I think that’s about it for how I get on do8ng Pilates on a mat 😉

[rabbits65]

I hope you feel some improvement soon. Do you have a good physiotherapist . Sounds like you could do with their support and guidance .

[Knip]

My heart goes out to you. I had really severe sciatica for eight months caused by two bulging discs. I paid privately for an MRI scan in the end because there was to be a five month wait. I was bent double and in absolute agony. Mine was made worse by the hospital physio team, whom I visited three times a week, giving me the wrong exercises to do. I did them religously, as is my wont and suffered greatly because of it. It wasn't their fault, I am talking about fifteen years ago, when MRIs weren't readily available and they were incredibly kind to me and doing their best. The head physio suggested that I paid to have one done privately and I had to travel 200 miles to get it. The pain was unrelenting night and day. I hope your steroid injection help, I really do. God Bless, xx

[Sunnyseas]

Thanks for sharing Knip. That sounds a very difficult time for you, I hope you are doing ok now, Ss