Hey Everyone, I need some advice from anyone who has experience in this please.
Since September I have had back pain with severe nerve pain extending down my right leg to my heel. I cannot sit, weight bear on my right side and my leg is sensitive to touch. Knock on being unable to stand still, sit on the loo, eat at the dinner table, travel in car etc etc. Basically only comfortable walking, or lay down.
I had an MRI at the beginning of December where they found Degenerative Discs at L4/L5 and a disc protrusion at L5/S1. It is the disc protrusion they say that is producing the nerve pain.
I saw a consultant yesterday. She offered me two scenarios, epidural steriod injection, which will hopefully reduce the swelling on nerve root and stop the pain. Or surgery to remove the protrusion.
We talked through pros / cons, etc. She recommended trying the injection first. Then, we can go for surgery if the injection fails. So that is what I opted for.
But has this actually worked for anyone, or should I have gone straight for the surgery and cut out weeks of more severe pain and suffering??
I don't really understand how the injection can stop the nerve pain if the protrusion is still pushing / putting pressure on the nerve root...
Thank you for your help.
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Yellow17
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hi Yellow, I am in a similar situation. My sciatica pain in my left leg is caused by arthritis bone growth compressing the nerve. It’s been this way for over 10 years. I don’t want a nerve block injection that may or may not work and has to be done regularly. I am not really sure about back surgery either. I have been to physical therapy and do the exercises on my own at home. Today is a really bad day and I am never sure what I did to cause flare up. I have osteoarthritis in my spine, neck, knees and hands. I have tramadol and fioricet for pain. Not very strong but ok for now. Going to rest with ice pack now. Believe me I understand your pain and doubts about the shots and surgery. Hope today is a little better for you.
Thank you for replying. I guess I have waited this long, lets give the injection a try. Its just so hard to face months of more pain and think if its the correct choice. I take so many painkillers that they are triggering headaches... so the sooner this is over the better.
I'm so sorry for your pain. Osteoarthritis, must be terrible to manage. Does the physical therapy and exercise give you much relief?
I am 83, Male, and was a therapist 25yrs: Bowen therapy with NST. If t'was me I'd go LEAST invasive to start ..... ie Bowen/NST a few times. If no good, then go for shots, and finally surgery - which is more irreversible. Whatever, try get a practitioner/surgeon you can reallly trust. Best of luck. Surgery was good for my dad! TimbowPSP
I too have walked this path or should I say”staggered”? I opted firstly for the injections, which did precisely nothing. If I had my time over again I’d cut straight to the chase and go for surgery, which I’ve now had twice because of the growth of scar tissue. It is the only guaranteed way to be rid of the dreaded sciatica and I was fortunate enough to have a very good neurosurgeon.
hi, many years ago I had the op that you have been offered. It cured my sciatica immediately but has left me with areas down my leg which I can’t feel. And a weak calf muscle meaning I can’t raise my heel. It was worth it, as I understand that if it had been left untreated I could have been left incontinent, due to further damage to the nerve. I wasn’t offered an alternative solution. I’m glad I had the surgery tho
There is no right or wrong choice with sciatica. My first episode was in 2022. Iwas given the choice of an epidural or a hemi laminectomy for a problem with stenosis.The injection worked well for two weeks and then it was back to square one again. I had a hemi laminectomy which seemed to do the trick for about 6 weeks and then back to square one again. An MRI revealed a ruptured disc(L4-L5) with a piece of disc under L4. A second op to remove the piece of disc and all was well for about 6 weeks and then it was back to square one again. Another MRI revealed a further prolapse and it was back for a third op. Six weeks later the symptoms recurred and this time it was thought to be arthritis of the lumbar facet joints(confirmed by an X-Ray) this time I had injections into the 6 affected lumbar facet joints which gave immediate relief. The nerve endings to th 6 lumbar facet joints were destroyed to give more permanent relief. I was fine for 6 weeks and then ,it was back to square one again!
Another MRI showed further bulging of the disc again .This was followed by another op. after which the surgeon said that the anatomy was getting distorted and he wouldn't want to operate again for fear of doing more damage than good.
No doubt you can guess what happened next. I have had another MRI scan and once again I have disc protrusion. I am now on high doses of morphine as the only way to keep the pain under control. I now have to decide on whether to risk further surgery or try an epidural to see if that would be enough to calm things down.
The moral of this story is that the effects of surgery vary for each one of us and there are no guarantees. I will go and have an epidural as this is the simplest route if all goes well.
I'm sorry if this ramble has not helped but I wish you all the best.
Hi Yellow 17, I feel our symptoms are very similar. I am in my 10th year living with chronic pain, sciatica down both legs. I have had 5 rounds of 4 injections each time into L4S1 and can honestly say it gives you some relief but in my case that wore off pretty quickly, so was it worth the humiliation of being told I was too fat for the operating table. I was offered to burn off the nerves, not a solution either according to my Prof as your body just reconnects nerves and whether that will be better or worse is not known. The Pain Management team then dismissed any further options and have dropped me like a hot potato. So I am in that vicious circle of not being able to exercise due to pain levels. My vertical time is next to nothing these days. As for pain meds, they are no use for long term chronic pain, they just mask it, doesn't take it away. I had to stop Pregablin, duloxetine as felt like a zombie, couldn't concentrate at work. I use distraction therapy, my 5 cats help. Take each day as it comes, there's good and bad, sometimes the pain wins. I do (apart from the cycling parts) follow the Flippin' Pain campaign, lots of good advice and information to give you some insight into pain management. As good as some of our surgeons are, surgery isnt always the answer.
Don’t know if this will help you at all but like you I kept having a few weeks/days here and there where I couldn’t sit down or get up and stand up. I could just about walk but it didn’t feel right.
Went on like that a while till it truly came to a head and I couldn’t move at all, I was stuck in bed in the foetal position. I thought the answer might be to rest it but I still had to get up to use the loo, in the end I couldn’t even manage that. Went into hospital by ambulance, every step down the stairs was sheer agony. Long story short as I was sent home only to have to go back again because nothing had changed. Got onto the ward and in a bed unable to move but needing the loo, I asked for a bed pan. By that time I found I could no longer wee (red flag). I ended up having emergency discectomy after a fortnight’s hospital stay as apparently the only surgeon was on holiday. possibly called a laminectomy, to remove the prolapsed (bulging disc) at L5 S1. It was a miracle. I was walking the next day, that left leg was so weak, I’d lost all muscle as hadn’t been right for a few weeks. Took a lot of physio and still have numb areas in parts of left foot and toes and 24/7 fasiculations in my calf muscle but it was well worth having done, in fact there was no alternative because of the length of time I’d had it on and off, it became an emergency situation. I do have issues with incontinence now but I’d had to be catheterised for the two weeks I was waiting for surgery. I went on to have other minor procedures like nerve blocks and some radio frequency guided injections, but I’m walking my dog fine. Now and again if I get my posture wrong I’ll get a twinge but never had sciatica again.
I did have to go from wearing heels to choosing flatter styles though as that was better on my lower back.
I had a terrible reaction to the steroid injections myself, had one in the spine and one in the hip as have osteoarthritis and DDD but I reacted badly to it and got diagnosed with diabetes a week after it did go back down but it played havoc with my blood sugar and I felt terribly ill, I think this was rare, they just advised me to never have two areas done at the same time ever again
I wish you luck and a good outcome from your procedure. All this was in 2012 so there will be other people with more recent surgeries
Hi I had this exact same problem 15 years ago I had several injections before opting for my first operation where they stabilised the bulge it initially helped with the pain but after a few months it came back with a vengeance. I had my disc removed and same issue a couple of months later the pain came back and I now live with it. Would I have had the ops yes as it might have been successful I was just in the category of those who don’t have success. I hope you get it sorted.
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