Nerve Block Injections

dollydrops

I know this isn't a medical board and that there is no doctors here. But I was just looking for some advise about personal experiences with nerve block injections.

I have been suffering with chronic back pain for the last four years. I have had x-rays and scans and the doctors have found that I have a disc slipped in my back which is catching a nerve which travels down my right leg.

They have recommended an operation or a nerve block injection.
I have spoke to my GP and he recommends I go with the nerve block injection because I am only 22 and that the risks of the operation are slightly higher than the risks of the injection.

I really don't know what to do. I certainly don't want to continue the way I am because it is effecting my life and sometimes I feel like an old granny having to lie down because of my back pain.

So my question is has anyone ever had a nerve block injection or heard of anyone having one? Does it totally get rid of the pain? How long does it last or do you get dependable on them?
Any advise I would be very grateful or if anyone has any other solutions.

N8

dollydrops wrote: »

Any advise I would be very grateful or if anyone has any other solutions.

Need I say consider visitng a chiropractor?

Catcher86

Nerve Block injections sound like a temporary solution to a long term problem. An operation would probably correct the problem along with some rehab afterwards.
I personally would go for the operation. Though I know that operations can be rather daunting especially with the risks associated with just being in a hospital these days. No wonder some people are going to India for their operations.
Private health care can be very beneficial in a situation like this.

scuby

dollydrops wrote: »

I know this isn't a medical board and that there is no doctors here. .

lots of dr's floating about this forum...

Catcher86 wrote: »

Nerve Block injections sound like a temporary solution to a long term problem. An operation would probably correct the problem along with some rehab afterwards.
I personally would go for the operation. Though I know that operations can be rather daunting especially with the risks associated with just being in a hospital these days. No wonder some people are going to India for their operations.
Private health care can be very beneficial in a situation like this.

would agree, temp measure, and you might be better off to have an operation when you are young, body would heal better/faster, than when you get old.
hope it works out for you

beaushalloe

hi!
ive had a nerve block injection it was in my neck. basically its supposed to kill the nerve closest to the pain site i think, (mine was eventually found to be cluster headaches) my face was totally numb on that side for more than a couple of hours and i felt v disorentiated, (though this prob wouldnt b the case for the spine!) it was supposed to be a course of 3 injections that would take effect immeadiately, which it didnt so i di not get any more. i by the way was under the supervision of a hosipital pain consultant, and had explored other avenues of pain relief previously, it wasnt offered at the start of my complaint, rather a year or so down the line, so what im saying is it prob isnt a descision to be taken lightly.
best of luck with everything, chronic pain, where ever is no joke.

biko

N8 wrote: »

Need I say consider visitng a chiropractor?

+1
Give it a try before you go radical

PoleStar

Might I strongly suggest to a mod that the replies above be edited, removed or the whole thread removed.

This forum should not be for "polling" people who may not be health professionals as to whether they should have surgery or not.

Go to your doctor and talk openly about this with him. If you are not happy and are unable to discuss it with him, find a different doctor who you can have an open and frank discussion with.

And this advice IS from a doctor.

DrIndy

we have an orthopaedic surgeon who may give you a low down.

Nerve blocks by a pain specialist can be very effective indeed, trouble is that peripheral nerves regrow after 3-6 months so the procedure has to be repeated again.

matc66

These "nerve block" injections would probably be steroid injections which are designed to reduce inflammation of the affected nerve. They could potentially have long lasting beneficial effects.
However just like any treatment, especially surgery in this case, it may not work.
Conservative management is always worth trying because you have a lot to gain and little to lose...because it's conservative. The worse that could happen is that it won't work. Whereas again the same is not true for surgery.

Just a note on back pain. The world is full of treatments and alternatives for back pain, huge industry. This alone is proof that there is no definitive treatment and a lot of quackery. Be careful before you opt for radical treatment. If you scan 100 people's backs a certain proportion (I forget exactly) will have slipped discs but not all of them will have back pain, of course the reverse is also true!

UrbanFox

I am NOT a doctor so this is a civilian's view.

I have a damaged L4 / L5 disc.

I had injections of the facet joints by a radiologist. That provided one weeks relief ! I was warned before the procedure that it was random in terms of the likely duration of any benefits. Scratch that idea.

I then had an extradural infusion done by an anaesthetist. This is not to be confused with an epidural. The idea was to inject some agents in to the actual disc to reduce inflammation and thus the agitation of the adjacent nerves. It worked fine for a few years but I am back to ground zero at present. However, it did remove the sciatic problem permanently. Also, I felt very unwell for a period of several months afterwards but that result has several possible explanations.

Orthopaedic and neurosurgical opinions were that any surgical approach to the spine was always to be regarded as a very serious enterprise with considerable risks and only to be considered as a last resort.

IMHO there is a careless or ill-informed view amongst the public that surgery fixes everything. It doesn't. I suspect that this attitude is influenced by the modern phenomenon of elective vanity surgery whereby you just get "it" fixed and that is all about it. This attitude is naive to say the least when transferred across the boundaries between saggy jowls and orthopaedics.

I function well enough between NSAID's (Difene or Ponstan or any of the others), swimming to mobilise the joint and specific muscle strengthening exercises learned from the phsyioterrorists !

BTW I have little time for alternative medicine and have no faith in it whatsoever but that is a deep prejudice based on personal experience, observation of other peoples' experiences as well as the way that I tend to look at things ! If it works for you and CAUSES YOU NO HARM that is fine. However, as one medic reminded me "you only have one back" and that is worth remembering when considering to whom you are entrusting the care of your back.

Ultimately, each case needs to be handled on it's particular and peculiar merits. You and I could have similar clinical descriptions of our problems but the actual finer details could be dissimilar and different approaches required. Mind you there is nothing more impressive for nailing a diagnosis than those MRI scans. Be very careful to keep all your films for purposes of comparison when having future scans.

The orthopaedic advice I was given included taking great care about the forces being applied to my back. Compression - as where you lift a heavy weight - and torsion - as where you whip your torso around driving a golf ball - were definite precursors of trouble !

BTW there are different surgical approaches to a disc so you need to be perfectly clear about what is proposed and what you are consenting to. Some ops might involve a trimming of part of the disc. Some ops I have seen described as decompression do something to take the physical pressure off the nerve being trapped or compressed but I don't know how they do that. Some ops might go as far as fusing or stiffening the troublesome joint to stabilise it. I think that the latter can cause trouble in time by putting pressure on the disc above and or below the one that is "fixed". Othopods please jump in here and clarify what the actual siutation might be !!!!!!

The general advice I got from the first, second and third opinions was that conservative management was a safer option because some of the more adventureous options cannot be reversed.

Good luck with it dollydrops whatever you decide to do.

p15574

I have been suffering chronic pain in my neck/shoulder area, and recently had two procedures, neither of which has helped. Both procedures were called Rhyzotomies, though they were different procedures AFAIK. The first, I think, involved a cortisone injection into some disks, which appears to be a common enough procedure. I think it's called a 'block'. This had no effect, but don't let that put you off. The second procedure involved inserting needles and applying an electric current to kill or deaden the nerve endings. Again, this appears not to have helped me, but my injury isn't a traditional 'back pain' type of injury. I have to say, both procedures were day procedures, and so would be a lot less risky than an operation, as your GP advises. You could always try the procedure first, as its much easier, and if needs be, then progress to the operative approach.

Good luck!

kelle

My husband suffered back pain throughout his late twenties and thirties. Any slight twisting injury would leave him crippled and confined to bed for 2 weeks. Eventually, he was referred to an orthopaedic consultant. The consultant suggested spinal fusion, but specified it had only a 75% success rate, and considering he was only crippled for approx 2 months out of every 12, it was not worth him taking that 25%risk. Also, he said back pain was common in the twenties and thirties, but usually disappears once you reach your forties.
I am happy to say my husband is now 37 and no longer suffers back pain.
I know that doesn't answer your question, but I know people who have had discectomies which have been successful. While I see Nerve Root Block injections being administered frequently, I have never met the patients afterwards to find out how successful the injections were.

7.62 rule

Hi, I got a bad nerve block injection two years ago, I've got sciatica seven years and this procedure made it far far worse. I lit up like christmas tree while the needle was going in, heard the Doc say its gone in to far, the pain is mental, I really hoped the nerve damage caused by the needle would heal within a few months, but two years later and its worse not better. I would not advice anyone try this.

byhookorbycrook

A friend just had this for something similar, so far so good. Highly eminent consultant wanted her to try this first with surgery on the back burner for the moment.Consultant said to avoid any and all chiropracters and to work on physio exercises.

sam34

zombie thread closed