MrsbeanZ had 2 steroid injections in the disc between L5 and S1 to try and reduce inflammation across the disc , its been an ongoing problem for some time .
Has anyone got any experience of the success and recovery time of the procedure ?

I’ve had three lots of facet joint injections and two lots of caudal epidurals. The first round of both worked for me. Pain was reduced massively and recovery was only a few days. The second and third rounds did nothing. My “discs” were herniated too far for the injections to mask the pain.

The injections will only treat the symptoms, they won’t cure the underlying problems. But what they can do is allow you to gain some pain reduced movement, and combined with yoga, Pilates, and other exercises and physio, get you back to some sort of normal.

Injections are normally the second steps in treating chronic back pain, if rest, physio and time doesn’t work. Has the Mrs had an MRI yet?

In my case surgery was the last resort and was needed. I’m glad I went that route. It was not pleasant at the time but in the long run was the best decision.

Hi, both I and a friend have had this done* and as with bigblackshed the effect was both rapid and effective. It reduced the pain sufficiently to get me mobile again and once being properly mobile exercising has prevented my back returning to that state.

* a very peculiar experience, the injections felt like little cold worms curling round my spine.

As a counterpoint, I had it done and it was both massively painful and a waste of time. Just getting into the right position for the jabs hurt like hell and they did nothing to alleviate the problem. Surgery did but they usually want to go through the process steps before going to Defcon 3.

If I was in the same situation again, I’d try everything to avoid Cortisone. I’ve had a couple of jabs elsewhere for other injuries that have also been painful and useless so am not a fan.

Varied results with cortisone here.

Worked well with trigger points in my back and shoulder after decompression surgery. Only gave temporary relief before surgery though.

Injections ‘else where’ (you don’t want to know) and these really didn’t work – tried twice.

I’ve been offered it for my back (broke spine and have a chunk missing) but I’m avoiding it and have refused surgery – don’t fancy the risks of surgery. Fortunately my disks are OK, but one of my vertebrae is missing a big chunk.

The injections can work for many people and you can have upto about 3 sessions a year (causes skin thinning at the site).

I had trigger point injections between discs. Worked well for a couple of years but that’s it. Now back with the pain and they won’t operate as it’s not herniated enough, I’d rather that I think than be carved open on a whim. What I would say is they are a bit hurty and gave me almost flu like symptoms, sickness feeling and being proper wiped our for 36 hrs post jabs. The bloke next to me it would seem found his very hurty as it sounded like they were killing him.

I’ve had cortisone before and it’s worked very, very well in my knees and in a shoulder after it froze following an op.
I had two injections into my spine (S2). the first was very slighlty successful and hurt like a bastard. The second hurt far, far more (I think i had 8 people holding me down – and I was trying to lie still!) and did nothing whatsoever. I had surgery about 10 days after injection 2.

Ref: “The Pain”

My first two rounds were done fully concious. The facet joint injections were uncomfortable, the caudal epidural was painful. I was sedated for the third round. I was very sore when I came round and for the rest of that day. Opioids helped me sleep that night, but the following morning I was no different than before the injections.

The caudal epidural was a mix of cortisone, steroids and saline. The idea is to “inflate” the spinal column to allow the herniated discs to reset and settle back into their correct places. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. My first round worked for 5 years. The second and third were within six months, three months later I had surgery.

Thanks for the replies

Injections are normally the second steps in treating chronic back pain, if rest, physio and time doesn’t work. Has the Mrs had an MRI yet?

Yes this is 2nd step , had months of physio and some recommended yoga stretching type moves . Had the mri a month or so ago .

I’d rather that I think than be carved open on a whim.

I had my disc operated on and was up and walking within hours, completely pain free.
It was an absolute blessing not to have to take any drugs 🙂

My op was percutaneous, no whim’s or carving involved.