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Old 11-11-2008, 07:05 PM
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mmglobal mmglobal is offline
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Guy, in the early days of my ordeal, I had 8 epidural injections. Most helped, a few had no impact and one set me off (made me much worse) for about a week.

It sounds like you are relatively new to spine problems and are in the stage where you are trying to avoid surgery. Epidurals stand a good chance of cooling down the inflammation and allowing you to heal quicker. The don't work for everyone, but IMHO, the risks are relatively low. That is why such a high percentage of lumbar patients get epidurals, even though a relatively small percentage of us get long term relief.

The ESI's were helpful to me when I was still the the avoiding surgery phase. They saved several vacations, as my pain management doc would fit me in if I was having problems just before a trip was planned.

Good luck,

Mark
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1997 MVA
2000 L4-5 Microdiscectomy/laminotomy
2001 L5-S1 Micro-d/lami
2002 L4-S1 Charite' ADR - SUCCESS!
2009 C3-C4, C5-C6-C7, T1-T2 ProDisc-C Nova
Summer 2009, more bad thoracic discs!
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