epidural steriod injections

Patty · Post by **Patty** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:17 pm

I just stumbled on to this website and downloaded the neck book for my husband. He has been diagnosed with a herniated disk at C6-7. Physical therapy has not helped nor the medications. The next step (from Dr.) is an epidural steriod injection. I noticed Rebecca mentioned in one of her posts that she gives these fairly often. this sounds horrible to me. do these help? what are they supposed to do? Hopefully these exercises will help him, so that we don't have to go that route. thanks for any help.

krd · Post by **krd** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:37 pm

Hi Patty

Welcome to the forum. I had 2 epidurals in September of last year, 3 weeks apart. I have a large herniated disk at L5, lower lumbar. I couldn't get out of bed for 7 weeks. The pain was unbearable. Yes they did work for me in a big way. I am now fully active and pain free. I did agressive PT for 8 weeks, 3 times a week, following the epidurals. I do know that they do not work for everybody.

Here is what my Dr. did for me. First he put me on a medpak. This is a 6 day dose of steroids to see if there was any change in my condition. On or about the 4th day, I noticed that the pain was not as severe. He then said that I should be a good candidate for the epidurals. Thankfully I took them. However, PT is just as important. I still do my exercises from the books on this site and core exercises almost every day. Good luck, and we will be checking in on your husbands progress.

Ken

CB in Cincy · Post by **CB in Cincy** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:39 pm

Don't fear epidurals! It's a relatively simple procedure that can be very very effective, especially for what you're describing. I'm using them now to avoid surgery, too. I had a c5 corpectomy, fell down, broke my neck 10 wks after the surgery, had C5, 6, 7 stabilization, and now we're working on degenerated discs further down. Epidurals are a piece of cake!