Epidural steroid injection (ESI) for pain

@blowerk1216 How did the MRI go? I just saw the doctor on Tuesday that gave me the epidural back on February 10th. After letting him know I am in more pain after the epidural, he has ordered a CT scan of both my Thoracic and Lumbar spine areas. He told me an MRI will not always find everything that could be the problem, that there can be bone spurs, or even disc tears, that do not show on an MRI. The CT scan of the spine should give very detailed information, especially if they are thinking another surgery is possible. Now I wait for the insurance to approve the CT scans, which is the most frustrating part, as they take up to a month to do so.

@marcd2k here’s the worst part:
FINDINGS: Alignment is normal. The craniocervical junction is preserved. No acute fracture or focal osseous lesion is demonstrated. C3-4 ACDF hardware is in place and appears intact. C3-4: There is a large posterior disc osteophyte complex asymmetric to the left narrowing the left side of the spinal canal. Moderate left neural foraminal stenosis secondary to facet and uncinate process degeneration. C4-5: A small posterior disc osteophyte complex is present. No significant spinal canal narrowing. Severe right and moderate left neural foraminal stenosis secondary to facet and uncinate process degeneration. C5-6: A small posterior disc osteophyte complex is present. No significant spinal canal narrowing. Mild bilateral neural foraminal stenosis secondary to facet and uncinate process degeneration. C6-7: A small posterior disc osteophyte complex is present. No significant spinal canal narrowing. Mild right neural foraminal stenosis secondary to facet and uncinate.

@blowerk1216 My injection was diagnostic and it did reduce pain from spinal issues, but it also caused new pain because I had a bad reaction to it. I think I was allergic to something in the injection. I was getting burning electrical pain shooting into my hand. That took about 6 weeks to resolve. I only had 5 days of relief before my normal pain started returning slowly. A few weeks later all that pain was back with the added pains into my hand.

@jenniferhunter good grief that’s not a pleasant experience, so sorry you had to go through that.

@blowerk1216 I said no thank you when a doctor suggested more injections instead of considering spine surgery. I had mild spinal cord compression and had a fusion of C5/C6 10 years ago that resolved the issues that I had. It was a good decision. That injection was horribly painful while the doctor was doing it and I almost passed out.

@jenniferhunter

That sounds awful. Did they use a numbing shot first? After my bout of excruciating sciatica my docs PA informed me that there is something called a steroid pack. Six pills. I can access it quickly....no appt needed. Have you heard of it?

@gravity3 I have used that steroid pack, it did nothing to alleviate my leg pain!

@blowerk1216 Wow, that's a lot to take in. Does your surgeon have a plan for what he believes should be prioritized in your treatment?

I'm still waiting to hear from my insurance if my CT scans are approved. The epidural I had in February took a month (Dec 29th to Jan 29th) to get approved. There were two denials that my doctor had to re-submit information for before it was finally approved after a month.

Good luck!

@marcd2k yes that’s quite a lot, I don’t know the significance of the bone spurs but the stenosis does worry me. I guess I’ll have to wait for the neurosurgeon’s review!

@blowerk1216, I had a L3 ESI last June 2025. It took several weeks to work. It did seem to help some. Make sure you check out the doctors experience. I would recommend getting it done in a real pain management center. One that does it all day everyday. I used to work in interventional pain medicine. I saw some scary doctors that should not be performing the procedure. Do your due diligence before hopping on the table.