@sparklegram Thanks for your comments. I hope it goes well for you. My epidural injection was a long time ago, 3 years, and I recovered completely from it's effects. I was very concerned at the time because of the pain it caused to my dominant hand and the fingers that I use as an artist to hold and control my brushes, and most patients wouldn't know this could happen. I didn't know until it happened to me. I think a lot of patients will just accept a risk, but sometimes an injection might be suggested because the doctor doesn't want to take a chance on surgery with a patient that may have a bad outcome, and thus affect the doctor's success rate for his career, and he's putting himself first, and not the patient, or he is delaying possible surgery. Insurance companies and Medicare rate surgeons success on specific procedures and keep track. I had obvious spinal cord compression on my imaging, but the doctors couldn't connect the pain symptoms that I had everywhere in my body to the imaging and were probably imagining another disease issue or differential diagnosis that they couldn't address with surgery. This doctor told me he didn't know if surgery would make me better or worse, and as a patient, I would rather have a confident surgeon and not one who is guessing. He also didn't respond to the results on the diagnostic injection he requested, but really he should have questioned it and looked for a reason. I was able to do that myself and find a medical journal that explained surgical results of a case like mine. As patients, we should question how and why something can help and if it is worth the risk to us, and if the risks would be higher because of any other health issues we might have. The injection also caused a wait of 6 weeks for absorption of the steroid until a new MRI could be made or it would have obscured the results. It's all fine now. After that doctor declined to help, I came to Mayo and had surgery for my cervical spinal stenosis and I recovered well. The surgery and my choice to embrace it changed my life. Here's my story. https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2019/01/09/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/