Lower back pain due to a pinched nerve: Anything I can do for relief?

Have told my spinal doc about the possibility of a Botox injection. She is not in favor of it, additionally she thinks Ins won’t cover cost. Started physical therapy had 2 sessions, so far it’s good. Have 6 more to see if this helps!

In my experience, it should be administered by an Anesthesiologist. And pain injections of any time into the spine, hips or S/I joint should be by specially trained Anesthesiologists. They're called "interventional injections." and I wouldn't be surprised if that's what goes shoulders best too. I musta had 8 or 10 of them and only 2 failed. One because it was some kind of special water preparation.

That X-ray guidance is called using a floroscope. Some Physiatrists do them too. And one's using a robotic injection can do many more using a floroscope, because they're behind shields.

I always try to be careful about making blanket statements. My interventional spinal injections were done by a pain management specialist who was a neurosurgeon, not an anesthesiologist.

My hip, shoulder, elbow, knee & hand injections are done by my orthopedic surgeon (who, by the way, is a wizard at finding and injecting exactly the right spot in numerous joints!) My sister's are done by her neurologist. My daughter's have been done by her hand (plastic) surgeon. Each of these professionals is trained, highly skilled, and had amazing success rates.

In early days of spinal & other interventional injections, I think most were done by anesthesiologists (my first was over 20 years ago) but now many other doctors have realized the effectiveness and been trained to do them.

My ortho was able to help me postpone wrist and thumb surgery for several years with injections. Now we are managing arthritis in my knees the same way.

Sue

I take your point. Thank you for the correction. I've never found a neurologist or an orthopedic surgeon who even listened, much less cared. I'll look to see if I can delete my answer that was wrong.

To reassure you, your answer was not necessarily "wrong" - just too definite for the changing world we live in. For me, it would be unsettling if someone read my statement on Connect, then used it to pass up a valuable medical treatment because their option was different. So it's better to avoid "should" "must" "only" "always" and similar qualifiers, because none of us (not even the pros) know every possible option for a condition.

To save you the work of looking - we cannot delete our own posts. If you want the Moderator to remove it here is how - there are 3 small dots (...) at the bottom of the post. If you click it, one option it "Report this Post." Send a message to the Moderator asking for it to be removed and explaining why.

I'm sorry you have had poor experiences with orthopedic surgeons & neurologists - here is something to consider...
A long time ago, a very wise physician told me "A lot of doctors become surgeons because they prefer their patients to be unconscious." And my wonderful hand therapist once told me "When you have a problem recovering from surgery - come to me. The surgeon measures success by whether the procedure worked, and you recovered without infection. I measure success by whether you can use your hand after your wound heals." Until I understood these basics, I was often put off by the behavior of specialists. That's not to say all doctors are good, just different personalities gravitate to different roles in medicine.

So the next time you are put off by the manner of a surgeon or specialist, consider whether you are seeing them for personality or procedure, then figure out how to best deal with them. For me, when meeting with any unknown specialist, I always try to go with a prepared list of questions. One of them is always "If I need more information or clarification, how do I get it?" Many surgeons employ others PA, nurse, coordinator... to screen the questions and get answers for you. If you find one willing to chat and answer you themself, you are truly having a lucky day!

Hope you are learning a lot here on Connect. We have an awesome group of people here, many living with a great many challenges.
Sue