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Any risks for pre-surgery epidural injection?

Posted by rono2410 @rono2410, Sep 15, 2023

I have nerve impingement in the L4-L5 area resulting in weakness and pain in my quad muscle. My neurosurgeon has suggested an epidural injection to confirm the specific nerve that is being affected by impingement and to accurately address the problem in surgery. Has anyone had this procedure done and has anyone experienced complications or harmful effects from this procedure?

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mistymom | @mistymom | Jul 24, 2025
In reply to @davidtrevino "HELP PLEASE! I got an epidural spine injection and my lower back L4 and L5. At..." + (show)
Profile picture for davidtrevino @davidtrevino

HELP PLEASE! I got an epidural spine injection and my lower back L4 and L5. At night time I get cold arms and thighs with cold chills and slight body aches. It’s been a week so far with these symptoms, it’s weird I don’t get them during the day just at night. I get dry mouth all day too, how long would these symptoms last I read it supposed to be two days and other places 2 to 3 weeks, can’t get a straight answer. My legs feel slightly weak and slight discomfort, but at night time I feel really sick for about 5 mins and sometimes sick all night. Hot flashes too, any idea if this is a serious concern or just side effects that will go away ?

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Since 2017 I had a epidural about once a year for L-4/L5 spondolethis and physical therapy and was fine. Last year I moved and had terrible pain in back and hips. My new primary did a mri and I now have a lot of stenosis compressing the nerves going to my feet and neuropathy causing sometimes unbearable pain. I went to a pain specialist and a steroid injection didn’t help at all. He then did an ablation that helped quite a bit. I still had cramping and some pain issues in my legs and feet with the neuropathy. He did several steroid injections none of the, helped. It’s important to have a good anesthesiologist do the injection and if doesn’t work know what drug they used and have them try another drug.

What has really been helping me is physical therapy doing breathing exercises as soon as I start hurting it calms the nerves, but you might need to do it several times a day, it took a good month to get relief to last a while.

I do the diaphragm breathing.
https://www.pathways.health/blog/inhale-to-heal-pain-5-breathing-techniques-to-get-you-started/

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srquser | @srquser | Jul 26, 2025
In reply to @davidtrevino "HELP PLEASE! I got an epidural spine injection and my lower back L4 and L5. At..." + (show)
Profile picture for davidtrevino @davidtrevino

HELP PLEASE! I got an epidural spine injection and my lower back L4 and L5. At night time I get cold arms and thighs with cold chills and slight body aches. It’s been a week so far with these symptoms, it’s weird I don’t get them during the day just at night. I get dry mouth all day too, how long would these symptoms last I read it supposed to be two days and other places 2 to 3 weeks, can’t get a straight answer. My legs feel slightly weak and slight discomfort, but at night time I feel really sick for about 5 mins and sometimes sick all night. Hot flashes too, any idea if this is a serious concern or just side effects that will go away ?

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I am now 8 days out, and the pain is still bad. To add to all of this, I woke up this morning with the room spinning, and a blood pressure rise up to 160/85. The BP came down pretty quickly to 135, but then I got a headache that's lasted all day. AND THE BACK/HIP/THIGH PAIN is still there! ANd my inner ear feels weird, like it is clogged. These things can't all be related? It's a "conspiracy" to keep me from leaving on my trip in a week! - 8 hours in a plane, then lots of walking in Scandinavia.

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