What Happened After my Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
I went home after my epidural and continued to experience light-headedness, so I went and got in bed, laid flat and watched TV. OSC’s Dr Sureja gave me an instruction sheet to help after the procedure, and I immediately followed the instruction to ice the injection site, so I did.
My instruction sheet also gave a list of potential side-effects and complications to watch for and what to do should those occur. Infection, nerve damage, bleeding, and a dural puncture were all discussed as rare, but possible complications. More commonly, the side-effects possible were dizziness, pain at the injection site, flushing, leg pain, headache, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, anxiety or irritability, weight gain.
Dr Jenny Andrus
Unfortunately, I experience several of the side-effects, starting with leg pain and heaviness. I also experienced a lot of flushing and feeling hot. However, armed with the knowledge that these side-effects were common and although uncomfortable, not life-threatening, I dealt with them. I took a long hot bath as I was having leg pain and I could not sleep. I continued to ice my neck throughout the night, on-and-off. I started getting a headache early in the morning and by 9:00 AM, it was very bad. I did not go in to work.
So I called the practice and Dr. Sureja’s partner, Dr. Jenny Andrus at OSC, phoned in a mild pain prescription for me. She said to let her know if I did not get relief in a few hours. I took the medication and quickly started to feel better. I felt pretty much back to normal in about 24 hours after the epidural. After that time, I did not experience any more or continued side-effects. Dr. Sureja told me that the epidural might work well within a few days, might take a while to feel better or might not work at all. I certainly wanted it to work and I was willing to wait a few days to see if I began to feel relief from my chronic neck and shoulder pain.
Next time….Pain Relief…YES or NO????