After my Cervical Epidural Injection

Orthopaedic & Spine Center

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

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????