Cervical epidural, Hit a nerve 2 times, Help

[tdaniel61]

First time so please bear with me! I am 48 yr old female, have had back pain for many years, basically untreated until about 5 yrs ago. I fell roller skating three years ago, crushing my wrist. I went through 3 surgeries from my orthopedic, were unsuccessful was in a lot of pain and numbness but chose to ignore it for a year, just treated by my pcp for pain. He decided to do an MRI of lumbar, thoracic, and cervical, also my wrist. Mri showed bulging disc on all levels, osteoarthritis, DDD, and cervical  stenosis. Went to hand specialist for wrist, he did 2 more surgeries, a total wrist fusion and carpal tunnel release(Nerve cond. showed  moderately severe damage and also showed cervical nerve damage. This was in Oct/Nov 2008, at the same time received 3 epidural shots for neck pain, very easy, after third did bring some relief. Continued seeing pain specialist (he does the shots and prescribes my meds now) now a year later my arm and hand is very numb starting to show symptoms of the same as before I had the TWF and CTR. I went in last week to begin another round of epidural shots, told the DR I was having more pain than usual lately, he sedated me slightly, and when he entered with the needle my left arm (injured arm) flew up involuntarily and I screamed. They held me down, and continued and it did it again. It had to have hit a nerve, that was the worst pain in my life. He explained afterwards that is the reason they cannot knock you all the way out, but he never said exactly what happened. I have had a very sore weekend, my arm is very sore and numb and tingly. He did give me more pain meds to get me through the weekend. I have another scheduled for the 29th, at this point I don't think I can go through with it. He is a great Dr. and I am sure will explain when I go back. My question is, is this common and can there be permanent damage. Also. on the fluoroscope, can the Dr see the nerves? He did show me the screen afterwards and said he did get the spot he wanted, it was tough getting there. Just really want to know also if this will happen again, any suggestions otherwise? Thanks, I know this is a long post, but thought my history could help some.

[backhurtz]

Unfortunately, the addition of the steroids can cause worsening pain for a few days, especially when the nerve is already inflamed. Ice can help, for the first few days, then moist, warm compresses.

[Bella61567]

Hello I see your post is quite old but was wondering what you found out.  I recently had one in my neck and I was sedated woke up in horrible pain all over and feeling like I was being electrified intensely I was sobbing in pain.  They told me that it took three of them to hold me down and still barely could this was very alarming to me as they tell me to get sedated because it is so important that I do not move but now "bucking" as they called it was ok and they proceeded with a needed in my neck?  Trying to find info but not much out there.  

[Babs1469]

I'm sorry for the pain and trouble you have to endure on a daily basis and I don't really have any answers for you but I can empathize because I recently had an epidural shot near the spine and it rendered my left leg partially paralized for almost 3 days. Luckily there was relatively no pain involved when it happened to me. All I can say is the work these Doctors do is very precise and demanding and sometimes I guess they are just a fraction of a milimeter off and there are consequences to their actions. We cannot expect our doctors to be gods but I would think they should at least tell you what actually happened and why so you can make an informed descision as to whether you want it done again. Best of luck My prayers are with you

XO
Babs