I know exactly what you're going through. My pain started in what I thought was my left knee, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where or how it hurt. As time went on it became a sharp radiating pain from my hip all the way to my foot and my toes were numb most of the time. I fought with crappy insurance for a while (Kaiser is really good at preventive stuff, really bad at actually providing treatment) then switched to my wife's much better insurance. I found a good, well recommended spinal specialist (this is key, find someone who actually specializes in the area and ask around about their reputation). I had a massive herniation at L4-L5 and a smaller one at L5-S1, both were pressing on the left sciatic nerve root.

I had a couple epidurals, the second of which relieved my pain completely for about two and a half months (the first was done by Kaiser and they missed the nerve). The pain came back after that, and ended up a little worse than before. I made the hard decision and on July 28 of this year I had a microdiscectomy surgery. He went in and removed the herniated disc material and freed up as much room around the nerve as possible. This was a pretty routine, not too severe surgery (other choice was a fusion, which is basically a last resort). I have been completely pain free in my leg since the 3rd week of recovery and I'm just about completely rehabbed as far as my back muscles. I was out of work for 2 months.

So there you have it. Pain coming from back problems is horrible, and it can affect quality of life severely. I hope everything gets all squared away for you. Will you be sedated during the epidural? I've done awake and sedated and I would definitely recommend sedated. Awake isn't bad, but it is really uncomfortable and obviously much more stressful. You'll get through it fine, it's one of the most performed back procedures and I think my last one took about 7 minutes total, including local anesthetic injections.
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Good luck tomorrow Vin. I hope you get relief quickly!
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Good luck Vin!!
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Prayers, Vin. :-)
I bet you'll be glad you did this. Be patient and give it time to work.
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I haven't been around here much lately, so this is the first I've seen of this.

You are, and will remain in my prayers.

Peace of the Lord be with you.
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Yupper, Vin. Had this, worst part was having to lay flat on my stomach while they gave me the shot and looked for the correct spot. Did help me quite a bit, tho. I was told that I would likely need to go under the knife at some point. I think I'll pass, frankly. I am once again always in some pain/discomfort, but have learned to live with it. Doesn't go down into my legs too often, however.

So, I think you'll be helped, dear brother. I pray that you will and that all goes swimingly for ya!
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Praying that all goes well and you get the relief you seek, buddy.
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Hope you find some relief from the pain. You are in my thoughts, Vin
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Well that wasn't so bad. The injection was relatively painless. Doc said to expect some increased soreness the next couple days because he's basically irritated the area, but by the end of the weekend I should start to feel some relief.

Thanks for all the well wishes.
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Good news, Vin :-)
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Like to hear!
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Been there done that. Find an awesome neurosurgeon in your area. Have the surgery. If it isnt too bad there is no fusion just a disk cleanup. Laminotomy/diskectomy. I had it done about 3 years ago. Which I hadnt waited so long. Now I have some permanent nerve damage that would not have been there had I dont the surgery ASAP/ Most of the treatments numb it or just bandaid it but never FIX the problem. Lots of PT lots of stretching etc will help you out but ultimately will need to be fixed.
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Now you should get all p90x'd up, Vin. That'll fix it for good, plus you'll even be more incredibly buff, if that's possible. :-)
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Good luck Vin I hope you are fealing better now:-) If you are not dont be discuraged I know for me the magic happend with the 2nd injection:-)
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Just some general soreness at the injection site today - the leg actually feels pretty good although the doc did say it would take 2-10 days for the steroids to really kick in.

Cautiously optimistic at this point.
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Glad to hear it, Vin. :-)
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:-) glad to hear that the leg is feeling better already, Vin.
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Good to hear, Vin! Hope things feel better each day. :-)
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Good news, Vin! Good luck with the pt!
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