lgtaylor100 Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 It has been suggested to me that I need an epidural for cervical stenosis. My local ANS doctor said it would not be a good idea because of the cortisone that will be injected. I probably will need an epidural for my back as well but have not gotten the MRI yet. Has anyone had an epidural for back or neck pain. Did it affect your autonomic symptoms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmruls Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Steroids makes my dysautonomia worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdlady Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Physiological doses of steroids do not make my POTS any worse, but pharmacological or immunosuppressive doses are awful for my POTS. My standing heart rates were very scary while I was taking prednisone for an allergic reaction and I will do whatever I can to avoid going on prednisone again. I was also given a large injection of dexamethasone in addition to the prednisone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janiedelite Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 I've had steroids injected into my hip several times for an old injury. I've also had a lidocaine and steroid injection into my left first lumbar nerve root because of sciatic pain. I've never had a problem with these types of steroid injections and POTS. If anything, when the pain started improving because of the steroids, then I'd have less POTS issues anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lgtaylor100 Posted May 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Thank you so much. I think that my neck pain may be one of the reasons for my dysautonomia. Now I just have to convince the neuro surgeon to give me the epidural against the advice of my cardiologist/ANS doctor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comfortzone Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 I had not ever heard of a neuro surgeon doing those injections before - probably just my experience - but where I've been in the country it was the pain management/anesthesia docs that did the injections at pain clinics - where they have all the imaging devices etc...I do know when I first moved here to AZ I went to a pain clinic and this doctor was pretty awful - told me he wouldn't give me medication for my pain - but said I had to go to a chiropracter in his practice, go to PT, go to his dad who is a pain counselor and then allow him to give me epidural shots in my neck for the radiographically evident cervical stenosis.I was like????? what are you crazy? So I went to his silly chiropracter - whatever she did made me nearly faint as I was walking to the check out area - felt like throwing up too. Had to sit and wait till I could walk again. Long story short I got out from under his care - (my neck was mildly tender upon palpation - I'd get 'neck' headaches but the mri's said mild flattening of the cord from my neck issues)...Found a good office - who also sees a lot of escapees from the other doctors practice & he apologized for the guys bad behavior!Next I saw a neurosurgeon on the east coast who told me I needed a 3 level neck fusion and he's one of the best NS around per the opinion of alot of 'bigwig' docs. I was like ???? So I asked my team at Mayo - and they said 'no' you certainly do not need any surgery at all. The other surgeon called me like 3 times telling me I'd be a quadraplegic if I didn't do as he asked...so Mayo did a bunch more testing - answer was "no" you don't need surgery.I recently had 2 steroid shots - one in each hip for ruling out trochanteric bursitis - I used to get cortisone all the time for my knees and it was they'd give me great energy and had me feeling better - that has changed - I felt really kind of awful for a few days afterward...then a week later had some super low blood pressures and tachycardia that necessitated med changes - but now things are back to normal (well normal for me)....But - the good pain clinic doctor told me that if and when the time ever came that I needed an epidural for excruciating type pain - or if my neck got a lot worse etc....he wouldn't hesitate to help me (with ehlers danlos too) So in that I sensed he had no anxiety whatsoever in dealing with special cases such as dysautonomia etc... I figured I'd make sure I had an IV in - ask for it - so if anything happened they'd have access for meds to turn things around if anything wasn't going well --- but I hadn't heard that you couldn't get epidurals because of dysautonomia - I'll read what the others say with interest though for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.