anyone know why arm pain is much worse after steroid injection?
 

Hi, posted about having a cervical steroid injection and while it has finally helped my neck maybe 50% (that horrendous pain has subsided) my left arm and fingers are in so much pain, I had a little pain before the injection but this is now much worse, also numbness/tingling in my left knee and ankle.

Called the Dr who gave the injection and he said all of this has nothing to do with the injection.....it only all started after the injection though.

I am so frustrated/upset not knowing what to do, I do feel my Dr waited and waited to get anything done, had to practically beg for an MRI which did show problems.

I am going to see a new Dr but am worried, what do I say, what do I ask for??

Don't want to come across like I'm trying to tell them their job but I feel something else needs to be done here.

I'm back in PT but it's not really helping. Among other things(loss of lordosis, DDD) I have a herniated disc at C7-T1, the "steroid" Dr said it's pressing on the C7 nerve.

Now with this new and awful pain it's upsetting and I just feel no one is taking this seriously :(

Any thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated, thank you.

inj gone wrong
 

Hi their,Sitke that dr is absolutely wrong the worst part is he knows it,first you tell the next dr exactly what happened.Do not be intimidated by them make sure you get your point across, do not let them talk over you.From what your symptoms are he could of irritaded the spinal cord,ask the new dr to please help you it is your life.GOOD LUCK

Hidspine,

Thank you for your reply, yes, that's what I thought, the Dr does know this is from the injection.

I've been reading a lot to see if anyone else has had this happen and all over the web people have posted they had all kinds of awful side effects.

I did change my PCP and the new one thought no more injections for me so hopefully she's going to listen, she has ordered another test on my neck so we shall see, thanks again!

Did the dr doing the injection use any imaging at all to guide the needle?

Was it a transforaminal or interlaminar epidural?

Pain in the Neck!
 

Sorry you've had to deal with these new symptoms after your cervical epidural. Not a diagnosis I would wish on anyone, but you might want to check out the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome forum. It has a ton of good information on cervico-brachial pain (including parasthesia), muscle atrophy and imbalance as well as excellent resources re top docs, PT's and other specialists in this area.

I suffered severe neck pain as my primary symptom for decades, along with shoulder/arm pain and weakness, hand atrophy, numbness and tingling in the fingers and other delightful stuff. Was misdiagnosed over and over and over again until I finally consulted a vascular surgeon - who diagnosed me on the spot with a very progressed case of neurogenic TOS.

When you do go for a second opinion you're going to want to be able to recount exactly where (i.e., along which nerve pathways) your upper extremity symptoms are occurring, what part/s of the arm and precisely which fingers are affected, etc.

It's also going to be important for you to find the right kind of PT for brachial plexopathy, and the TOS forum can help you with that as well. Use the search forum function to find threads on different topics which relate to the questions you have. The stickies at the top of the board are rife with good info! And if you'd like you can re-post your thread/s to see what kind of a response you get. You might be surprised.

I think it's great news that the epidural does seem to have helped your neck pain. Whether that result conclusively points to your cervical spine having an issue at C-7 I don't know (did they go in @ the level of C-6/C-7, or @ C-7/C-8?). And I'm not a doc, but I know that trouble with the C-8/T-1 nerve root is the hallmark of a lower trunk injury to the brachial plexus.

Hopefully, the source of your neck problem is indeed the spine and not compression of the neurovascular bundle comprising the brachial plexus. (I say that because, as miserable as cervical syndromes are - they are way easier to treat than neurogenic TOS.)

Best of luck to you and I hope that your symptoms resolve soon.

Hi, one physician I saw wanted to do an injection for me when I was in much more pain 2 months ago, I said I wanted to wait and see if the pain would improve based on lifestyle changes I wanted to make. A few months later my pain is almost gone even though I do have a compressed cord and and abnormal cord signal. A spine rehab doc I am now seeing said that it was fortunate that I did not get that shot because it may have made my compressed cord condition worse. Good luck!

Hello and thank you all very much for your reply, sorry I have not been able to reply until now.

No, the Dr didn't use any kind of imaging to guide the needle, dumb of me I now know, he said he was the leading person to do the injections and has never had any problems with a patient, knew I should have left but I was in so much pain and he is the only Dr I can go to get this done....never again though :(

I am waiting for my Dr to decide what to do next, I know things should have been tried months ago but the Dr's get annoyed, or so it seems, if I try to suggest something.

Think the injection was at C7. The pain in my left ankle has subsided a little.

Thank you all again.