Today I had the consultation with the new Doctor at the Spine Institute. Ended up getting a cortisone injection in each shoulder and so far so good with the shoulder pain. These injections USUALLY work well for me. I've had them before while I was in the Army. No time for recuperation from an injury - shoot them up and keep on going! That's where I came up with the idea to call it Fix A Flat. (LOL) Anyways, the Doctor decided that I need to have a nerve test done Monday because I either have 1 problem causing all the pain and numbness/tingling symptoms or I have 3 separate problems. He said that there is a possibility that I pass the nerve test and it won't tell him what he's looking for specifically. If by chance that happens then we'll have to try something more invasive, he said. He did try the Trigger Point Injection today (7 shots in all - 3 on the right and 4 on the left) just to see if it would release the knotted muscles any. Not sure if it really worked as the injection sites are very tender but I do know my headache is nowhere near as bad as it has been so I am hoping for good results from today's visit but I am also not holding my breath for lasting results. I'll just take it day by day.

Praying things will get better and they can come up with answers for you soon. I had a nerve and Muscle test. and my neurologist preformed this, unlike most people I've talked to, mine was finger tip to toe .. both sides...it was unconfortable but not bad, do you know if a neuro is doing yours? Silver

The same doctor that I seen Friday did the nerve test today. All he was checking for was to see if the tingling and numbness in my fingers was maybe being caused by a pinched nerve in my neck or if it was coming from my wrists such as the onsetting of carpel tunnel syndrome so the test was only from sholder to finger tip. Left side was normal and my right side is .3dB from being considered with carpel tunnel. (I believe he said it was .3dB being that a nerve test is noise in the muscles I am sure that is what I heard). He said that passing the test was both good and bad news. It's good becasue I passed but it's bad becasue now he cannot narrow down the cause further yet. So with that being said, he doesn't know what is causing the tingling and numbness in my fingers but we decided not to worry about it right now because it's not painful.

My shoulders took the cortisone injections well and feel pretty good for now so we are going to focus on the neck only for now. The trigger point injections I received Friday seemed to have helped. My headache let up to a point that I could actually concentrate on something so that is a plus. Today I received 6 more trigger point injections on the left side of my neck as he decided to stay away from the right today because after the injections on Friday, I woke Saturday moring with a major knot in my right shoulder. By the afternoon it had released itself. Doctor said that could have been a residual effect of the injections and just decided not to go onto that side today with any other injections. He said for now he feels that we may be on to something so long as these injections keep giving me some relief. He said that if they quit working the next steps are more invasive. I chose to end that conversation for now and said that we could resume if it would have to come to that later. I sort of don't want to know a next step at this point. For now I am satisfied with what is going on.

He said he would call me in a few days and see how I am feeling and schedule me for additional trigger point injections if I think they are needed. 3 days in between visits really isn't a long enough track record to determine if these trigger point injections are working or if they will continue to work so we'll just see what happens later this week without having any more until then at least. I certainly hope this type of treatment continues to help. I know that I have read a lot of blogs and such on these sort of treatments and they don't seem to have a very long lasting effect on a lot of people but I seem to be having fairly good luck with it so far. Only time will tell. I'll update as things change for better or worse. Take care.

So glad the trigger point shots are working for you...I agree with Leesa try to do everything to stay from surgery if you can...believe me they usually come up with better methods to treat people, It took me over 3 years to find a "good" doctor who seems to get things done for me, so hang in there, and remember we are here for you...Silver

Unfortunately the trigger point injections have failed. I notified the Doctor and I go next week Tuesday to see about doing the facet joint injections. I guess that is one of the more invasive procedures the Doctor was referring to. I guess just doing the trigger point injections on the over active and very tight muscles was not the ticket to pain freedom. Apparently the facet joint injections go straight into the joints instead of the muscles themselves. I'll learn more next Tuesday.

Awww NUTS! I was hoping the trigger points would work. Well, maybe the facets will work. I had them, but they didn't work for me. None of the injections worked for me, but I'm VERY hard to medicate. My pain doctor got very frustrated with me, and eventually "fired" me. He just couldn't figure out anything that would help me anymore, so he just 'got rid' of me. Nice, huh?

I sure hope the facet injections are the answer for you. You've suffered long enough. Keep us posted -- I appreciate your updates. Take care & I'll be looking for your next update. Hugs, Lee

"Fired", really!? My step mother used to get injections as needed and they worked pretty well for her. (I am not sure if they were trigger or facet) They seemed to have lasted about 3 -4 months each time. Then her doctor passed away and the one that took his place could never get the injections in the same place and they haven't worked since. With that said, I believe it is not only how the patient reacts/accepts the treatments but also how well the doctor can administer them. I hope you have moved on and been able to find you a another doctor. Not all doctors have that "touch" and it is understandable that what may work on one person does not necessarily mean that it will work on another.

As for my latest update that had been delayed thanks to everything I have been involved with after Hurricane Issac. I had to postpone my appointment a week. I finally was able to go in and dicuss with the doctor the "next step" last Thursday. Turns out that he is going to bypass the facet joint injection because after we had talked for a while he feels that the pain and discomfort is more related to a nerve issue because of the disc bulging and herniation at C6 and C7. He said that if the trigger point injections would have provided relief for longer than they did then he would have still been thinking that it was muscle/joint related. Being that the trigger point injections barely lasted a week and then left me back where I was at prior to them, he said that the facet joint injections were probably not going to work or last either and has decided to go with the cervical epidural injection on the left side between C6 and C7 because that seems to be the location where the worst of my pain stems from. He said that by starting at the base of the cervical spine it allows for the medicine to flow upward and hopefully get to the C5, C6, and C7 disc and nerve areas fairly well. He said it should flow up higher as well but his main concern is C5, C6 and C7 right now. If this works and can provide at least 50-60% relief then it is something he would be willing to do again on the right side fairly soon after the first and hopefully provide me with enough lasting relief to keep me away from having to do surgery. Inevitably surgery is probably going to be necessary but I'm all for trying to prolong that as long as possible. This first epidural injection is scheduled for tomorrow 9/20. Lets see how that goes.