Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro, I am so so so very sorry! I can't imagine the pain you went through and the lack of concern for your modesty, comfort and mental health just makes me crazy. You should send the letter you wrote to us to the hospital, doctor and anyone else involved. This reminds me of when Joyce Dalton went through her surgery without anesthetic. I can't imagine anything more barbaric. Rest, rest, rest and do something wonderful to treat yourself when you feel up to it. They say it takes seven positives to undo a negative. After this experience I think you might need 14! Take care dear friend- R. (53) Sarcoid/PF 3/2006 Carlsbad, California Subject: LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 9:36 AM Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro As one familiar with the area in which you live, I can assure you there is no local hospital there I would have gone to. Maybe Memphis, possibly , more likely if it was anything I could, Tulane or as you did to UAB. It's sad actually. So many good people in areas like the delta or Mississippi who deserve better in so many regards. Education and medical care being at the top of the list. > > From: Carolyn Wade carowade4444@... > Subject: LSEI on Friday > To: Breathe-Support > Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 9:36 AM > > > > > Hi all, > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell > me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient > surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite > with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for > me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it > was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. > They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am > going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > Caro > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > Mississippi > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Sometimes we all have to vent. Beverley LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 9:36 AM Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks MB!! You got that right. I am still sitting here tearing up. Every time I even think about it. I guess I am having such a hard time dealing with this cuz I have never had a physician treat me so badly. I actually felt like he was treating me like I had messed his golf schedule or something because I was an add-on and he just wanted to see how fast he could get me out of there. I actually had a thought, though. Dr. deAndrade in Birmingham (who I love so much) had said that he wanted me to schedule me to see a rheumatologist in Birmingham when I go back in July. I do medical transcription for a rheumo in Indiana and he gives epidural injections for patients with back pain who have autoimmune and rheumatoid disease. I was wondering if maybe I could just call Birmingham ahead of time and tell them I would rather see rheumo there and I could just get my pain meds from there instead of having to deal with this physician here (and I just the term loosely) who treated me so horribly. Do you think I should give it a shot? This pain physician here won't even consider increasing my Lorcet from 1-1/2 tabs a day (10/650 mg) even when I call and tell them I am still in pain and need more pain meds. It's like he doesn't even care and I stay in pain every freaking day and it's only getting worse. I guess I could call Dr. deAndrade next week and leave a message and go from there. Maybe he can schedule me to see a rheumo the same week I am coming to see him in July anyway? What do you guys think? At this point, I think anything would be better than going back to the pain clinic or hospital here. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 1:03:27 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks MB!! You got that right. I am still sitting here tearing up. Every time I even think about it. I guess I am having such a hard time dealing with this cuz I have never had a physician treat me so badly. I actually felt like he was treating me like I had messed his golf schedule or something because I was an add-on and he just wanted to see how fast he could get me out of there. I actually had a thought, though. Dr. deAndrade in Birmingham (who I love so much) had said that he wanted me to schedule me to see a rheumatologist in Birmingham when I go back in July. I do medical transcription for a rheumo in Indiana and he gives epidural injections for patients with back pain who have autoimmune and rheumatoid disease. I was wondering if maybe I could just call Birmingham ahead of time and tell them I would rather see rheumo there and I could just get my pain meds from there instead of having to deal with this physician here (and I just the term loosely) who treated me so horribly. Do you think I should give it a shot? This pain physician here won't even consider increasing my Lorcet from 1-1/2 tabs a day (10/650 mg) even when I call and tell them I am still in pain and need more pain meds. It's like he doesn't even care and I stay in pain every freaking day and it's only getting worse. I guess I could call Dr. deAndrade next week and leave a message and go from there. Maybe he can schedule me to see a rheumo the same week I am coming to see him in July anyway? What do you guys think? At this point, I think anything would be better than going back to the pain clinic or hospital here. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 1:03:27 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. NasturtiumsDon't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 OK, you girls have me scared now! I have 4 herniated discs in the cervical and 2 more in the thoracic portion of my spine. I'm scheduled to have an interlaminar epideral steriod injection in the right C-7 T-1 on Weds. After reading your experience, Caro, I'm not sure if I should do it. The doctor has said because he'll be working in the cedrvical spine, he won't do it in his surgical suite in his office. He will only do it in the hospital. I hoping that I'll have a much better time of it. Nan 49, MASS listed started in '82 PF '08 > > OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! > I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. > I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! > I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. > > MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. > Nasturtiums > Don't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! > > LSEI on Friday > > > > > > Hi all, > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > > Caro > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > Mississippi > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 OK, you girls have me scared now! I have 4 herniated discs in the cervical and 2 more in the thoracic portion of my spine. I'm scheduled to have an interlaminar epideral steriod injection in the right C-7 T-1 on Weds. After reading your experience, Caro, I'm not sure if I should do it. The doctor has said because he'll be working in the cedrvical spine, he won't do it in his surgical suite in his office. He will only do it in the hospital. I hoping that I'll have a much better time of it. Nan 49, MASS listed started in '82 PF '08 > > OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! > I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. > I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! > I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. > > MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. > Nasturtiums > Don't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! > > LSEI on Friday > > > > > > Hi all, > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > > Caro > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > Mississippi > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 OK, you girls have me scared now! I have 4 herniated discs in the cervical and 2 more in the thoracic portion of my spine. I'm scheduled to have an interlaminar epideral steriod injection in the right C-7 T-1 on Weds. After reading your experience, Caro, I'm not sure if I should do it. The doctor has said because he'll be working in the cedrvical spine, he won't do it in his surgical suite in his office. He will only do it in the hospital. I hoping that I'll have a much better time of it. Nan 49, MASS listed started in '82 PF '08 > > OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! > I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. > I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! > I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. > > MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. > Nasturtiums > Don't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! > > LSEI on Friday > > > > > > Hi all, > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > > Caro > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > Mississippi > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks so much Mama Sher!! I just felt like I caught every hug and I am here right now with tears of joy streaming down my face!! I love everyone of you so much!! You have all made me feel so much better just by being there!! I hope I can do the same for all of you, being there I mean, cuz I would never ever wish a day like Friday even on my worst enemies!!! CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 1:36:19 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. NasturtiumsDon't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT! !! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/ DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks so much Mama Sher!! I just felt like I caught every hug and I am here right now with tears of joy streaming down my face!! I love everyone of you so much!! You have all made me feel so much better just by being there!! I hope I can do the same for all of you, being there I mean, cuz I would never ever wish a day like Friday even on my worst enemies!!! CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 1:36:19 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. NasturtiumsDon't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT! !! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/ DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thank you MB! I guess you're right. I should thank my lucky stars that I'm fortunate enough to live where I do. I've only met this doc once. But, before even seing him, I spoke with others who he's treated. I also checked with the medical board of registration. He has very high marks from my primary, too. I think I'll remain a bit nervous until after it's done. (this is the first injection) But, you're right. Things are different in Mass. Nan, MASS Listed started in '82 PF '08 > > > > OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! > > I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. > > I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! > > I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. > > > > MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. > > Nasturtiums > > Don't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! > > > > LSEI on Friday > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV > for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said > so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done > on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT! !! > > > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he > says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going > to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP > is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another > pain physician and I won't be back. > > > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > > > > Caro > > > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/ DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > > Mississippi > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thank you MB! I guess you're right. I should thank my lucky stars that I'm fortunate enough to live where I do. I've only met this doc once. But, before even seing him, I spoke with others who he's treated. I also checked with the medical board of registration. He has very high marks from my primary, too. I think I'll remain a bit nervous until after it's done. (this is the first injection) But, you're right. Things are different in Mass. Nan, MASS Listed started in '82 PF '08 > > > > OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! > > I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. > > I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! > > I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. > > > > MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. > > Nasturtiums > > Don't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! > > > > LSEI on Friday > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV > for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said > so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done > on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT! !! > > > > This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he > says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going > to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP > is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. > > > > That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another > pain physician and I won't be back. > > > > I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! > > > > Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! > > > > Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. > > > > Caro > > > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/ DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > > Mississippi > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Caro sorry to read about your terrible experience Pink Joyce IPF 3/06 Pennsylvania Donate Life Listed 1/09 inactive 4/09 www.transplantfund.org--- Subject: Re: LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:03 PM Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 i had the opposite reaction to epidural steriod shots -- they turned out to be wonderful -- unfortunately, they only masked the pain for about 2 weeks each time and i needed surgery, but for 2 weeks, i had no pain in my back, it was great Pink Joyce IPF 3/06 Pennsylvania Donate Life Listed 1/09 inactive 4/09 www.transplantfund.org--- Subject: Re: LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:36 PM OMG Caro...what can I write that would be of any help whatsoever! I can imagine what you went through because I was with my daughter when she was going to give birth....long story short, what you describe, for her too. She let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard outdoors. That poor kid cried and begged him to stop...it was awful and mama stood there, frozen with fear for my child. I'm so glad that is over for you Caro. Lysa says she too, will NEVER have another epidural! I sent you big mamasher hugs and pray for your complete recovery from this ordeal. MamaSher; 70, IPF 3-06, OR. NasturtiumsDon't fret about tomorrow, God is already there! LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT! !! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/ DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks Pink. I am glad it is over, too. Well, tomorrow is another day and maybe it will be a better one. At least I am not in tears for the moment, so that is a good thing!!! CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 6:35:57 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday Caro sorry to read about your terrible experience Pink Joyce IPF 3/06 Pennsylvania Donate Life Listed 1/09 inactive 4/09 www.transplantfund.org--- Subject: Re: LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:03 PM Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks Pink. I am glad it is over, too. Well, tomorrow is another day and maybe it will be a better one. At least I am not in tears for the moment, so that is a good thing!!! CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 6:35:57 PMSubject: Re: LSEI on Friday Caro sorry to read about your terrible experience Pink Joyce IPF 3/06 Pennsylvania Donate Life Listed 1/09 inactive 4/09 www.transplantfund.org--- Subject: Re: LSEI on FridayTo: Breathe-Support Date: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:03 PM Caro, I'm certainly glad that horror show is over for you. What a nightmare. Hopefully things will settle down in your life. You could use some peace and quiet for awhile couldn't you? Hugs, Beth Moderator Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 Dermatomyositis 11/08 To: Breathe-Support Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2009 12:36:14 PMSubject: LSEI on Friday Hi all, I want to tell you all what happened to me on Friday when I went for my 3rd lumbar steroid epidural injection. First of all, my mom was coming to drive me home and spend the night to make sure I was okay before leaving on Saturday and my dad was driving through on Friday, so on Thursday (the day I told you all I tried to be superwoman), I had made lunch for us all so we could eat after the injection was done. Well, I got up on Friday morning thinking that I knew I was going to have a big lunch so I would eat a small breakfast. Went straight the coffee maker just like everyday, drank my 2 cups of coffee and ate a half a bowl of Special K. Get to the pain clinic and the first thing they ask me is have you had anything to eat? WHAT WAS I THINKING? This IS the 3rd one I was getting and I KNEW you are not supposed to eat or drink 6 hours before the procedure. I don't know where my mind was when I got up on Friday. Well, they tell me they can't give me an IV for sedation since I ate at 6 a.m. (It was 10 a.m. then). Ok, they said they could do it under local and he would rub something on my back to numb it before giving the injection. I told them I would try. Either that or reschedule and my mom had to drive nearly an hour to get there plus I had to take another day off work for the procedure and I am really running out of paid time off. Well, the longer I sat on the table waiting for him to get in the room, the more nervous I got. By the time they got in there to do the procedure, I was sitting on the bed shaking and they asked me was I cold? I said no, I am nervous. Blood pressure was 145/90 (not too high, but high for me. Mine is usually around 118 to 120/60). He said if he gave me injection in this shape, I would pass out, so I could either reschedule or I could go to the hospital and he would be over there at 1 p.m. and he could do it there as outpatient surgery. Ok, I opted for the hospital like I said so my mom would not have driven all the way for nothing and I wouldn't have to miss another day of work, which would be without pay. I get to the hospital at 11 a.m. They put me in the preop suite and immediately start an IV (which I totally have ANOTHER huge bruise from). After about 1/2 bag of normal saline, I had to make 3 or visits to the restroom and by then it was 12 noon. Between 12 noon and 1 p.m, I started watching the clock on the TV again, getting more nervous by the minute, as the last injection I had in the office they did sedate me, but there was a lot of pressure and I had about 4 or 5 days of really bad back pain after it was over and I wasn't looking forward to it. At 1 p.m., they wheel me up to the OR and put me in a holding area. Turns out, he only has 2 outpatient epidurals that day. Lucky for me (HA!!), I get to actually sit straight across from the OR suite with actual WINDOWS on the door and I can watch the entire procedure done on the lady who went in before me. First thing I notice is that the first 2 procedures I had in the office were done with me sitting on the edge of the table with my back exposed. This one he was going to use the fluoroscopy machine since I was going to the hospital and he could get a deeper injection so I see the lady before me is lying on her stomach. Well, seemed like 5 minutes after she went in there, she gets wheeled out and asks the nurse, When is he going to give my injection? I am thinking, great this is going to be a breeze. Ok, I will be alright then, sedated, in and out and I can deal with the stiff back and soreness for a week when I get home. NNNOOOTTTTT!!! This is how my procedure went: They wheel me into the OR suite. I am fully awake. They ask me to get on the procedure table with 2 pilllows underneath my stomach, kind of in a jack-knife position (they said). Felt more like doggy style to me!! They (before any sedative), they throw my gown up exposing my bohunkus to everyone in the room which was about 4 or 5 people). Then the doc gives me another pillow and says I can hug it if I want, which actually turned out my head was buried in it and I couldn't breathe. I look over at the monitor and by now, my BP is up to 156/110. Then I see the doc pick up a vial and I bury my head in the pillow again and I hear him ask the nurse, do you see that? She said, yeah, looks like the seal is broken. He said, well I guess it is good. Then he say to me, here is your first sedative. As you he gave it to me my heart started racing so fast, I was just thinking, this is it. This is the end for me. I am a goner!! Then he says, here is the second sedative. As soon as he gave me the second one, my head pops straight up and I am EVEN MORE WIDE AWAKE, looking around the room and he starts shoving a needle in my back which I felt every inch of and I burst into tears, then he starts yelling, picture, picture, give me a picture, and injects me another time, then says ok, I am done. They wheel me out into the recovery suite and I promise you I had less pain delivering all 3 of my children if you added all the pain together from the 3 of them. We get in the recovery room, and the attendant who wheeled me in there says, there is no nurse. So, she leaves me there crying with no one in the room (I mean no one, no healthcare providers and no patients, just me with pain and tears). Finally she brings in a nurse and she says, Hi I am I am going to be your nurse. Why are you crying? The attendant tells her I just had an epidural and it was more painful than I thought it was going to be. The nurse says, HUM??, we usually don't have to give Dr. Aziz's patients a sedative!! Going back to my first injection in the office, I was told the 3 main side effects to watch for are sudden excruciating headache (which would mean spinal fluid leak), numbness in the back or radiating down the legs (which could indicate possible paralysis), or blood leakage (internal hemorrhage). No more than 5 minutes after I was given the second sedative, I got what felt like the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. Told the nurse when she finally got there, and she says, ok, we are going to let you go in about 20 minutes!!! Then 5 minutes later, my back starts getting numb and my whole right side goes numb. I asked her was my side supposed to go numb like that (it didnt' the first 2 times). She sayt, well it might cuz he did inject your spine!! Still, they don't call the doctor or anything. They wheeled me back downstairs and I get down there and my BP is still 136/90, still have a headache pounding, but the numbness was a little better. It had gone from being on the entire right side to just my right thigh and calf. They said if I could wiggle my toes and stand on my foot, I could go home. Still no one calls the doctor. I am still in tears and my mom is throwing a fit saying she is not letting me leave there until she knows I am okay. Then the nurse comes in insisting I drink something. I told her I didnt' want anything. (I was actually just thinking, ge me the hell outa here!!) Finally I gave in and she brought me some water. As soon as I drank a sip I felt like I was going to throw up. The nurse says, oh, that's not good. Then she looks at my mom and says, well, you can go get the car and drive around and I will wheel her out and she can go home. That was it. My third and last epidural injection I will EVER have in my life!! I don't care if I have to take 50 pain pills a day. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER go through that again. I have cried the entire weekend. I can still barely walk and can't bend over much at all. My back is still throbbing. My boyfriend, , called last night and I was still crying with pain. He told me to call an ambulance or go to the ER, but I didn't want to go back to that hospital for anything, so I just doubled up on my Lorcet to try and make it through the night and slept on a heating pad. I have probably slept maybe 5 hours all weekend (I doubt it) and I am totally miserable. said I thought they were supposed to be giving you something to help you not make you worse. Yeah, me, too. I think I am going to call the pain clinic in the morning (as my discharge instructions said to follow up with the pain clinic), and I am going to tell them I am going to find another pain physician and I won't be back. I am sorry this is so long. You all are my best friends and I just had to vent!! I felt like he didn't give me any sedative at all for this procedure even knowing how nervous I was about the procedure anyway. Why didn't he just knock me out and then do it? I am still sitting here in tears even as I type this just reliving it on the PC. I have never in my life had so little faith in a physician. I thought my lung biopsy was a nightmare but it was a party compared to this!! Thank you all so much for listening and I don't know what I would do without you!! I am so happy I am still here to even be typing this cuz I definitely thought Friday was going to be my last day anywhere!! Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We have had tornado warnings all night last night and all day today. Hopefully the storms will ease up soon. It is definitely a day I feel like sleeping all day, but am still in too much pain to sleep. CaroOSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09Mississippi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Caro, That is terrible. I hope you feel better. Marcia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Caro From what you describe it sounds much like a typical pressure change from a spinal tap or, in this case, injection. If thats the case, moving and doing the least possible until the headaches clear would probably be wise. I'd encourage you to call his office and discuss what's going on and get advice. The last time I was with someone who experienced this it took her nearly a week. I know the headaches can be quite severe. > > Thanks Marcia. I am beginning to be able to move a little faster today, but I am still getting really bad headaches off and on and hot flushes that just make me pour sweat for no reason and then a few seconds later it is over. They were really horrible all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They started spacing out a bit yesterday and today so far I have had about 4 episodes all day so is getting better. I am wanting to clean the house but I have to keep telling myself that I will regret it if I don't give myself a few more days to recoup. I am still getting sharp burning numbing pain in my lower back that shoots down my leg and they are off and on, too. I didn't have any of this with the first 2 injections. I don't know if it is happening this time because he said he did it under fluoro to get a deeper injection into the nerves or not. I swore Friday I would never get another one and I still may not, but IF or when I ever > do, I will be totally asleep before he touches me!! > Caro > > OSTEOARTHRITIS 2002, COPD 02/06, IPF 08/07, UIP 01/08, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 03/08 SJOGREN SYNDROME 07/08 POLYMYOSITIS/DERMATOMYOSITIS 03/09 CANCER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN 03/09 > Mississippi > > > > > ________________________________ > From: " Chatty_katt3@... " chatty_katt3@... > To: Breathe-Support > Sent: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 4:04:08 AM > Subject: Re: LSEI on Friday > > > > > > Caro, That is terrible. I hope you feel better. Marcia > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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