i;ve just had first SI injection yesterday after 18months of lower back pain. I'd heard so many stories of people whose pain vanished instantly, and I was a little disappointed to find that mine had very little reaction, if anything even more painful than before. I wonder if any of the long sufferers on this discussion know if SI is the best treatment for lower back pain, or should I have been given the lumbar epidural steroid injection instead? I know that I have to give it up to two weeks to see if it will work so will have to wait and see I guess. Any advice or suggestions appreciated!
Hello Amber, I have had 4 injections. The first three took 3-10 days to take affect.
Give it a few days. It could take up to 5 days to get relief. I had mine 5 days ago today and i don’t have any relief, but my dr also said it could take 4-5 shots
Hi Nick, that sounds promising!
Ah no one mentioned that I would need several shots. Let me know if you find any improvement?
I actually have an appointment tomorrow morning to get an injection. But it was only a month ago that I had an SI injection and tomorrow I'm getting a lower back injection. I think one of the reasons the doctor decided on the SI joint injections is because some insurance companies won't cover lower back injections unless you have pain going down your leg. This may be the case with your insurance. This pain is called sciatica. It's a pinched sciatic nerve that causes the pain to go down the leg. At least that's what I was told when I asked them to instead of doing my SI joints to do my lower back. But now it's going down my leg so they've agreed to do my lower back. Over the many many years I have had injections I had one that actually took almost all my pain away for 9 months. I got off the opiates by tapering and I enjoyed a few months of no pain. Then slowly my pain came back which is the case with these epidural injections. I've never had an injection since then that has given me that kind of relief. And to be quite honest my doctor office has stated that I have to have a 50% Improvement in order for insurance to pay for another injection. That's according to my insurance. And when I had my last SI joint injection I didn't get any relief from it and I lied cuz my doctor told me that I have to have a 50% Improvement for insurance to cover another injection in the future. Insurance can be a real hitch.
I just had the SI injection because its the sciatic nerve being pinched as it passes through the sacroiliac joint. the steroid is injected in the cartilage to reduce the swelling of the cartilage so the sciatic nerve stops getting pinched.
That is interesting. I don't really know where the doctor was going with the needles in my case. But I assume it was to help control my arthritis pain that is in my SI joints. Because at the time I had no pain going down my leg.
I hope you get some relief from your lower back injection, to be honest I feel that would have been more effective for me, but I thought it best to leave it to them to decide, I do experience an ache in my upper thigh, but not pain running down my leg so I guess that's why I didn't get it. I don't have private insurance in UK so I just go on the NHS waiting list hence the long wait. I'm considering taking our private insurance if this continues...