I am considering pregnancy but have a multi level L-spine and hip injury from falling at work. Both cause major pain in left side all the way to foot. No treatment has helped. I have pain from my low back into entire left leg and also tingling into the foot.

Saw my GYN today and she said it would not be a good decision for me and would cause too much stress on a baby. She said I could have sciatica with normal pregnancy and my injury could complicate things more.

Any advice would be great
i have tried pt, meds, accupuncture, chiro, even an epidural…. it is hard to move, bend, sleep, no matter what i try to do

I have a lower back (lumbar) tattoo two inches just above the tailbone, and have been told numerous times that I will never be able to get an epidural when I become pregnant …

Is this just a myth? Or is there any truth to this?

Any anesthesiologists out there who can explain specifically why? And if you’ve still done one – depsite whatever "risks"

MRI showed that all my lumbar discs are degenerated far more than my age and that they are now all bulging. dr recommended an epidural guided by live xray. does anyone have knowledge or experience that would be helpful??

FRUSTRATED! 4yrs ago or so i visited an ortho that ran an mri and then handed me a referral told me he couldnt do anything for me… this was the largest ortho outfit in the city that handles the pro football players etc…. theyre all about marketing… why they wouldnt handle my disc injuries is beyond me.. im glad though because i couldnt understand the dudes broken english lol… anyway, i thought why is he sending me too pain mgt ie. pain pill mill…. they arent in any innovative in surgical techniques.. in fact, i had too obtain a printout from a pharmacist describing new meds like 15mg, 30mg oxycodone tabs that contain zero tylenol… the pain doc argued that i was wrong and that he was giving me 10mg tylenol loaded percocets 10x a day.. no way! he said they didnt make 15,30mg stuff.. anyway, im on 10 of the 15mg oxycodones a day and im tired of pills.. im tired of lyrika ( anti seizure med used for nerve pain) im tired anti inflammatories…. part of this is due too the fact that ive exhausted physical therapy, epidural injects, chiro care, and all im doing is graduating each year on pain meds to a stronger dose… ive been offered fentanyl,oxycontin, methadone, none of which i wish too endure… never! i dont know anymore if a pain pill clinic is for me? the top doc is an ortho surgeon and if you ask me, a man with a hammer will hit anything that looks like a nail… just like this dude,hes an awesome caring doc but hey, is surgery the answer? everyone ive met thats had back surgery, from laminectomies to minimally invasive laser disc jobs all are still eating pain meds and in pain….. how does a patient know what is best for treatment options? if i go too an ortho, he wants the knife… if i go too a pain clinic, they hand you oxycontin, if i go too a laser procedure joint, they will say laser me! is there really a way too heal and live a normal life after disc injuries? eating pain meds and visiting the doc for more rx’s is where im at… ive seen athletes come back and play pro football after disc injuries and i doubt they are living on oxycontin ea day… is their a solution of fix for disc injuries? surgery worries me, i know its just a 50/50 shot and they hope it works.. ive yet too see anyone say theyve had a successful procedure and quit pain meds… so do i accept that im on pain meds for the rest of my life and live with it?

i would like too get in a gym and exercise, aerobics, light weights? is this out of the question? working out/exercising and bodybuilding was daily thing for me.. i competed and now here i sit… woohooo! percocets! o boy! any atheletes out there?

Want to hear personal experiences about how bad the pain was or if it wasn’t as bad as you had anticipated. Please, No "everyone is different" answers. I know this already. I’m considering natural birth as after many low back injuries, an epidural might not work for me. I was in very good physical shape before pregnancy and have endured horribly painful periods my whole life, so I’m no wuss. Please also rate your pain experience a 1-10 (10 being the most excruciating pain). Thanks everyone.

Long story short I have a herniated disc at C 5-6 and am in a lot of pain. I have had several trials of anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxers, OTC pain relievers and now percocet but am still in a lot of pain. I have recently started physical therapy and have seen a regular orthopedist, a neurologist and a spinal specialist. I had one epidural cortisone shot and they tried a second but they couldn’t get the placement of the needle right because the space was too small and as per the doctor I "moved". I had no relief from the first shot which is why they attempted the second one. There is some nerve impingement which is primarily affecting my right arm/hand/shoulder. As my luck would have it I am right handed. The spinal specialist I saw on Friday suggested that surgery may be a very good option if the PT does not work. I of course am scared but at this point I want to do absolutely anything. I mentioned this to my mother who has now "consulted" with other family members who all say I should not do this, that this would be horribly painful and open me up to many other problems. That the rehab would be absolutely worse than how I feel now. I cannot even make a real decision about this until I switch to an insurance company that would cover the spinal speciatlist I saw on Friday. This insurance will not take effect until January 2009. He is one of the leading MD’s for spinal surgery in NYC and I felt like he gave me some hope that there is an option. I also feel confident in his abilities and that he was not sellilng me some line to open me up. At this point I am having a terrible time coping with the pain and I am feeling very hopeless and depressed. I have been in constant pain for nearly 3 months and I feel like I am losing my mind. Every aspect of my life has been affected and it is only getting worse. How can I deal with this? Do I have other options besides PT and possibly surgery? How long should I try PT before making a decision like this? Would surgery make me worse? At this point I don’t know what to do and I feel like I am at the end of my proverbial rope.

For about 2 months now I have been having pain on the right side by the waist area and back. It started off on the right side by the waist and the back and then now it is on my right leg. I did 2 abdominal cat scans. One showed liver enlgarged and the other (done with contrast) showed normal. At first one of the liver enzymes were slightly elevated but then a couple of weeks later they were not. However the sonogram showed liver enlarged. A few doctors said that the pain can be from a pinched nerve from the back but the MRI showed normal. Can it still be a pinched nerve from th spine even the the MRI was normal? I went to a neurologist and they said I should do an EMG to find out if it is a nerve pain or not. They also said that it can be from the epidural I took when I was in labor for my 4 months old son. The GI said that the enlarged liver can be from the pregnancy. Is this true? I am confused about all this. IF anyone has any suggestions let me know. Thanks.

I had my daughter August 2006. I had to have an emergency C section so I had to have an epidural. I know its normal for them to cause back pain on and off the rest of your life and the back pain is starting to get worse.

Well I guess really what my question is what are some things you do to get rid of the paid an epidural causes or just normal back pain? I don’t like to take pills so i’m trying to find natural ways to make the pain go away.

it’s killing me right now. i’ve lived with it for about two years…i believe that i "got it" if you will, when i had an epidural for my second child. or maybe it was when i was pregnant and waiting tables…whatever the case, i’m hurtin’. (
pain medicine sometimes helps, but what else can i do to relieve my pain. and can i get rid of this? thanks for your help.
right now, it hurts when i take a step with my right leg.–stop walking, no, i can’t. and sometimes it just hurts if i move wrong. it’s in both sides of my lower back. what’s a girl to do? thanks again.
without money to afford to see a chiropractor and proper insurance i cannot go. that was the obvious answer i knew i was going to get…so, now that that is out of the way.

My son is 4 months old, and I still have horrible back pain at times. Most of the time it’s a dull ache across my whole lower back, but at other times, it locks up completely and I can barely move.

Is this normal, and if so, when can I expect it to go away?

I did have an epidural, about 5 monutes before they decided to do a c-section, so it was really pointless. The pain is not in the same spot that they put the needle in.

Or maybe a brain injury due to the epidural?
This happened to me. That is y i’m asking!
How can this be impossible? It HAPPENED to me! I had a subdural hematoma. And it was from pushing! Anything is possible! Obviously!

I sure would appreciate it. I’ve had 2 out of 3 epidural steroid shots, with only 2-3 days of slight relief. I’d be interested to hear anyone’s experience and thank you!

Last March I had surgery for hernaited disc, in Dec, i started having the same pain as i had before surgery, had a MRI, Dr stated i had scar tissue around the verterbrae, that is pressing on the nerve, i will be having an epidural this week will this help the burning pain in my right leg