Facet Joint Injection

[frostyfingers]

I'm having this procedure next week to try and relieve back pain caused by a riding fall - no obvious damage shows up on either MRI or Xray so this is a bit of an educated guess to try and sort it. Does anyone have any experience of it, ie how much it hurts, how long it takes to recover and how successful it is. I'm having nightmares about it already!

I've been referred for this so I will watch with huge interest. My MRI did show some arthritis in two of the joints. I'm really hoping it helps.

bump - I had a nightmare about waking up paralysed last night, and there's still a week to go!

From what I've read it's really safe, but the recovery afterwards does worry me a bit. (And how long it lasts)

I have these every year. Everyone is different but they give me about 3 - 6 months relief from the constant pain. The procedure itself is uncomfortable. You will probably be offered gas and air but I don't bother. They will inject some local first which stings and then the steroid. To be honest the nerve blocks I have are worse than the facet joints. I usually find I'm quite sore for a day or two after. Don't worry about it though and don't read all the horror stories on the internet. Hope it all goes well.

What sort of waiting list do you both have? I have no idea how long I have to wait. It would be amazing to have that kind of relief.

I saw the consultant at the beginning of December and my appointment is next week - it came through last week. I'm hoping it does do the pain for me - 14 months so far......

Its probably going to be a long wait then.

I hope it does help you.

Well I'm back and still walking! It wasn't exactly pain free, but tolerable - although I'm not convinced he waited long enough for the local to take effect as I leapt about a foot off the bed when he tried injecting me properly! That's wearing off now and it feels a bit like I've been hit really hard in the back, achy and stiff but hopefully that will clear with some pain killers. That moment when the anaesthetic numbed it all was bliss - pain free for the first time in over a year!

Up to a week for it to take effect I'm told, and then back to consultant for a check up.....

So, it was manageable? Well done! did you get anything to help you relax or was it just straight in with the anaesthetic?

Straight on the bed, face down, bit of "left a bit, right a bit" presumably as they fixed the x ray, cold stuff to sterilise and then a nice nurse took my hand (I did grip it quite hard and although I wasn't very vocal I wasn't silent!) and he was off. It only took about 10 mins, start to finish then I was given a cup of tea and a biscuit, waited 30 mins and set free.

It hurts quite a lot today, probably because I've had to muck out 2 horses and walk the dogs - I'm going to rest for the remainder of the day, then do the horses again this evening. It can aggravate the symptoms before it starts to take effect - around a week seems to be when I should notice improvement. I really hope it works!

I do these as part of my job. not scary at all and all done very quickly :)
there's lots of things that I do/see that I wouldn't deal with but I could cope with this!

I do these as part of my job. not scary at all and all done very quickly :)
there's lots of things that I do/see that I wouldn't deal with but I could cope with this!

Just found this thread, god to hear it was not too traumatic and will look forward to hearing how it works over the next few weeks for you. I have chronic back pain and this may be considered before going for spinal fusion so good to hear it is manageable.

Good luck the next few weeks.