Nerve block injection into spine

[Pother]

I'm awaiting an appointment for a nerve root block injection into my spine.

Feeling slightly gibberingly anxious about this. Don't think I should Google yet.

Can anybody tell me a bit more about it? Experiences, long-term/short-term consequences, anything it might help me to know?

No advice but I'm waiting for this too so interested in replies.

Feels like a bee sting going in. Multiple times.
I had my first set under attempted sedation, which failed. And my second set I just bit my tongue.
Was effective for about 6-12 months, and wore off slowly.

How soon after the injection were you able to return to work and activities?

It's honestly not so bad - I've had a couple under guided x-ray. Just take lots of deep breaths as they're doing it. Bear in mind that if you have sedation you have to stay longer afterwards. I just had local anaesthetic, which worked fine for me. It didn't work for me too well, but my back was badly smashed up, so it was always a long shot and really just a last ditch attempt to give me some relief as I waited for surgery. I had nice tea and biscuits in recovery afterwards though.

Odd how uneasy I am about this, seeing as I had no issues having an epidural!

I’ve had it a few times with and without sedation

If you have it under sedation, you go in to theatre lying on your back, they do the cannula and you come round in recovery

If you do it without sedation, they will ask you to lie on your front and fit a blood pressure cuff and finger pulse monitor

I got a little bit of of local anaesthetic which took 5 mins to take effect and then they went in with the bigger needle.
Unfortunately the nurse unwrapped it from the packaging in front of me, so my heart rate went through the roof but i didn’t feel any pain. Just a bit of pressure on the site.

I’m fairly sure they did they under x-ray guidance but I’m not aware of what that bit entailed...

When I had the sedated ones, I was taken back to a recovery bed and given a cup of tea and a sandwich (because you have to be nil by mouth beforehand)
As soon as I had eaten, drunk and had a wee, I was free to go. Probably 2 hours?

After the non sedated ones, I was free to get dressed and go.

I had one that didn’t work at all but the others helped for about 6 months.

The only downside is that I’ve got scar tissue build up now so can’t have any more

I can't lie on my front right now, because of the trapped nerve!

I'm having it under local.

Is it lumbar spine?

They might put you in an angled forward facing chair... a bit like a massage chair

I guess they could also lie you on your side like with an epidural but I’ve not had it done that way. I also don’t know if that would work with the x ray equipment