Spine Injections for Back Pain: My experience

Spine injections: Nerve root blocks, facet injections, and epidurals for a back injury. I’ve had them all. Unfortunately, my experience is that they won’t help you much if you aren’t settling your back pain and removing the cause(s).

Why don’t they work for a hurt back?

It’s not that they don’t flatten the curve of pain for some; the issue is it isn’t likely to help one heal due to the pain being gone; you think you can go back to normal daily life, lifting and carrying on. But then, as the injection wears off, the pain returns, and you’re worse off than ever. Meaning; It can actually prevent your healing and prolong your injury.

My Experience with Back injury

If I had used more common sense and properly assessed my pain triggers, as shown in Dr. McGill’s Back Mechanic, they might have lasted more than 2-3 weeks. But instead, I took “no days off” and continued to wind my pain up and ‘pick the scab’; when the pain returned, it was unbearable. In addition, as I discussed in Gift of Injury, I did one of the shots, but each time I received a shot, it was less effective.

Shots or no shots for a hurt back

I can’t tell you if you should get the injections or not; I have no idea what your injury is and what makes you feel better and worse. If you would like my advice for your situation, I can do my best to help you navigate with my experience with a Virtual Consult. But, I can tell you this: whether you get the shot(s) or not, you must do more than return to your normal life; there is no such thing as a magic cure. There is work to be done to heal properly.

Brian’s before and after MRI back injury

Spine injections for back injury will not heal spine damage like mine. Instead, removing the cause and slowly rebuilding is the only way to do it! Pain-free doesn’t mean healed!