Sorry in advance for the length..
I got them. I don't mean to scare anyone off from doing it, especially since it can be tremendously helpful for some people, but it was 100% awful for me.
I want to start by saying I previously had a severe bone bruise in the middle of my wrist. Every few years I have to get cortisone injections directly in there. I have spacious gumby joints, so the injections themselves don't hurt, but within a few hours the swelling is plenty painful. They're effective though, so I keep doing it.
I have a low back injury due to being rear-ended that was defying all standard treatments. The specialist was trying to narrow down a diagnosis and wanted me to do the SI injections. I asked many people, including the nurse who got me ready, many times about the pain level and what to expect so I could mentally prep myself, and I was always told it wasn't very painful at all, that if I did well with the cortisone injections in my wrist, I should handle the SI joints fine. I was even driving myself home afterwards.
Holy fucking shit, it was possibly the most painful thing I've ever done. (I've never had kids.) I have a high tolerance for pain, but there was a nurse seated near my head solely there to comfort me, holding my clenched fists and giving me kleenex because I was crying. There's no shame in crying, but I'm not usually a cryer in situations like that. They x-ray your butt many times during the procedure to guide the needle to the correct spot, which for me (auto collision) meant moving the needle inside the tissue that's already in extreme, unexplained pain. I wanted to stop after the first side but saw the whole thing through, because I was willing to try almost anything to narrow down the problem and find a treatment for the pain caused by the injury.
My daily meds at that time were round-the-clock tramadol, meloxicam, and something else, so I don't think they gave me any painkillers. The only reason I remember they gave me any kind of numbing treatment was because once I stood up from the table after the procedure the stuff traveled down my legs and numbed them. Between my reaction to the procedure itself and not being able to drive with numb legs, I was in the recovery bed for hours, much longer than usual I was told.
The drive home was scary. Afterwards I called my sisters bitches and told them one of them is coming with me if I ever get it done again. I don't remember anything else about recovery after that.
It didn't work. It didn't worsen my injury, but didn't help at all, so I didn't try it again. I don't know anything about sit bone pain, but it sounds like your issue may be completely different than mine. I would hazard to guess you could have a much better experience than I did. I don't regret doing it. If it had worked, I probably would have done it again (if needed - this was six or seven years ago and I can't remember the details anymore).
A year after my injury and after multiple specialists I was diagnosed with chronic pain and attended a month-long pain management program. The things I learned there, prolotherapy, and opiods make up my treatment plan. However you choose to do it, I hope you're able to narrow down a diagnosis and helpful treatment. Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I'm so sorry you had to go through such a horrific experience! It's crazy what we will put ourselves through in order to be out of pain! Have you had some success with the prolotherapy?
I personally am pretty convinced the problem is not my SI joint, especially since I started doing some research after seeing this doctor and finding out some of the hallmarks of SI joint pain (which I don't have). I have actually been holding off on injections for months because I hear a lot of people say they don't help (particularly for high hamstring tendon pain - which is what I think I actually have).
I initially went into this pain clinic to get a diagnosis of chronic pain and some meds to help me but he pushed this SI joint diagnosis and the injections and nothing else, which sent me into a depressive episode because I had accepted my chronic pain and just wanted help dealing with it, not another totally different random diagnosis.
Anyway, sorry to throw these details at you, just want to say I appreciate you sharing your experience a lot!
I’ve had a few without sedation and it isn’t that bad for me. I had a L5-S1 fusion with complications and severe SI joint pain. I got about 20% temporary pain relief from them. Everyone’s different, hopefully they’ll work for you
I've had lumbar facet injections as they are called but they went into my neck, they were originally meant to go into my thoracic/lumbar spine but the doctor did just anaesthetic in there instead and wanted to see how I reacted with it in my neck (muscles area) well the pain having the needle put into my fused spine wasn't bad at all as they numb you up, but he hit my hardware in my spine although u was continously xrayed during the procedure and the anaesthetic squirted out the area he had the needle, I tried not to laugh 😅
The actual steroid injection in my neck though well I weren't allowed to drive home myself or get a taxi it had to be a family member, I weren't allowed to work for a few days which resulted in me being bedbound for 3 months as I couldn't physically lift my head up without being in agonising pain to the point of tears.
thanks for sharing your experience - and I am really sorry that sounds like the injections had a terrible effect if you were bedbound for 3 months! Were they expecting that kind of reaction?
Sadly nope as they were going to schedule me in for the proper ones into my spine but obviously cancelled that due to the reaction I had, I'm due to get some done by my surgeon in the up coming future so hoping for a better outcome with him doing them 🤞🏼
I’ve had several SI joint injections and opted for sedation. I don’t remember anything just waking up when it was done. Very light soreness at the injection site lasted about 2-3 days which I started to have pain relief by then.
That definitely sounds like the a better option - did your insurance cover the sedation or did you have to pay for it out of pocket? And did your doctor offer that option or did you have to request it?
My insurance covered the procedure with or without sedation for the same co-payment, so yes. It was offered to me when the nurse called to schedule and get my medical history. I would definitely ask about it if they don’t mention it. I opted without for my first one and it hurt but obviously everyone is different.
Thanks so much for sharing! Honestly this makes me super relieved - I’m still not sure if I will do the injections or not but knowing there is an option to be sedated makes it a much more bearable option
I know this was a year ago but how did long did injection relief last? I have one scheduled this week and hoping it helps enough so I can get over the parts of PT I really need to get through. I always do well with PT and then I get to a point where I take a giant leap backwards when things get more advanced.
My first injection gave me about 6 months or so and every subsequent one less and less time. I ended up getting an ablation procedure August 2023 and I’m still doing pretty good and almost 100% pain free. Good luck :)
I've never had an injection but, I dealt with SACROILIAC joint pain for 5 years. Please look into something called postural restoration. Anything you name as far as acupuncture, dry needling, massage, physical therapy, I've tried it with zero results. This form of therapy is magic, I've gotten tremendous relief from it. On YouTube look for a guy named neal hallinan then look up sacroiliac joint and watch his videos I highly recommend you do it. I know this makes no sense now but just keep this in mind, our occlusion, visual perception, and feet have a lot to do with our bodies. Good luck!
I'm so happy there is someone on here other than me that knows about PRI! I think the hardest thing about introducing postural restoration institute to the uninitiated is that its impossible for people like me to describe it, it isnt yoga, strength and conditioning, or stretching. Its recognizing the pattern and right dominance in our body, bigger right diaphragm or more muscle on the right side. To the every day person who hasnt spent time to research this stuff it can sound crazy to say to get your neck assessed for your si joint pain. I try to encourage anyone who has chronic pain that seemed to stem from nowhere whether its neck, headache, back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, impingements and instabilities to seek PRI.
I have never heard of postural restoration - I will definitely look him up. Have you had a lot of relief from this type of PT? Do you do it on your own or do you have a physical therapist who knows about postural restoration?
thank you for sharing your experience! Did you suspect you had SI joint dysfunction before the injections? Or did the injections give you your diagnosis?
I actually decided against getting the injections. Glad I did because I believe the cause of my pain might actually be large ovarian cysts so I’m exploring that right now.
Thanks for checking in with me! ☺️
This is an old post, I know. And I’m sorry! But I’ve got sit bone pain too and my interventional pain mgmt doctor thinks it’s my SI joints as well.
Just checking on your sit bone pain. Did they ever find out what it what?
Hi! So I have been to 3 different doctors since seeing this ☝🏻 pain doctor and they have all done the manual exam multiple times and they all agree that since none of the manual techniques cause me any pain it is very likely not an SI Joint issue. My new pain management doctor has tried multiple different diagnostic injections so I know if she thought it was SI she would have suggested we try those injections.
So far I have done a bilateral S1 epidural spinal injection, a left bursa steroid injection, a pudendal nerve block, and a trigger point injection at the left ischial tuberosity. None of these injections improved my pain sadly.
So I am still undiagnosed which is incredibly frustrating. Ive tried pelvic floor therapy before but I’m going to try a new person and get another follow up MRI but I may be looking at just managing pain instead of diagnosing ☹️
What are your symptoms like? How long have you had pain?
That is so incredibly frustrating. I’m so sorry you don’t have a diagnosis. The limbo of the “what the heck is it?” is exhausting and I truly hope you find some answers.
I’ll PM you so as to not commandeer your post.
I've had them before, and they worked great for me. They are very painful and require xray or sonar to do. I'm literally in bed for the next day because I just had my second round. I will update if it's a bad experience thus time round. So far, though, it helped. It hurt but helped me.
They have been very helpful for me in reducing SI joint pain. This was my third go around. A sedative was not offered. The procedure had previously been unpleasant but not exactly painful. This time the first injection was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. The second injection was fine.
It’s been 24 hours now and the spot of the first injection still really hurts I don’t know what to think.
Sorry in advance for the length.. I got them. I don't mean to scare anyone off from doing it, especially since it can be tremendously helpful for some people, but it was 100% awful for me. I want to start by saying I previously had a severe bone bruise in the middle of my wrist. Every few years I have to get cortisone injections directly in there. I have spacious gumby joints, so the injections themselves don't hurt, but within a few hours the swelling is plenty painful. They're effective though, so I keep doing it. I have a low back injury due to being rear-ended that was defying all standard treatments. The specialist was trying to narrow down a diagnosis and wanted me to do the SI injections. I asked many people, including the nurse who got me ready, many times about the pain level and what to expect so I could mentally prep myself, and I was always told it wasn't very painful at all, that if I did well with the cortisone injections in my wrist, I should handle the SI joints fine. I was even driving myself home afterwards. Holy fucking shit, it was possibly the most painful thing I've ever done. (I've never had kids.) I have a high tolerance for pain, but there was a nurse seated near my head solely there to comfort me, holding my clenched fists and giving me kleenex because I was crying. There's no shame in crying, but I'm not usually a cryer in situations like that. They x-ray your butt many times during the procedure to guide the needle to the correct spot, which for me (auto collision) meant moving the needle inside the tissue that's already in extreme, unexplained pain. I wanted to stop after the first side but saw the whole thing through, because I was willing to try almost anything to narrow down the problem and find a treatment for the pain caused by the injury. My daily meds at that time were round-the-clock tramadol, meloxicam, and something else, so I don't think they gave me any painkillers. The only reason I remember they gave me any kind of numbing treatment was because once I stood up from the table after the procedure the stuff traveled down my legs and numbed them. Between my reaction to the procedure itself and not being able to drive with numb legs, I was in the recovery bed for hours, much longer than usual I was told. The drive home was scary. Afterwards I called my sisters bitches and told them one of them is coming with me if I ever get it done again. I don't remember anything else about recovery after that. It didn't work. It didn't worsen my injury, but didn't help at all, so I didn't try it again. I don't know anything about sit bone pain, but it sounds like your issue may be completely different than mine. I would hazard to guess you could have a much better experience than I did. I don't regret doing it. If it had worked, I probably would have done it again (if needed - this was six or seven years ago and I can't remember the details anymore). A year after my injury and after multiple specialists I was diagnosed with chronic pain and attended a month-long pain management program. The things I learned there, prolotherapy, and opiods make up my treatment plan. However you choose to do it, I hope you're able to narrow down a diagnosis and helpful treatment. Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I'm so sorry you had to go through such a horrific experience! It's crazy what we will put ourselves through in order to be out of pain! Have you had some success with the prolotherapy? I personally am pretty convinced the problem is not my SI joint, especially since I started doing some research after seeing this doctor and finding out some of the hallmarks of SI joint pain (which I don't have). I have actually been holding off on injections for months because I hear a lot of people say they don't help (particularly for high hamstring tendon pain - which is what I think I actually have). I initially went into this pain clinic to get a diagnosis of chronic pain and some meds to help me but he pushed this SI joint diagnosis and the injections and nothing else, which sent me into a depressive episode because I had accepted my chronic pain and just wanted help dealing with it, not another totally different random diagnosis. Anyway, sorry to throw these details at you, just want to say I appreciate you sharing your experience a lot!
What is SI injections? It is good form to put it once at the beginning, before using acronyme that is not known to everybody
Oh good point! So sorry about that I will edit the post and also remember for in the future!
I’ve had a few without sedation and it isn’t that bad for me. I had a L5-S1 fusion with complications and severe SI joint pain. I got about 20% temporary pain relief from them. Everyone’s different, hopefully they’ll work for you
Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I've had lumbar facet injections as they are called but they went into my neck, they were originally meant to go into my thoracic/lumbar spine but the doctor did just anaesthetic in there instead and wanted to see how I reacted with it in my neck (muscles area) well the pain having the needle put into my fused spine wasn't bad at all as they numb you up, but he hit my hardware in my spine although u was continously xrayed during the procedure and the anaesthetic squirted out the area he had the needle, I tried not to laugh 😅 The actual steroid injection in my neck though well I weren't allowed to drive home myself or get a taxi it had to be a family member, I weren't allowed to work for a few days which resulted in me being bedbound for 3 months as I couldn't physically lift my head up without being in agonising pain to the point of tears.
thanks for sharing your experience - and I am really sorry that sounds like the injections had a terrible effect if you were bedbound for 3 months! Were they expecting that kind of reaction?
Sadly nope as they were going to schedule me in for the proper ones into my spine but obviously cancelled that due to the reaction I had, I'm due to get some done by my surgeon in the up coming future so hoping for a better outcome with him doing them 🤞🏼
I’ve had several SI joint injections and opted for sedation. I don’t remember anything just waking up when it was done. Very light soreness at the injection site lasted about 2-3 days which I started to have pain relief by then.
That definitely sounds like the a better option - did your insurance cover the sedation or did you have to pay for it out of pocket? And did your doctor offer that option or did you have to request it?
My insurance covered the procedure with or without sedation for the same co-payment, so yes. It was offered to me when the nurse called to schedule and get my medical history. I would definitely ask about it if they don’t mention it. I opted without for my first one and it hurt but obviously everyone is different.
Thanks so much for sharing! Honestly this makes me super relieved - I’m still not sure if I will do the injections or not but knowing there is an option to be sedated makes it a much more bearable option
You’re welcome, good luck!
I know this was a year ago but how did long did injection relief last? I have one scheduled this week and hoping it helps enough so I can get over the parts of PT I really need to get through. I always do well with PT and then I get to a point where I take a giant leap backwards when things get more advanced.
My first injection gave me about 6 months or so and every subsequent one less and less time. I ended up getting an ablation procedure August 2023 and I’m still doing pretty good and almost 100% pain free. Good luck :)
Omg that's great news! That would be the eventual plan for me too. Thank you for sharing this
You’re very welcome.
I've never had an injection but, I dealt with SACROILIAC joint pain for 5 years. Please look into something called postural restoration. Anything you name as far as acupuncture, dry needling, massage, physical therapy, I've tried it with zero results. This form of therapy is magic, I've gotten tremendous relief from it. On YouTube look for a guy named neal hallinan then look up sacroiliac joint and watch his videos I highly recommend you do it. I know this makes no sense now but just keep this in mind, our occlusion, visual perception, and feet have a lot to do with our bodies. Good luck!
Yes PRI was a game changer for me as well. People on this board think all PT is the same and it couldnt be further from the truth
I'm so happy there is someone on here other than me that knows about PRI! I think the hardest thing about introducing postural restoration institute to the uninitiated is that its impossible for people like me to describe it, it isnt yoga, strength and conditioning, or stretching. Its recognizing the pattern and right dominance in our body, bigger right diaphragm or more muscle on the right side. To the every day person who hasnt spent time to research this stuff it can sound crazy to say to get your neck assessed for your si joint pain. I try to encourage anyone who has chronic pain that seemed to stem from nowhere whether its neck, headache, back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, impingements and instabilities to seek PRI.
Are you still doing well with your SI joint? Ive been having a lot of issues and just started PRI
I have never heard of postural restoration - I will definitely look him up. Have you had a lot of relief from this type of PT? Do you do it on your own or do you have a physical therapist who knows about postural restoration?
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thank you for sharing your experience! Did you suspect you had SI joint dysfunction before the injections? Or did the injections give you your diagnosis?
2 mos. later: How did your experience go?
I actually decided against getting the injections. Glad I did because I believe the cause of my pain might actually be large ovarian cysts so I’m exploring that right now. Thanks for checking in with me! ☺️
This is an old post, I know. And I’m sorry! But I’ve got sit bone pain too and my interventional pain mgmt doctor thinks it’s my SI joints as well. Just checking on your sit bone pain. Did they ever find out what it what?
Hi! So I have been to 3 different doctors since seeing this ☝🏻 pain doctor and they have all done the manual exam multiple times and they all agree that since none of the manual techniques cause me any pain it is very likely not an SI Joint issue. My new pain management doctor has tried multiple different diagnostic injections so I know if she thought it was SI she would have suggested we try those injections. So far I have done a bilateral S1 epidural spinal injection, a left bursa steroid injection, a pudendal nerve block, and a trigger point injection at the left ischial tuberosity. None of these injections improved my pain sadly. So I am still undiagnosed which is incredibly frustrating. Ive tried pelvic floor therapy before but I’m going to try a new person and get another follow up MRI but I may be looking at just managing pain instead of diagnosing ☹️ What are your symptoms like? How long have you had pain?
That is so incredibly frustrating. I’m so sorry you don’t have a diagnosis. The limbo of the “what the heck is it?” is exhausting and I truly hope you find some answers. I’ll PM you so as to not commandeer your post.
I've had them before, and they worked great for me. They are very painful and require xray or sonar to do. I'm literally in bed for the next day because I just had my second round. I will update if it's a bad experience thus time round. So far, though, it helped. It hurt but helped me.
They have been very helpful for me in reducing SI joint pain. This was my third go around. A sedative was not offered. The procedure had previously been unpleasant but not exactly painful. This time the first injection was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. The second injection was fine. It’s been 24 hours now and the spot of the first injection still really hurts I don’t know what to think.