Catscan with injections

[mocity]

I had surgery in 1989 for a S-curve. I have been having pain in my lower back which extends into my right hip and down my leg causing some numbness. I went to a surgeon and now they want to do a catscan in which they do dye injections so they can tell if there is something causing nerve damage. Has anyone had a procedure like this?

[SandyC]

Mocity,
Yes, I have. Actually several, both CT and MRI with injections. It is no big deal. It is done so that the doc can see the area that is a problem is visualized better. If you have rods they can distort the images, thus the dye injections.

[tommyo]

I've had this also, no problem. You can get a bad headache the first few days after if you are too active.

[mocity]

Well, I had this on Tuesday. No big deal but today I have a MONSTER headache. I stayed home from work yesterday and didn't have any problems. Today my head hurts so bad my vision is blurry.It was called a mylogram. (SP?) They said it was so the doc can see if any of my nerves are causing the pain.

[tommyo]

It's called a spinal headache. You were supposed to take it real easy for 2-3 days after. Ussually the headache subsides quickly if you immoblize.

[mocity]

I ended up having to go in last Friday and have a "blood patch" because the headaches were so severe. I could barely see, throwing up and I thought my head was going to explode. The relief was wonderdul. I couldn't believe something I thought was a minor procedure put me in that kind of pain. I have forgotten about the pain that caused me to be there in the first place. :-)

Tommyo, thanks for responding.

[BaDnOn]

Did they put dye in your spine or something? I had contrast injections for MRI and CT scans, but there was no headache.

-BadnOn

[saintdonnaface]

Are you talking about a discogram or myelogram?

I had surgery in 1989 for a S-curve. I have been having pain in my lower back which extends into my right hip and down my leg causing some numbness. I went to a surgeon and now they want to do a catscan in which they do dye injections so they can tell if there is something causing nerve damage. Has anyone had a procedure like this?

If you are talking about a discogram or myelogram, a discogram is where they inject dye into your disc to see which is causing you pain. There is much info about both procedures on the net and alot of it is scary.

After the test, you go to cat scat...but you may want to know more about it or what ever test you are taking before you get it.

I posted a question in the diagnostic procedures re: discogram but have had no answers yet. I am curious to know from peoples experience.

It sounds to me like you are talking about a discogram just from the little bit of info you provided.

For that test, you are awake and have to describe the pain you feel as they inject the dye. It provokes your pain so they know where it is coming from.
Most places usually give you versed to calm you during the test but it is very painful to hear most tell of it and you cannot have pain meds during the procedure. Some docs inject pain meds into the disc right after testing it and getting your response. And most say they don't remember much about the test but the pain. I don't know for sure.

My husband had one and it was very painful but he says only for the actual time they test the disc. At his test, they gave him the versed according to the charting records but no pain meds after...he had quite a high level of pain that took a good 5 days to taper off. I kept him on 10 mg. vicodin and tapered it off after the first few days.

I do know that the nurse that called the day before the test with instructions, told me not to tell him about the test and that ticked me off because it made it more scary to be told something like that with all that I had already read.

Do some research and ask detailed questions. The clinic where you are going for the test can put a nurse on to talk to you. The more you know, the better prepared you will be and if you are in pain all of the time, be prepared to have a decent pain med available for after the test at home. The IV pain meds they give you are not that good and the doc who did the test only gave
my husband darvocet. The surgeons office gave him the vicodin. And he did need it.

I hope this helps somewhat...For my husband, his problem was never surgically fixed. After almost two years of run around, and being told he did need surgery and to take this test to know which discs to work on, (workers comp stinks), the surgeon decided that he had too many levels of torn and leaking discs and just didn't think surgery was going to make him better.

Now the case settled, no fix, lots of pain still and no choice but he had to go back to work. We have a lifetime of going through all of it again in the future.
He is not getting better, but worse and he just deals with it by pain meds and fortitude.

[saintdonnaface]

gee I guess I missed the boat lol

I ended up having to go in last Friday and have a "blood patch" because the headaches were so severe. I could barely see, throwing up and I thought my head was going to explode. The relief was wonderdul. I couldn't believe something I thought was a minor procedure put me in that kind of pain. I have forgotten about the pain that caused me to be there in the first place. :-)

Tommyo, thanks for responding.

Sorry for the un-needed post. Guess I should have read further on down the line.

Hope you are feeling much better.

Take care.