Epidural Injections: Pregnancy, Pain, and Pitfalls
An epidural is an injection used as an anesthetic to dull or eliminate pain in general or for a specific procedure, such as pregnancy. The word broken down literally means…
Epi – Above
Dur – Dura mater (the top, tough, fibrous layer of the meninges)
–Al – Pertaining to
Epidural – Pertaining to above the dura mater.
If you end up taking these injections on a regular basis, then it turns out you may be taking YEARS off you life! I don’t think that’s a trade that I’d want to make, seeing as how the injection itself could cause life-altering pain to the point where you may even think suicide is a more suitable solution. Now, that’s pain!
Epidural Injections
Now, let’s take a good look at these injections. There are two main “medications” on the market right now that have to to with stopping pain in joints, body-wide, or during pregnancy. The two medications are…
1. Kenalog (manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb)
2. Depo-Medrol (manufactured by Pfizer)
Neither of these epidural injections have ever been advised to be administered in or around our spine! Did you know that?! Did you know that you could be paralyzed for life? Did you know you could develop a fatal, life-ending stroke that could have your family scrambling to pay your funeral bill? If you are looking at this as a way to dull the pain of going through everyday life, you might be trading pain for a lifetime of family hospital visits and excruciating agony.
Think about this for just one minute. It’s a sharp obtrusive instrument (the needle) being jammed into a space near our spinal cord where there is sooooooooooo little room for error. One mistake and we could be on our deathbed sooner than we realize. Doctors know this and continue to do this to us. But WHY? Well, it’s good business.
I told you this really upsets me because I’m in this field and know exactly what the deadly outcomes will be for us and our families. Managing pain is one thing (and it IS super important), however, the side effect of trying to get rid of our pain this way could accelerate our death! Is anyone LISTENING??!! We are nothing more than a number on a chart. The MAs and doctors can hardly bring themselves to look at us in their offices. My guess is…they know they are not doing what’s in our best interest.
Case in point, last Thursday (June 11, 2015) I went to the doctor for swelling in a rather private area. I didn’t want to go at all, but my wife wouldn’t let me treat it on my own. So to put her at ease, I reluctantly headed to the doc’s office to slap down my $50 co-pay…what a f*cking racket that is. Anywho, I give a urine sample…it’s clean. I wait 15 minutes naked in the office for the doctor to get his lazy ass in here, but I fell asleep on the little table with the white paper on it. LOL The doctor and his PA came in to take a look at me, he put on gloves and started to examine me. I’ve never seen a 9 second exam done…UNTIL NOW!
He advised me to go get some over-the-counter Gold Bond powder, and I did. Turns out, the powder the doc recommended gave me a nasty rash. I’m allergic to the medication in the powder! F*CK ME! That made the swelling 10X worse and gave me a red, itchy rash. I was surprised they didn’t give me a prescription.
I was grateful for their time, but I paid 50 bucks to be no better off than when I went in! It’s frustrating. This system is horrible and I hate that I made myself a part of it…even on this small a level. If I break my leg, I’m going to the ER, but taking the medicine that goes along with it, I won’t be doing that. This f*cked up system has it’s uses, but if it’s not an emergency, I think we are asking to be voluntarily maimed.
There is no trust, which is the problem I have with doctors being able to buy medical equipment when they have NO formal training in an area of study. All any physician has to do to be able to give epidural injections is to go to a weekend training of 2 or 3 days, and they are “certified” to poke around our spinal column. F*ck that!
Arachnoiditis
Arachnoiditis is a condition in which the very strands of the spinal cord that send electrical impulses to our vital organs are inflamed to the point they cause mind-numbing pain and possible whole-body paralysis. If you inject one of the a fore mentioned drugs into the arachnoid space, this will be the outcome.
Even worse, if the doctor makes a mistake and injects the solution into a blood vessel, it could cause a fatal stroke in the brain! This is ridiculous to have a medically trained professional ignoring the recommendations of the manufacturer in the name of profit. I no longer let the medical system leach from me…now all I have to do is get rid of the insurance companies. LOL
Be back next time with a whopper for you. Later health nuts!
Alvin J