No, it's not pain management, it's anti-inflammatory--to relieve the nerve inflammation so hopefully the nerve can calm down. Meanwhile, the disk could recede (they tend to shrink down over time, the more herniated the more shrinkage due to blood supply issues) or even if it doesn't the nerve could stay calm anyway. These things are weird and tricky, and MRI results are not at all correlated with pain levels, but decreasing inflammation can "break the pain cycle" as it's called.
I haven't had time to do the research yet but I think the injections are effective somewhere around 50% of the time. Lower risk than surgery though, so it's worth a try to start.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-12-12 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 01:38 pm (UTC)I haven't had time to do the research yet but I think the injections are effective somewhere around 50% of the time. Lower risk than surgery though, so it's worth a try to start.
Fingers crossed. Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 11:44 pm (UTC)