Post Injections

It probably does not mean a great deal either in a good or bad sense. These sensations could theoretically mean that nerve function is either improving or deteriorating and I would not be very concerned about subjective sensations in the first few days. You had quite a lot of night time waking with hand symptoms when I saw you and change in this is usually one of the better guides to whether it is working or not - if you are now sleeping through the night without problems that is a good sign. Change in the veins is not something that I recognise I'm afraid so I don't know about that. It would be interesting if anyone else who has had steroid injection and reads this were to comment. JB

OK Thankyou, I will wait and see over the next few weeks how things are when taking my splints off at night. Really nice of you to reply back. Thankyou very much! Very much appreciated.

Hello again,
Sorry it has been a while for the update. It has all been positive,!! I actually cant beleive that just a simple injection has worked so well.
My hands have not woken me at night at all and its been simply great all round!.
When i change gear the shooting pain never completly went, but i certainly was'nt getting it as much and as bad as it was before, I have to admit that those pains seem to be increasing again but not to a dramatic extent, and on the odd occasion for the past week or so i've had slight pins and needles sensations again going through my hands. but this is so slight it really makes no difference at all.
So i would really like to say a big THANKYOU so far so good.

Don't get too carried away - there is a pretty high probability that the problem will be back sooner or later. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that it is later. Whenever it does become a problem you are of course welcome to contact me on here.  JB

O.K Thankyou,

Hi there Dr Bland
I'm not sure if i might be being a little premature in contacting you, i would greatly appreciate your opinion.

I seem to have for the last week been slowly getting a few of my symptoms back i think. I have been waking up with pins and needles in my hands, although they haven't been as bad as they were before the injections to acctually wake me up at night. (and they do go much quicker than before) my lower right arm has been constantly aching and tense pretty much how it was before, and the neck ache seems to be coming back too. I seem to be getting more pains again going throu my left hand when changing gear. I have also noticed having a few more pains going through my hands during the day whilst working. and carrying my hand bag has started to become uncomfortable again. (i am starting to have to pass it from hand to hand again)
However the reason that i wonder if i may be premature in contacting you is, that the first main symptom that really caused me concern and alarmed me enough to contact the doctors in the first place hasn't acctually happened as yet ( the waking up at night with my hands feeling as though they were going to explode,and being like that for a good few hours).
Sorry for the esay, just wasn't sure how to explain and write it all.
Tanya

It may well be the start of it recurring. Unfortunately there is no good evidence based medicine to tell us what to do in these circumstances, ie we do not know whether it is better to re-inject early, wait for it to get worse, or give up and operate - so I am still collecting as much data as possible to try and help me decide in the future. What I would like to do in this particular case, as an experiment, is to re-inject early but to a large extent it is your decision. If you can call the SIPC office and get a date for injection and let me know when it is I will try to fit an appointment for another set of nerve conduction studies just before the injection. The other course of action would be to simply test again and discuss it with me in person.

If you want to try the early re-injection option just call the SIPC office to arrange it. If you would rather see me again first to discuss it then let me know and and I will try to arrange that. JB

O.K. Thankyou, I called them earlier today, so i will let you know when i hear back from them.

Hi dr bland
Just to let you know i have been booked in for the injections on the 20th april, however my hands seemed to have settled down a bit again now, so i'm thinking of canceling the appointment. as i dont want to waste anybody's time. in case it was just a little blip.

I wouldn't cancel until about 15th April I think - we always have people wanting short notice appointments so it won't be wasted. Give it a few more days to see how the symptoms are going. JB

Hi Dr Bland
I just thought i would and maybe should, let you know, that on friday i had my 6-8week post injection review after having the second injection back in april with dr waralow (charing surgery) who had injected me again.
He advised me over the phone that he thinks that having the op may well be the way to go, as my hands etc were great for a while after the injection, but over the last 2-3 weeks the symptoms seem to be slowly coming back. He offered to get me booked in for the next step, but i said that for the time being (hopefully) i feel that at the level that it seems to be, it seems quite liveable.
Whether i made the right decision, who knows.... But he did make me promise that as soon as i felt it was starting to get worse and harder to deal with, that i would get in touch with you straight away. I just know that at the moment it certainly isnt affecting me as badly as it did in the begining and that there may probably be other peolpe who may need the operation sooner than me, and felt as thou i should wait, but he did stress to me not to wait too long, in case it got that bad that it were to do some permenant damage.
So, i hope that is ok with you, That i would be able to contact you when it starts getting worse again.

I think it would help decision making if we knew which way your nerve conduction studies are going so at some point when it is fairly convenient we should test you again and see what the results look like. Sometime in July/August is probably about right. Another useful tactic is to repeat the severity questionnaire on here a few times with gaps of 4-6 weeks or so between them - helps to create a slightly more objective indicator of how symptoms are changing. JB

OK yeah i will do that, is there any chance i would be able to come in the week of the 23rd july i could make the tuesday thursday or friday, if thats helps at all, and will do the questionaire again asap.

I can't do 23rd July I'm afraid. Will probably have to be 9th August but I'll have a look at the diary on Thursday. JB