Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Dr.Jordan told me that the steroid is a milky substance that cristallizes when it dries. The dry residue can irritate the nerve.
It is also why Dr.Weiss was offering heparin injections instead which is a clear substance that can be repeated often.

Poppy wrote:Can anyone tell me exactly what is injected during a nerve block?

Some of the docs use kenalog but not all of them do. You would need to ask the doc.

Thanks. I had a severe reaction to Kenalog; vomiting and violent dizziness for 10 days

I'm certainly no authority on guided blocks, but I can give my own experience. I had one several years ago which was more diagnostic.

I've had 1 per month for three months, done in Baltimore. I felt some short term "hours" relief with two of them. Like most, my pain is constant. Several times a year I'll have brutal flares that will last a couple of weeks or so.

The last block I had was roughly 10 days or so ago. I hadn't been doing that well before, but I'm in VERY bad shape now. There wasn't a light switch increase in pain after this block, so I can't say that it directly caused my current condition. If I had to guess, though, I'd say it did.

I don't intend to do more. I don't see them being as being effective. If they've helped someone, somewhere, great.

I am not sure that the concoction of drugs (lidocaine and in my case steroids) has any adverse effect on the body. These are drugs injected everywhere. The lidocaine wears off very soon. Not sure how long the steroid lasts or if it helps at all. It's not the drugs injected you need to worry about, it's the procedure.

I had two cat scan guided CT injections by Dr. Howard Richard at the U of MD hospital in Baltimore. The first one caused my textbook PNE symptoms to go away for 14 hours. After that, back to previous condition: no improvement. When I went back for second, Dr. Richard expressed surprise that the 1st one didn't cure me.

After the second CT guided injection, my entire crotch area was dead as a doorknob and I became incontinent. This condition lasted 1 hour. Dr. Richard said he wasn't worried. After my crotch came back to life and I became continent, I had relief for a few days. However, my general condition was worse thereafter. I am sure some nerve was knicked causing the crotch deadening, etc.

No more CT Guided injections for me. Now I am scared they will further damage the nerve. Who has been cured by these shots????

Not sure if I've ever heard of anyone being cured in my 8 years of reading the forums but I have heard of a few people getting better. Have also heard of a few people getting worse though.

I had the pudendal nerve blocks done with kenalog and lidocaine. I had no pudendal pain, only pelvic pain and pain with intimacy, so the doctor wanted to block this nerve. I've had nothing but severe pain since the injection. I am numb in my butt cheek on the right side and have pain in the vulva area with shooting pains at times. My doctor offers me no explaination and says that these things just "happen". It just is a coincidence that the nerves chose to start misfiring at the same time I had my first nerve block done. I wish I would have never had it done.

I've been on this forum a long time, and no I do not have medical proof / explanation but I have seen several forum users over the years state that they were permanently worse after a nerve block. Somebody mentioned Dr. Weiss using heparin - I had a doc who did trigger point injections using lidocaine and B12 because, as he ambiguously put it, "sometimes steroids cause more problems than they solve." My nerve blocks, which included steroids, were routine (a week of flare, then a little better for awhile, then back to baseline)...but I do believe they injure some people. I have also not seen a nerve block cure andd i'm not sure in retrospect that they are worth the risk. While there is a diagnostic value:
1. The diagnostic part can be achieved with injection of lidocaine alone, and not steroid
2. The diagnosic feature is subjective (patient reports symptoms went away while temporarily numb) vs. objective, and so it won't help you much in being believed by your insurance or physicians. An objective test like an EMG / PNMLT will give you more credibility with less risk.

Im posting this again:

I recently had an injection that wasn't guided (not that i think it would have made a difference)-- and am having a terrible flare. My doctor, who is Debra Coady's partner, both well known pelvic pain specialists in New York City, said that she rarely has anyone flare and has never had anyone get worse long term from an injection?? Furthermore, my pelvic floor physical therapist Stacey Futterman, also well known, said she had never heard of anyone getting worse from an injection. Am I in the Twilight Zone? Their comments are so different from what i am reading on this site? i believed them and went ahead with the injection. I pray this is temporary and not a permanent state, but nothing is touching the pain right now.

Hi Bev,
No, I don't think you're in the Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, I can't explain where your MD and PT are coming from about their lack of knowledge of injection flares.
But maybe to help you rationalize the contradictions, you may have to separate your sources of information: The Injectors and The Injectee's.
What type of injection did you have? Was it for your hip? How long ago did you have the injection? Is this why you've been flaring since MARCH?????
I hope things calm down for you soon!
Kind regards,
Karyn