the discogram was a breeze. a total cake walk. BUT, the pain afterwards is horrible. i cant even sit down. feels like grinding in my back. every move is painful. they gave me demerol but it last like 30 minutes.
MEL,
do not worry about the discogram itself. they put you to sleep and i couldnt believe it was already over. nurse said i was talking crazy and she was having fun with me. just be sure to have your pain meds. DONT RUN OUT EARLY.
josh,
you were right. discogram was nothing. thanks again for confinence.
thanks Jay! I am to see PM on Tuesday, so hopefully he will give me a script (he is also the one who will do my discogram). You have set my mind at ease and I am very glad it went well!
glad to hear you made it. I think the worse part is when they talk to you beforehand and tell you what they are going to do and what might happen. They scare you to death so when they do it, you're like "oh, thats it" you get off the table and you're out of there.
The pain afterwards for me was uncomfortable, but i was already used to it so i didn't notice or care.
WOW!!!! If I have another Discogram done (which is likely according to the neurosurgeon) then I definitely want your DR. to do it for me. All I can say about my last Disco is.......OUCH!!! And that was with the Versed I.V. before/after each disc tested followed by Demerol I.M. in the recovery room. Thankfully, only 2 of the 3 discs tested positive.
I'm glad yours went as well as it did and hopefully it gave your DR. the info he needed. Take Care.
the discogram was a breeze. a total cake walk. BUT, the pain afterwards is horrible. i cant even sit down. feels like grinding in my back. every move is painful. they gave me demerol but it last like 30 minutes.
MEL,
do not worry about the discogram itself. they put you to sleep and i couldnt believe it was already over. nurse said i was talking crazy and she was having fun with me. just be sure to have your pain meds. DONT RUN OUT EARLY.
josh,
you were right. discogram was nothing. thanks again for confinence.
I am just curious, if they put you to sleep, how did they recreate your pain? From everything that I have read about discograms, they give you a relaxant and a mild pain reliever and then stick needles into discs to try to recreate the pain that you say that you are having.
If you take your pain meds, how will they know when you are in pain? There is no meter for pain, is there? Is this something new that is not on the net yet? Last I heard, there is no way to measure pain, only inflammation. The nerves send a signal up the spinal cord to the brain. If you block these nerve ending with pain killers, the pain signals can't get to the brain and then the brain can't register the pain and they can't recreate it. We are still in the stone ages when it comes to figuring out pain, what creates it, how to measure it, and how to stop it. I would be really surprised if you were put to sleep. Maybe you were given an amneistiac type drug first. They do this a lot of with painful procedures where they need for you to be awake.
Last edited by injured betty; 10-21-2004 at 10:51 PM.
mine, they only used local anesthetic and talked to me in a calm and reasuring voice during the test. I was wondering about that myself, as during a good discogram, they want you to tell them if the pain they are creating is the pain you know and are used to, or a different pain.
what you said is everything i heard about a discogram as well. they knocked me totally out. it seemed like it was over in a split second. they then took me for the ct scan and additional x-rays as well. i didn't know they did x-rays also. what ever the case, i'm not going to complain about being put to sleep. talk to you soon. jason
The give a sedating med that is short acting and start the procedure. You are in a very light sleep when they start, then the wake you when doing the procedure and if it recreates the pain they give you more sedation to knock you back out, you almost forget everything. If it is not positive then they do not give you more sedation and you stay awake. I also had it 10 years ago when they did not use any sedation and that was just down right cruel. So bottom line the sedation way is the best way!!!
