I'm literally climbing the walls! It's so bad a buddy of mine just dropped by with a qt ziplock bag full of fresh crappie fillets. I'm usually the guy giving away fresh crappie fillets.

I had left knee replacement surgery on Jan 23, 2017. I was fully aware of the entire procedure even though I didn't want to be. I had no pain but felt pressure and movement and heard every word, saw stroke and hammer blow. Seems my body deals with anesthesia and pain different than most folks do.

The day after surgery they started my physical therapy. I did well the 1st day. The 2nd day was a different story. I was literally screaming with hip and thigh pain. A normal dose of pain meds did nothing to relieve the pain. The PT was puzzled because that was above the area of any part of the surgery procedure. They sent me for an ultrasound to check for blood clots or blockage.

When I started home PT, the nurse was horrified by how intense my pain was. She sent me back to my knee surgeon but he said I shouldn't be having pain in that area. Same thing happened when the out-patient PT sent me back to him. No x-rays were taken or other tests ran. I finally DEMANDED something be done. The surgeon went back thru my past medical procedures and found an x-ray that showed parts of my lower spine. It also showed some disc degenerating and bone spurs. They decided to send me to a pain-management specialist.

During his examination, he found 2 areas of my left leg that showed both numbness and searing pain when touched.We discussed what he thought might be going on. He adjusted my pain meds and dropped the dosage on one drastically since it was for muscle/surgery pain rather than nerve pain. We discussed injections into the nerve bundles for relief in best case scenario. I was sent for an MRI.

Today I heard back from the pain-management Dr and my spine situation/MRI is not quite so bad it will need surgery. He thinks the epidural injections will help greatly. I'm scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon (earliest I could be scheduled).

My question is has anybody had these injections? How bad was the procedure? Did you get any relief? How long do they last?

I'm gaining strength and motion in my new knee daily as long as I can stand the back pain. I'm driving when I'm on minimum doses of pain meds and can walk almost normally. I need to get back in the boat. I just turned down several crappie trip bookings while I waited to see what the course of action was going to be. Those trips are my means of earning $$.

My buddies are trying to be tactful when talking about their great crappie catches when in my presence. I'm climbing the walls!!