Anyone had Corticosteroid injections?

dirkpitt74

Guys,
I have a persistant (non cycling induced) shoulder injury - coming up to a year now.
Have had physio for a few months and got all movement & strength back but still have pain in the joint.

Going to see the consultant tonight for corticosteroid injections into the joint.

Not too bothered about the injections - never had a problem with needles.

Apparently I've got to have 2 days of complete rest - no work, physical activity or anything, in fact nothing other than watching Topgear repeats on Dave.....

Anyone else had these (injection not Topgear repeats....)?

How quickly did they take effect?

Any side effects other than those listed on the info sheet I got handed a couple of weeks back?

Was planning on hitting the Chase Saturday morning for a couple of hours as not ridden for 2 weeks with holidays etc. but need to check with the consultant - as I'm one of those 'yeah it feels OK so I'll carry on' type people.

Thanks

Cutty Dyer

Had it last week - immediate benefits included being able to sleep that night and less clunking and creaking from my shoulder. No side effects at all and just a normal couple of days with some light running instead of riding a few days later and I'm hammering up techy climbs and back on the trails.

dirkpitt74

Cutty Dyer wrote:

Had it last week - immediate benefits included being able to sleep that night and less clunking and creaking from my shoulder. No side effects at all and just a normal couple of days with some light running instead of riding a few days later and I'm hammering up techy climbs and back on the trails.

Thanks for the reply.

I've noticed pretty much the same - it's been nice to be pain free for the first time in nearly 12 months.
Went for a gentle ride on Saturday and was fine - so did some single track/fire roads on Tuesday and all good still.

kajjal

My experience was I went from a painful shoulder that stopped me from sleeping to no pain at all. I was then able to do the recovery exercises over several weeks without any problems. Since then my shoulder has been fine.

owen21

Cutty Dyer wrote:

Had it last week - immediate benefits included being able to sleep that night and less clunking and creaking from my shoulder. No side effects at all and just a normal couple of days with some light running instead of riding a few days later and I'm hammering up techy climbs and back on the trails.

Whats everyones diagnosis for their injuries (all seem to be shoulder?)

For those who had an injection, whats next in terms of rehabbing or progressing it back to full fitness? Any more injections or do you think its gone away altogether just from the injection? Just curious

Ive had many an injury from weightlifting and eventually got by without an injection even though ive probably needed one because ibuprofen isnt good enough, must be hard to get hold of where i live lol!!

Zingzang

owen21 wrote:

For those who had an injection, whats next in terms of rehabbing or progressing it back to full fitness? Any more injections or do you think its gone away altogether just from the injection? Just curious

I had two steroid injections in my shoulder. Neither had any painkilling effect, and in fact made the pain far worse. It was the wrong clinical decision made by an inexperienced consultant to give me the injections, as I've got chronic tendonopathy (20+ years) in the affected shoulder which no amount of steroids was ever going to rectify. There was no rehabbing in my case as my shoulder is basically screwed after being overused for 28 years following a road accident in which my other arm was permanently paralysed. And for the last two years I've been completely unable to ride my bike owing to a serious immune disorder, but that's another story.

owen21 wrote:

Ive had many an injury from weightlifting and eventually got by without an injection even though ive probably needed one because ibuprofen isnt good enough, must be hard to get hold of where i live lol!!

If you eventually got by without the injections then you're better off for not having had them, as they can make tendons softer and more prone to tearing in the long run.

cube1961

Yes I have them regular in my knees , I'm waiting for a knee replacemnt operation . Went out yesterday one week after my injection with my knee heavily strapped and it was fine.
I have to keep off work for 2-3 days it takes approx for the injections to work and I'll be fine for 8 weeks

gcwebbyuk

I've had them for my neck and shoulders 3 times now. The first time they helped for about a a month and a half. The second was for about a fortnight. The third time they used double the strength, but fewer injections and I had a reaction - so they decided not to do it any more. I found the day I had the injections to be quite achy and a little washed out.

I have also recently had them into my eyebrow - very odd sensation! This was for supra-orbital pain and migraine. This is so far, still working - been about a month and a half so far.

dirkpitt74

Well 4 weeks since the injection.
I have no surface pain and am sleeping loads better.
Still getting some pain in the joint but nowhere near as much as before.
Will leave it another couple of weeks and if still sore will give consultant another call.

fossyant

Sounds good. I've responded well to injections into my trapezius and back muscles but not more recently to injections else where and we've had to give up on them.

shortcuts

Another shoulder sufferer here and I have to say that I had no pain relief from injections either. Further investigation in my case showed osteo arthritis in both shoulders. Both now operated on and the pain relief is good. Still need time on the second one but the first operation now has that shoulder fine. Hopefully as time goes on the second will be the same and I have just been allowed to resume cycling. So onwards and upwards on the turbo trainer for now.
Good luck. Hope all works out for you.

kajjal

I was lucky, although very painful and stopping me sleeping my shoulder was only swelling internally by the joint. Physio made no difference. One injection and two months of exercises / physio it was pretty much back to normal. Now all fine and luckily it wasn't due to wesr and tear.

dirkpitt74

Well it's just over 3 months since I had the injection.
Was still getting a bit of pain up to about 7-8 weeks after I had it.
Contemplated going back to see the Consultant but decided to give it a couple more weeks.
All I can say is that I'm now pain free!
Seems to have done the trick and given everything time to heal and for the swelling to go down.
No pain after riding of lifting so all seems back to normal.

Thanks for all the help and advice leading up to having it done!

dirkpitt74

Another update.
All was fine until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed a bit of pain creeping back in.

No problem I though - I'll just take some anti-inflammatories and ice it up.

Pain is still there and have been back to my doctors (as it's been 6 months I need another referral....) who is sending me back to the hospital.

Looks like I might be referred to the surgical team this time though

kajjal

Best to have it checked out. I thought mine had come back but it was just a normal shoulder strain which after three weeks of weights three times a day all is fine again.