Cortisone Injections Side Effects

Oswalt to seek second opinion for back pain

For the first part of the season, the plan for Roy Oswalt had been all about pain management. For the two hours it took for him to pitch a ballgame, Oswalt was able to work around the painful back injury that plagued his season.

But when it got to the point where the pain management was such an ordeal that he was unable to prepare between starts, things had come to a head. In fact, Oswalt said that he has lost about six pounds from all the worrying and stress about the injury.

“The biggest thing about it was in between starts. I could get ready from start to start and that had been going on for about three to four weeks,” Oswalt said.

According to team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotti, Oswalt has minor bulging of the L4 and 5 discs in his back along with a thickening of the facet capsules of the joints in his back. While with the Astros, Oswalt had mild lumbar inflammation, Ciccotti said, that was treated with exercise. This time, however, exercise alone is not going to cut it.

“These are very common things we see in players’ backs,” Ciccotti said.

The treatment suggested by Ciccotti is rest, medication, exercise as well as “a series of injections,” including a facet and epidural injections.

In the meantime, Oswalt is going to Dallas, Tex. to seek a second opinion with spine surgeon Dr. Drew Dossett.

“Depending on that second evaluation, that will determine what course of action we take, whether we choose an injection or another program,” Ciccotti said. “That can vary from three weeks to five weeks or so, depending on how Roy feels.”

What Oswalt will learn is which injection he will have to take. Cortisone is popular amongst athletes, but too many of them can cause side effects later in life.

“I don’t want to just mask the pain and then go out there and in two months not be able to do what I need to do,” Oswalt said. “So I’m trying to do the best thing for the team and me, also.”

Oswalt hasn’t felt very good for most of the season. He was placed on the disabled list for the second time of the season on Friday and if the ill health isn’t enough, Oswalt took a break from the team early this season to tend to his family after tornadoes ripped through Mississippi. Oswalt was gone for more than a week where he did not pick up a baseball, instead operating a bulldozer to clear fallen trees and the ravages of the storm.

Cortisone Injections and Its Side-Effects | Cortisone Injections

Cortisone is a type of corticosteroid, which is a kind of medication used for all manners of inflammations. However, corticosteroids are definitely not recommended for those suffering from only minor inflammations. Only those who are truly in pain every day and whose inflammations seemingly get worse should even consider cortisone injections. This is because there is a reason why this medication is so powerful—being able to reduce inflammations to almost nothing in record time and that is because it is a type of steroid. And there are plenty of side-effects to consider when taking something like this.

 

For example, the complexity of the human body becomes apparent in the fact that there is absolutely no clear picture of what cortisone injections will actually do to your body. Even a person with a clean bill of health can end up with bad side-effects. These side-effects might include all manners of illnesses, even worse swelling on the affected area, and there is no timetable, meaning the side-effects might even surface long months after having your cortisone injections. Not to mention, the people unlucky enough to have been stricken are likely to end up suffering a very long time. This is because the effects from corticosteroids have almost always proven to be long-lasting. But then, there are those fortunate few whose conditions have improved very much after receiving this kind of treatment.

 

While the many possibilities (most of them negative) of cortisone injections should never be underestimated, those who suffer daily from inflammation pain of all kinds might find that they have no choice but to try it. In that case, simply make sure that you have discussed the topic with your doctor about the potential side-effects and what you can do in case things get worse. If you are truly suffering and want to push through with this kind of medication, then you should not let anyone stop you.

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