u/Different_Orchid_612

I am getting the injection on Wednesday for chronic back pain associated with an L5-S1 disc bulge and muscular tightness/spasms. I am concerned about the pain level during and afterwards, as the only appointment I could get is in the middle of my school week and I have required attendance in lectures. I am really doing the best I can to keep up with what is worth doing in pain management / medications and what isn’t. I’m 21 so this is all uncharted territory for me and a big puzzle, but if you have had positive experiences with trigger point injections please let me know. I’ve honestly never had an injection like this other than IVs for surgeries, so just a little bit nervous as I’ll be by myself too.

Also though, just a shoutout to everyone on this sub for their strength. I now have an insane amount of respect for anyone dealing with back pain, or just chronic pain in general. 🫶🏻

If you are on this sub a lot you probably saw me posting on here many many times being frustrated over lack of answers and just doing an insane amount of personal research, which we all know leads to a lot of worrying. I just wanted to share that my pain is likely from a small disc bulge in my lumbar spine
(L5-S1), if you look at my previous posts on this page I shared a lot of my symptoms. I thought if anyone out there is looking for a diagnosis for their symptoms, my experience could be helpful. I’m 20, didn’t have a specific injury, and the bulge is not blocking nerves. But, my rheumatologist still suspects this is the culprit of my pain. Since the pain kind of radiates, it took me awhile to get all three scans done especially with insurance hurdles. But my pain started in March 2025 and has been nonstop since. Now that I have a potential cause I can find the right direction of treatment which is a huge relief. I was just about to give up on getting help with the pain at all because it felt like no one believed me and I had no evidence. Don’t give up you guys!!

The place where I get imaging done is very fast, and so i’m not sure if my expectations are skewed. But i’ve been having heavy chronic back pain (20F, 110 pounds) that the doctors and I have been trying to figure out. I got a cervical spine x-ray and mri, thoracic x-ray and mri and a lumbar x-ray. All were done on different days throughout the past 6 months. Due to insurance clearance issues I couldn’t get this one for about four couple months. Anyway, all of those previous scans I got back the day of and all had pretty much zero findings. Not overly stressed and looking for reassurance, more just trying to manage expectations as this is my last scan. The imaging office has said they are waiting for it to be signed off on for three days now. Edit: I got the scan done early Monday morning.