I have written in the past about facet joint injections for back pain. A cervical, thoracic or lumbar facet joint injection involves injecting a small amount of local anaesthetic (numbing agent) and/or steroid medication which can anaesthetize the facet joints and block pain. They are usually done under x-ray to guide the injections to the facet joints.

Recently funding for facet joint injections has been stopped in some post-codes but not in others. Unfortunately, mine has been stopped so my pain consultant has given me steroid injections into  my gluteal muscles in the hope this will give me some pain relief.

I can have them every four months just like I did with the facet joint injections and I am hoping they will last as well. I only had them done in December so it’s early days yet.

Mike Dilke from Relax back has a program on UK Health Radio and asked if we could have a chat about the funding problem and we also chatted about the two latest health apps, DRUGSTARS ‘ Giving by Taking and Talking Medicines, Medsmart app.