Anyone else had a bad reaction to steroid injections?

[Cat-a-Tonic]

2 weeks ago, I had a couple steroid injections into my bad hip. Long story short, GP thinks it's arthritis but doesn't know what kind as he's not a specialist. Rheumy is basically worthless and has no idea, but he said a steroid injection "could help and won't hurt". He feels the cause of my pain (more towards the outer hip) might be more muscular rather than in the joint itself, and he said there are 2 big muscles right in that area, so he did 1 injection into each muscle. He did not inject the hip joint itself, just the muscles.

I felt okay for a few days after the injections, but then I started feeling really awful. Wicked nausea, zero appetite, increased acid reflux, tremendous fatigue, difficulty sleeping. Oh, and my hip feels a little worse rather than better! I emailed my rheumy, but as I said he's useless, and his only response was that he doesn't know why I'm having a bad reaction, this type of thing doesn't usually happen, and to follow up with my GP. Ugh!

So the bad symptoms lasted about a week. Then I started feeling somewhat better for a few days, but the nausea came back today and my appetite left when the nausea appeared. I'm just wondering, has anyone else had a reaction like this to steroid injections? If so, how long did the bad reaction last? I should add that I have always had a great reaction to oral steroids, they make me feel great and give me a good appetite. Someone in a different thread told me that it's a very different process when the steroids are injected vs oral, so I'm guessing that's why I'm not having a good response, but I don't really know. Anybody else been through something like this?

Edited to add: I should also mention, the steroid injections totally messed with my menstrual cycle too. I did not experience that either while on oral steroids! I was supposed to get my period the day after the injections, but it was about 5 days late and it was mostly just a bit of spotting, it wasn't the full monthly experience if you will. I'm on nuvaring so my periods are usually like clockwork.

 

[Chad K]

I've been on oral steroids and was given steroids during my hospital visits through an IV, but I do not recall such symptoms. Keep checking in with your doctors about this until you get the answer, which hopefully comes soon. Feel better!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Thanks Chad, but I am pretty much done with my rheumatologist (this isn't the first time that his answer has been, "I don't know, follow-up with your primary care doc" - unacceptable!) so I won't be calling him looking for more answers, as I know he doesn't have any. I had googled when these symptoms first hit, and I found a few people online were complaining about having one side effect (a few people had nausea, a few others had changes to their menstrual cycles, etc), but I couldn't find any accounts of anyone saying they got EVERY side effect like what I'm experiencing. It's just so weird, and I'm guessing I'm in the minority since most people seem to get good results from steroid injections into painful joints. I am just kind of grasping at straws to see if anybody else had a similar experience (it's seeming like not!) and if so, how long did it take for the side effects to go away.

 

[Chad K]

I understand how you feel, it's stressful indeed. I've been having other issues with numbness and tingling on the left side of my body. I was seeing this Neurologist and after multiple visits and tests, he literally looked at me in just said "I don't know." and expected me to just give up on trying to figure out what was wrong. It's pretty sad, especially when its your life and they are the doctors, they should be more concerned for you and helpful, I mean, it's their job. And I hate getting pushed away from my doctors, when they don't have an answer they say "go see this doctor" then you see that doctor and they say "I'm recommending you to doctor so and so" and so on... I find it to be BS. These doctors making all this money and don't seem to really give a damn about people with helping find the answers.

I hope you find an answer soon. I recommend pushing your doctor for answers and showing him how angry you are that you are not getting any, (unless you have already) as it seems to be the only way to get them to really do their jobs sometimes.