Sacroiliitis and epidural questions

I was diagnosed with Sacroiliitis in December and had an epidural injection - xrays showed that I only have minimal arthritis in my spine/hip area.  This helped relieve my pain for 2 months (I was hoping it would last longer!) so yesterday I had another epidural injection.  I got to thinking...is there any long term ramifications to having multiple steroid injections?  If so, what are they?  How many injections can one person have?  Is there anything else out there that can help take care of the inflammation in my SI joint?  FYI, I am unable to take any sort of anti-inflammatory medication due to my Ulcerative Colitis (causes me intestinal bleeding).

Thank you for any responses! 

Hey Sherry.. Can you take any of the DMARDs? I know you can't take the NSAIDs, but wasn't sure about DMARDs.. teddybear brings up a good point too.. what about the biologics? Seems as though you've told me this before, but I am getting old and suffer from CRS.. Can't Remember S.. uhm, Stuff.. ha! Talk to you soon!

Hello Red.  I took the spinal injections for several years, I think 3 to be exact.  I finally got to a point where I was having them farther and farther apart and then finally stopped all together.  It seemed to "toughen up" up my spine or something.  I have bulges and degeneration in C-6 and C-7 from an altercation with a horse.  Ha!  The horse won, but I haven't told him.  The epideurals were a miracle for me and I've never regretted having them.  I know that for about a week after having one I would have a little trouble sleeping and I would have hot flashes from "you know where".  But overall they worked great for me and I don't walk like a question mark anymore.  Where I had them done was in the ambulatory surgery part of my ortho's office.  They would put "happy medicine" in my IV and then the injection and home I went, never remembering a thing.  I know everyone doesn't have a successful outcome with these but I did. 

Good luck!  Boo

Sherry,
I have had many joints injected, some repeatedly. My rheumy and back guy will only inject a joint three times in a calendar year. Repeated injections do have consequences. I had a problem in the left foot and it could no longer be injected due to the severe thinning of the skin over the area.

In regards to the inflammation in your SI joint -- my back guy told me at the time of my SI injection that he hoped that I would get at least 3 months of relief from my injection. He also said that he preferred to inject the SI only when it became really troublesome.

Because you have sacroiliitis, have you been worked up for enteropathic arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis? Sacroiliitis is very often associated with these diseases. As far as Remicade being used as a "last-ditch" med in UC, it is a first line of defense in AS. My Crohn's was categorized as mild but I had severe and progressively debilitating AS. I was started on Remicade more for my joint inflammation than for the Crohn's. Please consider seeing a rheumatologist if you haven't already. They are best equipped for evaluating the joint issues often associated with UC and CD.

Hey Sherry.. sorry for the late reply.. I've been snowed in a cabin for the past couple of days... DMARDs are Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs.. I think they are supposed to be easier on you than NSAIDs.. Some DMARDs are: Methotrexate, plaquenil, sulfasalazine and of course the biologics.. how are you doing?

Hey Ducky,

 that CRS you have, down here we call it KRAFT, Kan't Remember A ******* Thing.(ok so the spelling ain't perfect).  As per the steroid injections, my Rheumy will only give them a few times a year.  Says too many are hard on the ticker (heart).

Raven

I don't actually see a rheumy yet. Right now, I'm just seeing a doc of rehabilitation medicine (or pain doc) and my primary. But I go see my pain doc in a week or so.