Sounds like you've been through quite a bit recently. I suffered from a herniated disc in my lower back for most of my adult life. Pain came and went over the years. While I was pregnant, it was like magic - no back pain! THEN I had an epidural that went just like yours - got hit 3 times by the anesthesiologist and had 3 big bruises on my back for weeks afterwards plus lots of back pain. LONG story short, I found out several years later that my spine is actually not exactly the same as everyone else's. I'm missing 1 vertebrae (sp?) above my hip bones and there's a partially fused bone in my sacrum area near the tail bone. I had disc surgery about 5 years ago (fixed the disc problem nicely). I still have some pain in 1 of the 3 areas that stupid epidural tube thing went in. When it rains or snows, it usually hurts but ibuprophen usually takes the edge off.
The reason I needed the c-section was because my lower back is actually twisted a little and because of the fused bone/malformation of my spine, there was no way a baby could ever pass through my lower spine - ever. I decided not to have any more babies because my back just couldn't make it through another epidural and there's no way I'd deliver vaginally.
So yes, my back was in bad shape to start with and it's now permanently compromised with scar tissue in those 3 areas where the big needle went in. I wish I would have known about having the spine problem before the epidural. I might have talked with an anesthesiologist before getting the epidural. Don't know if it would have turned out any differently. I will say that I have made my husband promise me that he will NEVER allow a doctor to put one of those in my back again. I remind him of this randomly just so he won't forget in case I'm not awake or something. Good luck.
