There are a few general caveats that I tell patients with problems similar to you:

1. If you have back pain normally, you may have back pain around the time that you get an epidural. This is rarely due to the epidural placement (which, like any other time you get poked with a needle, can make your back a little sore but rarely causes severe back pain).

2. Most anesthesiologists would avoid placing a needle directly in the area of disc herniations or related problems.

3. Surgery makes it more difficult or impossible to access the appropriate spaces at that level of your spine. However, other levels of your spine (above or below the surgery) may be available to allow placement of a regional anesthetic.

4. Placement may take longer or be more technically difficult but can usually be accomplished with persistence and ingenuity.

5. A thorough discussion of risks and benefits is important so that the patient can make an educated and informed choice about what kind of anesthesia they desire.

Fluoroscopy is one method that is sometimes utilized for placing a needle into a specific area of the body. It requires equipment and physician expertise and experience that may or may not be available to you at your hospital. In my experience, it is not routinely used to place epidurals for labor analgesia. There are issues with monitoring of the baby while fluoroscopy is being used, etc. Theoretically it could be done - but there are many practical aspects that might make it difficult. If it really should come to this, discuss this well in advance with your obstetrician, anesthesiologist and hospital representatives.