Hi Lamb,
I was telling SK that I'll be getting cauterization of some nerves in my back and she suggested that I speak to you before having it done. Is there a problem that I'm not aware of? I'm really looking forward to having it done, as I've been in so much pain for 5 years but would love your input on the matter.
Thanks!
Petunia
No particular problems. BUT-
My sister and I got a twofer.... (long story) It worked but for me it didn't last much longer than injections (about 6 mos).... (I pay cash for 90% of my procedures etc) so for me the VALUE wasn't there.
(Understand I get my injections fro a friend who has been shooting my back up so long he could do it from across the room with his eyes closed. He never forgets a back.)
My sister on the other hand had a long a recovery from the procedure itself. It was 8 weeks or better before the pain from the ablation went away. It bought her some time, she eventually had to have surgery (and if you know either of us you would know just how bad she was to consider surgery let alone have it.) She never considered the ablation again.
Anything is worth a try (in my book) if it isn't permanent. Under expect and you will be happy. Some of the back centers are REALLY overselling this procedure (IMHO) Give your self a good rest before and after.... and be where you want to be afterwards BEFORE the local wears off.....
Do not as my sister and I did, stop at the Indian Casino on the way home. I'm not sure that hot craps table had anything to do with my dissatisfaction with the procedure after all it did pay for it but....... (We shoulda left before the locals wore off it was a long ride from there)
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, okay. Gotcha.
Well at least you and sis got to gamble afterwards and win before the pain set in. Thanks for the heads up on getting home before the local wears off.
It's a little concerning thinking the pain from the procedure could last 8 weeks and the benefit was only 6 months. I guess it's worth a shot (pardon the pun) to try it.
Sorry it didn't give you much time of relief, Lamb. 6 months is okay but not a lot of time, when it comes to relief from back pain. BTW, does your sister have similar issues as you? I sure hope NOT!
Thanks for the info, Lamb. At least I can walk in knowing both ends of things.
Petunia, I hope it helps you, like it helps me to talk to others, just remember, not everything works for everyone! Good luck to you girl, hope it is a huge success for you!
Thank you, SK. Pain is so bad that I'm willing to try just about anything at this point, short of major back surgery.
Have you talked to your Insurance Co? Will they cover it for you, or most of it?
Hi...here is the last, recent ones i had done..It's done at the pain management docs office ( an anesthesiologist)..Yes check with your insurance, if he is in your netwowrk..I just had to pay co/pay. If done at a hospital it costs way more
.....I got a typed report send to my knee ortho, rheummy, PCP, and me!
It's
from 2010.....transforaminal injections, left lumbar facet joints, which are
really quite arthritic in appearance.
I have] 1) L4-5, L5-S1 foraminal
stenosis
2) L4-5 grade 1 spondylolisthesis
3) multilevel lumbar
degenarative disc disease which is quite severe from L2-S1
4)..multi level
lumbar facet joint arthopaty
that was 4/2010
in 5/2010...was RFL
of left lumbar medial branch nerves
last year i had a couple of CESI,
cervical epidurals, i have a 22 yr old cervical fusion, very succesfull ( some
prob above the fusion, but it's ok....but doctor says quite a bit of cervical
facet arthritis
they helped, i am not a A headache person, and they
really helped
i Never had trouble with the dozens of epidurals i had,
these past ones, i was not sedated.
instructions say you can expect
some soreness and bruising at injections site
experience numbness,weakness,
tingling, until the effects of the anesthetic wears off
improvement in
pain for several hours, then increase again, as anesthetic wearing off
I
had to get off my NSAID i think 5 days ahead
I have two sisters with it. Both are older so I have two examples. Both BTW are/were RN's. My older sister was 18 years older than I and my baby sister 12. I was first Dx when I was about 25. It was called young white mans disease. My older sister started hzving problems the same time. Her response was to seek pain management first and not much else. My baby sister and her husband convinced me (and my wife) that we should really hzve an alternative to living in the mojntains all summer and teaching the rest of the year. So I got advanced degrees and somehow my wife and collect 8 kids from various social services. Life went along pretty well until I had a little accident and crushed 3 vertebrae ( when the scaffolding collapses don't brag about landing on your feet and call the chiropractor for a house call) I watched my older sister go from doctor to doctor looking for pain control. I swear to god she could get "pain control" from the DEA. Meanwhile I spent a month or two in the hospital and swore I would walk out. I did. I also through away my pain control and dedicated my self to pt and "toughing it out" injections, tens , chiro wereall ok but thought in the no drugs. Pain control now had my sister in the chair full time, 92#, And about 3 liver cells. Despite a couple of knee surgeries, and two shouldes, I thought it was all my fall and a little of my young white mans disease. My baby sister became a regional supervisorr for a group of nursing homes. As bending over beds starting Ivs was getting harder. I told her I understood and was thinking of doing more writing and consulting as lecturing was getting harder. A few days later I got a walker in the mail from her. Told me to use it to balance my sel as the person who had it decided they liked a "chair" better. Anyway to make a long story short my older sister died proof that pain control doesn't help Bit . My baby zister loves her job and still does it some times with and sometimes without a walker. She occasioanally at 74 gets confused as a resident in one of the 8 Guradian Angel homes she supervises the staff in. We still party and hurt like heck. The toughest is using this blame 5" tab to post, please excuse the typos and mis placed words.
I have read that this is considered a young white man's disease. I am surprised that there are not more men on this site, guess they are still toughing it out, denying it, like my son. At 29 he had a procedure done at PM where they replaced many of his discs with a type of gel, so that he would not be bone on bone, now at 39 has just had it done again, of course more damage was present. Can't get him to the Rheumatologist for a means of slowing the progression... as he refuses to have himself diagnosed. Pain management, manages pain, never heard of one making a diagnosis.
Sorry you lost your sister lamb. Surely all of your lives would have been different if the biologics would have been available to you all sooner. My Rhemuatologist inisited there was family history of psriasis besides my grandkids and after checking again found my grandmother had it, of course she was crippled beyond belief.
So much damage and pain transpires before diagnosis in most cases, it is such a shame all of this suffering cannot be eased, through treatment of the disease at a much earlier stage.
I've just re-read your post Lamb. Holy cr@p!!! It took your sister 8 weeks for the pain to go away??? Doctors never warned me that the pain could last that long! I'm starting in on week 2 and the pain is terrible. I'm freaking out because I'm worried that it's messed me up or started something else...and the docs said it should only last at MOST 2 more weeks, which is bad enough.
Anyone thinking of this procedure (cauterizing nerves in your back to reduce the pain in the back from arthritis) should SERIOUSLY consider the pain aspect once the sedation wears off. The pain is KILLER.
I just now saw both of these posts and feel a lot of sadness for all of the loss and lost chances. SK is right, if only biologics had been available for people many years ago. What an awful illness to suffer through with no medical intervention.
Lamb, I'm of the school of a bit of pain mgmt and a bit of toughing it out. Right now the toughing it out isn't doing too well, even though I also am doing some pain mgmt. I think there's a point where you kinda can tip...I called my doc today and asked about the pain and also about ways to avoid becoming addicted to the pain meds. That's the last darned thing I want or need.
I'm sorry about your lost sister - she truly was lost. Lost from the pain and lack of medical care available, and lost from the pain meds. I can totally understand, though, how people in pain could end up in that boat. I no longer judge people who are in pain if they become addicted. It is what it is. Maybe the way you live life would have been unbearable for her, Lamb. What works for one might not work for another. It's just a darned shame she had to have the pain that brought her to her knees.
SK, I'm also really saddened to hear that your son refuses to acknowledge his own illness. I'm already warning my own son (he's got the heel pain and his wrist bothers him too.) I think it's so sad that men won't acknowledge the pain, for the most part, and let it go along its merry little way. I think this may also be true of different races, no? You only see white women, for the most part, on these sites. I truly think more outreach needs to be done. You KNOW it's not only white women suffering from PsA and/or fibro.
Just keep telling your son, SK. Sooner or later your words may get thru to him, esp. if pain gets intense. Honestly, it's hard to know what one needs to do to get thru to our sons and brothers and fathers and male friends who suffer from PsA or Fibro. But they need treatment too. I can't imagine going thru 2 procedures replacing gel in the spine, yet refusing to get to the underlying cause so it can be treated. I truly hope he has an epiphany and gets himself to a rheumy!
SK said:
I have read that this is considered a young white man's disease. I am surprised that there are not more men on this site, guess they are still toughing it out, denying it, like my son. At 29 he had a procedure done at PM where they replaced many of his discs with a type of gel, so that he would not be bone on bone, now at 39 has just had it done again, of course more damage was present. Can't get him to the Rheumatologist for a means of slowing the progression... as he refuses to have himself diagnosed. Pain management, manages pain, never heard of one making a diagnosis.
Sorry you lost your sister lamb. Surely all of your lives would have been different if the biologics would have been available to you all sooner. My Rhemuatologist inisited there was family history of psriasis besides my grandkids and after checking again found my grandmother had it, of course she was crippled beyond belief.
So much damage and pain transpires before diagnosis in most cases, it is such a shame all of this suffering cannot be eased, through treatment of the disease at a much earlier stage.