I have been through this all. There isn’t anything you guys have mentioned that I haven’t been through so I hope I can offer some thing insightful. There are two kinds of RFA one is called heat and one is called pulse. The pulse never worked for me if you had the pulse you must try the heat, my first RFA in 2000 and 2001 lasted 15 years. I had spinal stenosis and every other disc vertebrae scoliosis thing you can imagine eventually I needed surgery. In the meantime I had judicious, epidural nerve blocks corticosteroids emergency trips to the emergency room, shots of Toradol in my butt sciatic and other things in 2018 orthopedic surgeons, I met the orthopedic surgeon of my dreams and let him do surgery immediately. It was a simple x-ray that he took to show me that my vertebrae had grown together. I was wondering why the pain had stopped. This is bad because when the vertebrae grow together, they squeeze the nerve route. Root. LOL
Here’s the first step diagnose where the pain is coming from. A good pain management doctor or a good orthopedic surgeon is going to isolate where the pain is coming from by doing various procedures. The second step is to see what your options are to get rid of the pain, I don’t like a lot of medication because I’m very sensitive to medication and because they’re always side effects. When I get the corticosteroids or the epidural injections, I get 25 to 50% normal dose because I always get fat around my belly and facial flushing and insomnia, you have to work closely with your doctor and you have to find a good doctor that you can develop a relationship with Before I had my surgery in 2018, I had various small things which help relieve pain. For example, one MRI showed that I had a fluid filled sack that could easily be drained by a competent pain management doctor that help put off surgery for two years. You really have to learn about your body and ask a lot of questions , finally I want to say that my facial tissue release work is amazing and unfortunately it is not covered by any medical insurance company. After having many surgeries, my SI joints caused me a lot of grief and pain. I was close to having surgery again when my orthopedic surgeon said to try deep myofascial work , but that was for my neck area. When I went to the massage therapist and told him I was having pain in my SI joint he did some work and miracle of miracle. I now have 10% of the pain in my sacral joints. I was so close to surgery. I can’t even explain it , but I probably should’ve paid along time ago for myofascial tissue release work. I was always told that massage is a luxury and I couldn’t afford it. Deep myofascial tissue release is very painful. It’s not your enjoyable massage and you have to go back regularly. I go twice a month , but I can’t tell you how much it’s improved my life without medication and without surgeries. The first two months of doing it I would feel drunk when I was finished. There was so much toxins that were being released now I’m feeling better on my third month of it and I will probably never stop because it’s taking me 67 years to get here , never give up and never stop. Also, I forgot to mention that for 25 years I’ve taken low doses of Percocet even if I have no pain I don’t take it. Addiction was not a problem for me pain as a problem and to continue working, I had to be on low-dose Percocet , that is a combination of the oxycodone and the acetaminophen. That is worked very very well for me over the years. I am sorry people miss use it abuse it it’s been stolen out of my medicine cabinet by the pet sitter and a lot of aggravation and humiliation to continually get it over the years things being what they are, but I don’t think I would have been here without it And lived a productive life so I always share that I use it. Use whatever tools you need to to get by and stay healthy.!