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Lower back pain. Ablation?

Posted by carmen001 @carmen001, Jun 26 9:18am

I have lower back pain. It is on my right side about 3 inches from the center of spine, right above the butt. It stays right there and doesn't travel down leg etc. Along with this sometimes pain is in groin. The longer I stand or walk the worse the pain is until I have to get off my feet. It then hurts for 10 min or so before letting up. Mri shows buldging disk at every level of lower back along with scoliosis, and spinal stenosis at one level. The pain clinic wants to do ablation.... they say sciatica...
Any thoughts from anyone? Has anyone had anything similar and what did ypu do?

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davidyapp | @davidyapp | Jul 2 5:49pm

I've had 1️⃣ablaTion & it was helpful for a to month period. If you read-up on ablations, they are good for a short period of time as the deadened nerves grow back over time. They are useful though as my back pain tends to ebb and flow. If my back pain is on the rise, an ablation is useful. My doctor also thinks an epidural would be useful in my situation. I think I'll give it a try when my back pain starts to rise. All of these recommendations are temporary fixes but are useful to stem the increase in pain. I find physical therapy pretty useful when my back pian in at a normal level of 5 to 6. It helps strengthen you core and thusly, reducing pain when you are walking. We all live in an acute situation & try to find ways to live on a day to day basis. I've tried Oxycontin & became addicted to it. It was really hard on my cognitively & my quality of life. Today, I use a mix of Tramadol, stretching, physical therapy, and intermident pain relieves (ablation, & thinking about an epidural).

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laughlin1947 | @laughlin1947 | 1 day ago

I don't have sciatica, but I've had two treatments of medial branch block, and I'm heading forward to have radio frequency ablation (RFA) done, which is pretty safe. I'm considering, if the RFA does not last very long, going to the DVR procedure which is the ablation where they actually sever the couple of nerves along the L4/L5 vertebrae, giving longer pain relief.

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carmen001 | @carmen001 | 1 day ago

Now they have scheduled the ablation process. I must have 2 successful injections first (nerve block) with proven % relief from those before the ablation.
This is the problem:
My pain is not constant. Most of the time it doesn't hurt in the morning. I mt hurts after u have been on my feet later in the day. Then when it starts I dont have to be on my feet but a few minutes and it hurts severely. This will last for a couple weeks then somehow go away for a few days up to a week.
So it seems tricky in my mind to get the shot scheduled during a flare up.

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violet112 | @violet112 | 1 day ago
In reply to @carmen001 "Now they have scheduled the ablation process. I must have 2 successful injections first (nerve block)..." + (show)
Profile picture for carmen001 @carmen001

Now they have scheduled the ablation process. I must have 2 successful injections first (nerve block) with proven % relief from those before the ablation.
This is the problem:
My pain is not constant. Most of the time it doesn't hurt in the morning. I mt hurts after u have been on my feet later in the day. Then when it starts I dont have to be on my feet but a few minutes and it hurts severely. This will last for a couple weeks then somehow go away for a few days up to a week.
So it seems tricky in my mind to get the shot scheduled during a flare up.

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@carmen001
Amazing Im just the opposite, Pain is worse in the morning when I get up then slowly subsides when I move around. My PT says that is normal. Scheduled for RFA next week,

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