Thank you for this post. I have been VERY hesitant to undergo any invasive procedures for pain management. I realize that one intervention can and most probably will lead to more. Each time the body is disturbed it can lead to more problems.

I had neck pain on one side 3 years ago. I persisted in doing PT at home just about every day (still am to this day), and attended 3 stretches of professional physical therapy at 3 different places.

I had an appointment at a pain management doctor and his advice was I needed 3 nerve blocks (or epidurals or whatever they shoot in there to try to help relieve pain) on that side of my spine. This was after looking at my MRI and sending his assistant in to point it out to me on a diagram in the wall. I asked for some nerve pain medication and was given 100 mg Gabapentin.

I decided to wait to have the nerve block, because I was basically scared. I read about possible side effects and wasn’t ready to take the risk. Then my neck pain finally went away!

About 2 weeks after that appt., I was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disorder. I saw a rheumatologist and started on hydroxychloriquine. That was almost 2 years ago. Many of my pain issues are a result of that disease, and the pain migrates around my body. My rheumatologist says one of his patients calls it “the pain of the day”. Migrating pain is hard to shoot with a needle!

4 months ago my neck pain reappeared, this time on the left side. So debilitating at times! I got so tired of the pain I decided to have a go at pain management again.

I think the video that Rachel posted is a great example of why we need to be cautious and not hurry into surgical or other interventions. So often it is our stress level, the stresses of life, travel, COVID, you name it, we all have it.

I realize many of my most painful times I had over the past couple of years, I was stressed out about something, one major thing being stressed about being sick. The constant surprises presented by my auto-immune disorder are the main stresses. First one thing is wrong, then another, seemingly unending. This has been a tough year for me. I had a melanoma on my back, I tore a calf muscle, I was diagnosed with neuropathy, I had a biopsy and cyst removed from let’s just say you don’t want to go there! I was sure I had cancer. So all these things can contribute to our pain.

But I am doing better now on the neck pain again, I recently am weaning myself off of Gabapentin after suffering some horrible side effects after going up to 900 mg a day (to try to get relief). I’m glad I waited a few months to go see the pain management doctor.

Thanks again for a different perspective, one from you who have tried the intervention route and found it made things worse. I hear that a lot! So we can learn from each other, and encourage each other too.