Radio frequency ablation

I didn't make it past the first nerve block.

Prior to surgery, I had ablation several years ago, and before morphine pump (2012). Shots never worked for me, but at that time, you had to have a series of 3 injections before ablation was performed. It did help and lasted from 6-10 months.

I have had numerous epidural injections in my lumbar spine over many years. Their effectiveness as I expected began to wane over time. I have also had four RFA's in my lumber. While not enjoyable to have, they worked much better than epidural injections. I have had both pre and post lumbar surgery, two of which I have had. RFA's lasted longer for me at around 3 to 6 months, and gave more bang for the buck so to speak. Eventually surgery was the only option left for me. A spinal cord stimulator was offered to me many times, but I just did not want that...

I have had both cervical and lumbar RFA. They have been quite successful for me. I am, however, about to schedule lumbar laminectomy and TLIF as my nerve compression has gotten to the point that it could become permanent. I have had it done multiple times on my neck as it is not bad enough yet for surgery. They have helped a lot with headaches and neck pain. If you choose to have a sedative during the procedure you won't feel anything. Good luck!

With respect, I have to point out that sedatives are not painkillers. They do not prevent pain during injections and ablations. They remove your memory of the event, if they work. Just to present a cautionary tale in this discussion, I had lumbar nerve blocks with midazolam, a common sedative. It did not work properly at all. I was in severe pain, wide awake and alert, but completely paralyzed. This is not a situation anyone wants to find themselves in. I could not speak or move, but the yelling I did wasn't enough to get the physiatrist 's attention. He was mere inches behind me and ignored me completely. Then he had the gall to try to schedule me for an ablation. Not in any conceivable future! I am not the only one who has reported painful experiences from doctors who think health care consists of stabbing people in the back. I had even scheduled a pre-procedure consult to ask a lot of questions about the procedure, and then I found out the hard way that doctors have no hesitation about lying to a patient beforehand. The actual experience revealed the lies. Check out any doctor very, very thoroughly before turning your back on them. And yes, the paralysis is an effect of the sedative, and they do it deliberately. They just won't admit it beforehand. Some of them appear to believe that if you don't remember, then it didn't matter how miserable the experience was. There are good and bad doctors. The tricky part is finding one who is honest and compassionate as well as qualified.

Yes and it has been very helpful.

@bajjerfan why ?

@sstopalian how long did it last? Was it painful?

@adgirl

I didn't get the amount of pain relief that they felt that I should have gotten.