Nerve Ablations

Welcome to the forum, mrs. fibro. It sounds like you have some of the same problems I have.

Where is your pain? What sort of "test" did they do for the nerve ablations? Are they looking at facet joints on the side of the spine? Did they try epidurals first? Did the "tests" just use anesthetic or did they include steroid? What is causing your pain? Accident? Arthritis?

My pain is mostly in my lumbar spine, although I've had nerve plexus blocks in my neck/shoulder too.

Maybe not the same thing you have gotten, certainly not the same place: When lumbar epi's stopped working I had facet joint injections with local anesthetic plus steroid, which are not treatment so much as diagnostic. Facet joints are where the nerves that send pain messages to the brain run into the spine. I got very good relief, so as they have worn off after a couple of months, I am getting nerve ablations ("burning" the outer layer of fat on the nerves).

I've tried all the regular "nerve" meds, never had any positive results, only side effects, some of them really bad. The best relief I've had, for my fibro plus my back pain (which causes my leg pain) is from TRAMADOL. It lessens the allover fibro pain and raises my mood (raises serotonin levels). I can get relief from regular opioids if the dose is high enough, but that's the way to needing higher doses all the time, and with tramadol I haven't needed any increase (taking 50mg 3xday). I keep needing other surgeries and already I get no pain relief from the usual doses of opioids, and so am in horrible pain because I can't get a doctor to prescribe a higher dose.

Ablations are supposed to help for 6 - 9 months. The one I had on my left back needs a "touch up" because although I had 3 levels ablated, there is still sciatic pain. The sciatic nerve has several places where it leaves the spine. I think the other injections worked because the medicines travel through the tissues to other levels. I had one lumbar injection that helped my shoulder, 2 that reached my head causing dizziness and double vision.

If you don't know the details about your procedure, I would suggest you call and ask someone to tell you. You need to know why they are jumping right to ablations if you haven't had much testing. Usually they do facet joints twice as a test. What should you expect from the ablations? What are the side effects? Will you lose sensation? How long are these expected to last?

animated video and good explanation of cervical facet joint ablation: http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Pain-Center/Head-and-Neck-Pain/Cervical-Block---Radiofrequency-Ablation.aspx

Best wishes?