procedures continue…
This is an overdue update. I had a procedure done a week ago at the pain clinic.
We are continuing to try and fix the old noggin. Given the (admittedly limited) results from injections into my head — we’re working towards my neck, where these nerves branch from. The big nerves we were injecting were the third medial nerve and the nearby occipital nerve. We did diagnostic injections on both sides of my neck. They had to put an IV in because ‘we have to put in an IV anytime we’re putting needles in your neck’. Sounds like a good plan to me.
So I was ready to go and we started with the pokin’. First they put a little local anesthesia. And then they put in some contrast dye so that they could see the nerves clearly. Then some local anesthesia (short-acting) into one nerve and then the other. It was more painful than I thought it’d be. Then we repeated that on the left side. I was glad when it was over.
I had less pain relief than I thought from it, but there was some definite relief.It lasted a few hours and then faded as the anesthesia wore off.
So back to where I said it was diagnostic – we’re doing another diagnostic procedure (same injections, long-acting anesthesia this time) in another week. These are required to find out if the radio-frequency nerve ablation would likely be successful for me.
test Filed under headaches, migraines, pain | Comments (6)6 Responses to “procedures continue…”
Leave a Reply
I got a little nauseous reading about all those needles. You are a trooper. I hope they find something to help you soon.
I’ve had the injections and the RFA. I hope you get better results than I did!
The RFA was intimidating because I wasn’t exactly sure how much it would hurt. It did hurt, but it was perfectly bearable. I was more sore after the procedure than during it, but I bounced back from the actual procedure fairly quickly. Ice is a must in recovery!
Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions about my experiences.
I’m with Diana on the ice follow-up. I’ve had some occipital nerve injections that gave me minimal headache relief, but ice really helped at the injection sites.
I hope all of it works out for you!
That sounds complex! I only understood like 5 words out of that whole thing! YOU ROCK dude for going through all of this; it takes a lot of patience!
[...] the pain clinic. This is a diagnostic for the possible radio-frequency nerve ablation. Today we did the same procedure as last week *except* they used long-acting anesthesia instead of short-acting anesthesia. Today it went better [...]
[...] is the day for my RFA. Spencer’s coming with me, and is looking forward to watching them poke me with needles. I’m hopeful and yet trying not to expect too [...]