I have the BEST Dr. in Texas for the procedures. Had the procedure done about 5 days ago; hard to sleep but no headaches!!!
My Dr. is a pain doctor and spine doctor. His office is THE BEST.
lashmn wrote:
Hi, I have read all the posts with interest as I am three weeks post-rhizotomy after having gone through the series of injections. My pain episode started 20 years ago when many of the procedures available today were non-existent. Basically, treatment then involved PT & NSAID's and if no relieve was received surgery was the next step. (at that point my main problem was a ruptured disk at C4-C5 and excruciating headaches). My choice was to forgo surgery and learn to live with it with many limitations on my activities. Because I gave up on the medical field as such to help with my pain issues, I was left with Tylenol or Advil.
The pain has just become unbearable in the last couple of years and a new MRI indicated that my issues are many but all involve the cervical region. I went to a PM Dr. who was part of the medical group I was using but all he was able to do was give me non-effective meds, trigger point injections in my neck and laser treatments. After nearly a year of this, he shook his head and called me his problem child and recommended that I see a PM/anesthesiologist.
This new doctor has been wonderful and willing to use more powerful meds and started the whole routine of injections including several epidurals and facet joint injections finally moving into my neck region as most of my pain was neck and occipital region. Each helped for about two weeks max and he finally suggested the Rhizotomies. At that point I was up for anything. Although he did not use IV sedation, I was given a strong dose of Xanax to take 45 minutes pre-procedure and was able to pinpoint the four nerve bundles on the right side. I was scheduled to have the left and less problematic side done a month later. That's not going to happen!!!!
I have developed an occipital neuralgia which is similar to the pain of shingles. It covers the middle of my head on the right side down to my shoulders and is very painful. He has tried numerous pain medications but they are wiping me out and only one even touches the pain (Nucynta). I do have Percocet which isn't very helpful nor are the Fentanyl patches. I am now on medical leave from work and about to lose my mind due to lack of sleep. I am alternating ice packs and heat and hoping this is a temporary side effect. Since it is Friday I am going to give it the weekend and call him if this continues. BTW, the medication for the neuralgia is Lyrica. I started at 75 mg and am down to 25 and still can't tolerate it. I've had about 3 hours sleep in the last 30 hours.
Has anyone else had this neuralgia after the Rhizotomy? The deep nerve pain is gone!!! Hurray! But the headaches and surface pain has me feeling like a couch potato as there is not much I am able to do. Always very active, this is the hardest part. Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear if anyone has had the same or similar experience.
Lynn
I just found your post and am wondering if you are still here? Would like to know how your doing now? plz email me if you can at _[removed]_ I am 9 months post rhizotomy and have all the same issues you seem to have. plus now my nerve pain is back Thank you. Hope your better now
I'm now two months post neck rhizotomy. Still have horrific burning sensation and worse pain in my neck. Doctor said that all went. According to plan( but he would) and has no idea why it is still so bad. I'm wondering if he has caused permanent damage.
I had the right side done a year ago and have pretty much been pain free. The pain began to reappear, so I scheduled to have it done again. Went a week ago and 100% relief. I have a bulging disc, bone spurs and arthritis in my neck. It also helped with the headaches. I would recommend. Dr. says it can work for a few months or even years.
I am supposed to have this procedure done in April. I'm scared to death. I've done everything include steroid injections three times. The injections helped. I put off getting the rhizotomy done. I post poned it as long as I could. All the doctors want me to have it done. It's a last hope for them and me, but I'm still not so sure I want to have it done. Most of what I have read says it is very successful. Yet I only know of people having it done in their back. I don't know of anyone who has had it done in their neck. The doctor tells me since the injections work, then the facet joint rhizotomy will work. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?
Real relief...
I have had cervical pain for 10+ years after my military service. I'm a former U.S. Marine and served in some of the toughest units that exist. My neck pain (after service) had gotten to point that I was missing so much work that I worried about losing my job. I've been seeing doctors for years now, pain management and neuro surgeons mostly. Surgery has been recommended but I've also gotten several second opionions that said that surgery was not typically good at correcting neck pain. I've taken heavy narcotics (oxys) and diazepam for years which still were unable to control the neck pain at times. After years of dealing with this, I believe I've finally found some real relief with no hazy feelings. I went through these trials where they performed the medical branch blocks at four levels on both sides of my upper neck. The injections do hurt. My main problems are severe spinal stenosis (narrowing of cervical spine) at three levels, occipital never pain (causing migraines), degeneration of cervical intervertebral discs (multiple leves), nerve root inflamation, degenerative disc disease, multiple spurs at every level of the cervical spine, and C3-4 disc hernation. I don't want surgery since I'm only only 34 and I don't want all the long term problems associated with multiple level fusions, especially at my age. Further as I mentioned before, the other opinions have stated it wouldn't even help anything except my arm pain. I can deal with that part for now. All of this is in my upper neck. My point here is to state that in the trials (facet blocks; medial branch), my pain went from very severe before to zero after. It took a week to work but WOW what a difference. The pain came back, they did another trial, lower this time, and I had 70% relief with it. I just had the final, real deal done on my left side of my neck, but already it seems to be helping. I'm only a few days post op and just one side completed thus far. My neck is fairly numb on the left side and some of the pain is still there, however, the trials went the same way. It took a week or more for the 100% relief. I believe I'm finally on my way to getting back to a normal life. I long for the days when I can sit on the floor and play with my 18 month old son. I beleive I've found a real solution though. This procedure isn't for those with just a little pain, the procedure itself hurts quite a bit, but in my case very worth it.
I'll try to post again in a few weeks. Good luck to all.
Here's an update to my progress from this procedure from my previous post 3/18/13. The majority of the pain on the left side went away once they did the RFA on the left except for one area in the middle (left side) of my neck. The middle (left side) was still quite painful after 5 weeks with a feeling also of a deep sunburn. They did the right side of my neck last week with RFA, again 4 levels. Now several days after the procedure, my neck is already nearly 100% pain free on both the left side and the right. The procedure on the left seems to have also helped clear up the remaining pain problems on the left.
This procedure really works great for me, my pain levels are now quite low. My 2 cents.