My friends at LibraryThing wonder why I think that Needled to Death seems to describe how I feel lately. Here's my explanation:

I have a severe bad back and have suffered with pain on and off for the last 30 some years but the last 2½ it's been getting progressively worse. May of last year I started going to Pain Mgmt doctors and had a series of 3 steroid injections (NEEDLES) which gave me about 4 weeks of relief before the pain returned. Then I got 2 series of FACET block injections (NEEDLES) which did nothing to relieve the pain. Then I had Radio Frequency ablation (two series of NEEDLES) and that just made things worse.

Even today fell into the NEEDLED to DEATH category. I had a return visit scheduled with the Pain Mgmt office and here's how it went...

I got there at 10:15 (my appt. was 10:30), the sign said everything was running on schedule. At 10:50 I got up and asked what was going on if everything was running on time "Oh, just 5 more minutes.." 11:20, I was called back and asked to pee in a cup - I said "NO I'm not doing anything until I see a doctor." They put me in a room and at 11:40 said that the doctor was behind schedule (no sh-- Sherlock) would the PA be okay? I said yes because at this point I just wanted to get it over with and get out of there. I told the PA that I had made this appt specifically to see the "DOCTOR" because I wanted some answers. They had received the written report on the CT scan I had 3 weeks ago but wanted me to go get the actual films, I said "no - you can get them yourselves - the facilities are 1 floor down from the office." I was not going to be taking anymore time away from work because they were incompetent! He also basically told me the same thing that the PA 2 weeks ago said - options to consider were disco-gram, PT, massage therapy. I asked about acupuncture and was told that insurance probably wouldn't cover it but that it wouldn't hurt anything. They wanted Blood or urine and I felt like making it as tough as possible on them so I said blood and the little tech couldn't even get that right. The PA gave me another prescription (I had to wait another 15 minutes for that) and said to come back in 3 weeks. I think I'm going to look for another Pain Mgmt office. Needless to say I am extremely frustrated, angry and still in pain including 5 needles (trying to draw blood) again today!

Burn the nerves!

This morning Tim and I headed to the Pain Management Surgical Center in Frederick so that the doctors could knock me out and perform - Radio Frequency Ablation. They must have been good, because I don't remember a thing about them burning the nerves that have been causing me the near constant pain for the last year and a half or so.

Pain relief isn't experienced until about 2-3 weeks after the procedure when the nerves have completely died. The nerves will eventually regenerate but the pain may not come back with it. If the pain does recur when the nerve grows back, the procedure can be repeated. Some patients never have a return of their pain - I'm hoping for that result - others the relief lasts up to 15 months. Still I have to go back since they only did the left side and the right side needs to get its turn.

BACK IS IS A BUMMER AGAIN

Well, I've had the steroid shots in my back and they relieved the pain for about 4 weeks. So I went back to the Pain management Doctor and we did another series of shots called Facet blocks and those did nothing at all to relieve the pain. I'm headed back to the Pain guy again to talk about the next proposal - Radio frequency ablation.

In the meantime I have started back at water aerobics so lets hope that eases some of the pain. We're headed to Orlando the first week in October and I would like to be able to enjoy some activities while we're there.

I'll keep you posted.