Radiofrequency ablation/neurotomy

Anyone here ever had expierence with radiofrequency surgeries. I am scheduled to have one done on Aug. 2, and i was wondering what others have expierenced in terms of long term pain management, and/or recovery times, side effects, etc.?

I don't have any personal experience with this, but I've toyed with the idea of finding an anesthesiologist to do this for me for a long time. It seems like an attractive option. Please keep us updated of your progress once you have it done.

I will. It seems like a practical alternative to meds and my response to having facet injections and medial branch blocks has been pretty good. Since starting injections i have not been to the ER at all, almost a year. And the severity of the headaches has been much less and easier to treat with rescue meds. However, the frequency of the headaches has not changed at all and i am still dependent on my meds. But i do consider the injections to be a small victory. Yet there is still a large battle to be fought. I will update after the procedure.

Please keep us updated. This was mentioned to me yesterday as a possible treatment for my lower back pain. First I have to have two successful rounds of key point Injections to indicate the proper placement. I'm not familiar at all with the procedure.

Always the strangest thing, isn't it? You hear about something and then within a day, hello? Someone brings it up!

I've done it. One side effect to be aware of is that the radiofrequency will burn your scalp. Most people heal from that pretty quickly, but I didn't. The doctors figured that this was because my body has taken such a bad beating over the years from my migraines and other problems that it just isn't able to heal itself as fast as healthier people do. I ended up having to take a medicine that would calm the nerves down because I couldn't lie down without a whole lot of pain.

Unfortunately, for me, it didn't do the job. But the doctor who performed this on me said that he had tried this on several patients with good success. For me, it did lower the migraine pain some, but not for very long. The theory behind this is to give you enough of a break away from the pain that the body gets reprogrammed into learning how to live without pain. It's based upon the concept of pain memory, where, once the body begins to experience pain, the more frequently you get pain, the less it remembers how to get out of that pain. But if you stop the pain temporarily (and RFA is supposed to block the pain for months and even a year or two!), it sort of resets the body, so it can go back to before you had such severe pain.

I do know that it worked for my good friend's father when he had it on his shoulder, or maybe arm, after a serious car accident. My friend was going to have it done to her too because she had similar injuries from the same accident (they were hit by a semi), but the doctors couldn't fit her in before she was to go back to school in England, and the insurance wouldn't cover her getting it down while in England.

So there is hope! I'm just a particularly tricky case, and nothing has ever helped me, with the exception of beta blockers, which lower my blood pressure too much and make me faint.

I wish you the best, Finnosian. I am very interested in reading your updates. Happy you keep moving forward and that you are pleased with your doctor

Cheryl

Thanks Cheryl,

thank you for urging me to move on. I was stuck in a bad pattern and you helped me moved forward and i am very appreciative for that.

Brian