Nerve Blocks

Hey All,

I used to come here quite frequently but then fell out of the habit I guess you could say.

I have suffered with the Migraine Monster for about 50 years now (since I was eight) but back then a script of 40 Fiorinol would last me a year.  Back in 1999 I had Viral Meningitis and I guess you could say a "side effect" I was left with is Chronic Daily Migraines.  I went to a great neurologist for over 5 years but finally one day (after we had gone through all the preventative meds fowards and back 3 times) he just threw up his hands and said "I can help you no more.  You need to go to Pain Management".  So, he refered me to one but after all the paperwork etc., the man tells me, "I don't do migraines.  You'll have to find someone else."  Thus began the search... and now 5 pain management clinics later I have found one that has been willing to work with me for the past couple of years.  But, the original doctor that headed up these clinics lost his license and now it is under new management.  

I've been in to see the new docs 5 times now and the one I saw last month is really pushing me to go for the nerve block.  

My old neuro told me, "when you run a fever of 105+ for 5 or 6 days it will fry the electrical connections and nerve endings in your brain and this is what has happened to you"  So... I'm wondering if the nerve block will even work on me with the nerve damage I've sustained.  Also, I haven't been able to find any side effects of the nerve blocks online.  (Guess I'm not searching correctly).  With these Daily Monsters (and by Daily I mean 29 out of 31 days in a month) I also get petit mal seizures; my speech goes all haywire; I stutter and stammer and suffer from Aphasia (which I call Swiss Cheese Brain because it is as if my brain is full of holes and I can't find the right words to fit what I am trying to say).  My short term memory is totally shot.  Long term is great but don't ask me what I had for dinner last night.  I used to be a wiz on a computer... I built my first computer from spare parts back BEFORE there was Windows!  Now... I get so frustrated with my husband's computer because it has Windows 8 and I just can't get anything to work right on it!  

I've been on long term disability from my job since 2003 and don't see myself able to go back to it any time in the future.

Sorry, I digress, I'm wondering what anyone out there can tell me about these nerve blocks.  Do they work?  Side effects?  I know this doctor told my husband and me that he would be injecting me in my forehead as well as in the base of my skull.  We already told him he will have to knock me out because any needle comes near me and I am so phobic I go into a panic attack.  shrug

If anyone can help me out here, I would ever so greatly appreciate it!!

Thanks!
Lori

BestestFriend wrote:Hey All, . . .

I've been in to see the new docs 5 times now and the one I saw last month is really pushing me to go for the nerve block.  

My old neuro told me, "when you run a fever of 105+ for 5 or 6 days it will fry the electrical connections and nerve endings in your brain and this is what has happened to you"  So... I'm wondering if the nerve block will even work on me with the nerve damage I've sustained.  Also, I haven't been able to find any side effects of the nerve blocks online.  (Guess I'm not searching correctly).  . . .

Sorry, I digress, I'm wondering what anyone out there can tell me about these nerve blocks.  Do they work?  Side effects?  I know this doctor told my husband and me that he would be injecting me in my forehead as well as in the base of my skull.  We already told him he will have to knock me out because any needle comes near me and I am so phobic I go into a panic attack.  shrug

If anyone can help me out here, I would ever so greatly appreciate it!!

Hi Lori,

These links might help, even though only the first one refers to migraines:

http://www.rsdrx.com/rsdand.htm

http://www.rsdrx.com/nerve%20block%20abstract.htm

Though short, they are both rather technical, so you might want to print them out and show them to your doctor.

According to this article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0212-fever-20140219,0,3521483.story

High fevers do not cause brain damage. "Brain damage may occur from an infection such as meningitis or encephalitis," said Sullivan, but not from fevers. Brain damage can result when the body temperature soars to 108 degrees Fahrenheit, but this is caused by hyperthermia, or heatstroke, which is very different than a fever from an illness. Brain damage or death can occur if, for example, a child is left in a closed car in hot weather. Fevers also aren't likely to make an illness worse.

I hope these help.

Thanks for the info and I intend to check out the links right away.  But also as I had stated in my post, I DID have meningitis.  Matter of fact, I thought it was just the flu or something so I didn't go to the doctor right away.  I waited until about day 5 when an online chatting buddy made me promise that I wouldn't wait any longer and would go to the doctor that morning.  I was in with the doctor for only 5 minutes or so when he called the hospital to get me a room and had my son take me right over to be admitted.  So... yea, there is brain/nerve/electrical connection damage done to my brain.

Once again, thanks for the info.

Lori

I had my nerve blocks in all the vertebrae in my neck last week.  Eppidural injections of steriod at C2-3, C3-4, C4-5.  Also had Marcaine injections in each of the facet joints in cervical spine.  It's been about a week since the procedure.  I don't feel any different that before.  I have the same 5 daily headaches. 
1-icepicks-in-eyes. 
2-Temples with vise grip squeezing down. 
3-million hot needles peircing my scalp. 
4-pressure balloon brain. 
5-lumberjack hopping up and down on my neck.

This was my first round of steriods into my cervical spine.  I was hoping for a better result. Has anyone had these?  Does it take several rounds of injections before the steriod starts working?

Thanks for the input.  I go or my first nerve block injections this Thursday and I have decided that I am going thru with it.  At least this way I can tell them at Disability that I attempted this for a solution and they don't think I'm just sitting on my duff wishing these MONSTERS away.

I know at one time since I've been on Disability I had a week long (count them... 7 [seven] whole days!) in-patient IV steroid treatment.  However, I also watched that clock so that as soon as 5 hours 25 mins had passed I could tell the nurse to call to the pharmacy to get my Percocet IV push ready for the 6 (six) hour dose because the pain just would NOT subside!  (I had learned right quick that I should not wait till the 6 [six] hour mark to ask for it because it would take them right at 30 mins to get the med sent up from the pharmacy!)

Hope you feel some relief soon!!
Lori

Well, I had the dang Nerve Block done and it DID NOT HELP ONE BIT!  In fact, it has left me with a horrible voice... all hoarse all the time but worse at night.  Seems that steroids can do it to a very few and of course your's truly is one of those.  The doc doesn't know if I will EVER get my normal voice back!

As for the Monsters... I have had some of the worse migraines in my life since they messed with those dang shots!!  I told them yesterday that I will NOT EVER allow another nerve block!  So... back to the regular regime of Oxycotin20 3Xaday and Oxycodone/Acetaminophen 10-325's every 4-6 hours as needed for pain.  They only give me 100 a month so I have to be really careful with them as the Monsters hit me 28 out of 30 days a month. 

(I know all about the rebounds.  I will sometimes go several days of just staying in bed to kind of "detox" myself to be sure I'm not just dealing with the rebounds.)  I am VERY careful of my meds.

I had asked him when I can go back to every other month again and he looked back through my records at my "wiz quizes" and told me that I was clear in Jan, but in Feb it showed Klonopin. ???  I have told them and told them I have been prescribed Klonopin for the past 10 yrs or better as anti-seizure for the petit-mal seizures I get from the Monsters!  But... the dang person collecting the specimens did NOT ask me that time if I had taken any in the past 48 hours.  So... DUH  Of course it showed up in my urine!  But do you think I could get the dang man to listen to me???  Because the person collecting the specimens is NOT an employee of theirs but rather an employee of the lab she had no access to my records and did not ask me about the med it was not listed so he said I did not entirely pass my "quiz".  Now what kind of cr** is that???  So, I have to wait till I get in there next month and remind him that he had said that he would go to 2 month appointments for me at THAT TIME.  He had already finished typing everything into the computer for my visit so the visit was OVER and no matter what I said he would not change from his stance.  What a dumb ignorant individual sitting there in his madras slacks with no socks on his loafered feet!!

Sorry this is so long....had to vent
Hope you all have much better days than I have had here.
Lori