I just got 4 facet blocks in cervical area 2 weeks ago and they sort-of helped the pain for a brief time. My ortho doc is suggesting denervation next. Has anyone had good (or bad) results with this procedure?
Posted by sammy (Member # 13952) on :
I have no personal experience with that procedure but it sounds like quite a drastic measure. You must be experiencing a serious amount of pain to consider it.
Have you fully treated your Lyme and Co's? Have you tried different combinations of medicine and even received opinions from different doctors? If Lyme is the cause then I would treat the Lyme first and see if the nerve pain diminishes.
If you think that your pain is a result of some sort of trauma or structural defect then I would seriously consider the surgery. It would be good if you could talk with several people who have had the surgery.
Good luck.
Posted by Dawn in VA (Member # 9693) on :
Hi Sammy. Yep, I've been treating Lyme and its buddies since 2006. I've had a PICC line and have been on oral ABX since.
I'm not sure if the facet syndrome I have is due to Lyme arthritis or not, but the nuclear bone scan I had done shows severe degeneration in two cervical joints. I also have some scoliosis so perhaps there's a link there as well.
The pain I have now has been going on for close to a year now and seems to be increasing in severity (sans the facet joint injections). It's always tough to separate tick-borne illnesses from possibly unrelated problems. I just know that I am getting pretty desparate to get rid of this current "pain in the neck".
We shall see... Thanks again for your kind response.
Posted by jklynd (Member # 7550) on :
Dawn, Is this procedure what you're referring to? (RF ablation of troublesome nerve/s)
I'm seeing a pain management doc who thinks this is my next logical choice- I've also had some cervical block injections done recently, which,as you said,provide some relief,but not long lasting....
Also on Celebrex,which is working wonders, but would prefer to not be on it indefinitely.
Joe
Posted by lemonsnotlymes (Member # 19926) on :
Try accupuncture. Seriously. I had SEVERE neck pain. With abx treatment AND accupuncture my neck pain is essentially gone since February.
I did have a cortisone injection in my neck in early February. Made my lyme symptoms flare like crazy. And the neck pain was still there.
Whether it is the lyme treatment or the accupuncture that made the difference I won't know. It doesn't matter. I now go get accupuncture every 3 weeks or so.
So, my rec would be to try that before you do anything else.
Posted by Dawn in VA (Member # 9693) on :
Joe, yes, that's it- the radiofrequency denervation.
Lemon, I tried acupuncture at the beginning. It did not help me personally and became too expensive for me to continue. Thanks for info, though. I had the same reaction to the facet block injections- my Lyme symptoms are on overdrive right now.
Posted by karenl (Member # 17753) on :
I think this is what Mayo had scheduled me for my bowel pain in 2007. They thought that some nerve is causing the pain. I never ever had bowel pain again since I am on HH for my bart. I think your problem is totally different, just wanted to mention in my case it would have been the wrong treatment.
Posted by Rumigirl (Member # 15091) on :
Before you do the denervation, I would highly recommend doing Prolotherapy. Go to getprolo.com, there is a lot of info about it there, and you can get referrals for doctors in your area that do it.
It's helped me enormously with my pain problems and injuries. I'd go into it more, but it's late now.
Also, to tide you over, you can do Lidoderm patches on the areas of pain. It helps a lot. You'd need an rx from your doctor for them.