I have severe back pain that has worsened with age (duh!) and finally got help.
History: compression fracture of lumbar vertebrae 40 + years ago. Spinal fusion and stabilizing rods.
Just lived with it until recently having sharp pains that would cause involuntary curses.
Stretching did little, an MRI showed stenoses (narrowing of the spinal canal). That got the ESI thing going.
Epidural steroid injections (3X) gave relief for several weeks each time. Pain guy says back surgery is overdone and wants to do the RF ablation thing.
All this messing about with my spine is of concern, but I am approaching cripple stage in what I can do other than stand and sit.
Have you tried cbd gummies? Delta 8? I’d start with 1/2 of a 25mg gummie. And d9nt buy the cheap otc gas staion or pot shop ones.
I has two ablations and they did little to nothing to help me. First one seemed to help for about 6 months, then the pain cam back raging. 2nd RF ablation did absolutely nothing. Injections were not much help to no help at all and largely stopped working after about 6 times. What finally got me out of the cycle was seeing a specialist who knew what they hell he was doing and properly diagnosed me. It was my hips/SI joints, not my back causing the bulk of the pain, but because of all the referred pain I couldn’t differentiate where the pain was coming from. I also have stenosis and PSA, getting the PSA diagnosed was helpful, but I’m in a rough cycle trying to get meds straightened out that help and don’t cause the psoriasis plaques to flare out of control.
With nerve ablations, they target the facet nerves (usually), and they can grow back, sometimes in worse locations. It can take up to three ablations to completely kill off the targeted nerves. Depending on how many levels (mine was 3 the first time, 4 the second), you can expect a lot of needles in your spine by the time you’re done. For my insurance I had to go through two diagnostic procedures to get approval for the fist ablation, so by the time I was done, that was 18 needles in my back/spine. Second time was nearly 20 needles all told.
I have had the lower back RF Ablation a couple times now. It lasts about 2 years on average (it was almost to the day in my case) and they just redo it. Best my back has felt in 40+ years. No complications either. I have also had it done on my neck vertebrae nerves as well a couple times. Same result. Back injuries + lyme disease years ago and alot of arthritis.