AlanVA

Hello all,

Was wondering if anyone had opinions about this situation:

Short version - went through 3 cortisone injections into SI joint and got decent relief from them (for about 4-6 weeks each time). After 3rd visit, dr talked about being evaluated for the radio frequency nerve burn so I made an appt for that.

When I talked with the doc (same practice, different doc) who specialized in RF, after I described my history and current pain issues, she wanted to try another injection first but instead of the SI joint it was up around L4-5 area.

I got some relief from this but not as much as the prior injections. When I told her this on the next visit, she said rather than go for another injection she would just proceed to do a "test block" for the RF which consisted of 6 injections of various numbing solutions (of which I can't remember the names of what she said) which should last 4-6 hours to numb everything as a test to simulate what the actual RF treatment would be like.

Problem is - I felt a lot of discomfort from the 6 injections for the rest of the day and I couldn't really tell if I was gettng any real back pain relief from what she did. I was walking better this time leaving the place and I even tried to bring on the pain which I can normally do by standing for a long period and arching backwards but again, I couldn't really tell if my discomfort was the normal pain or a result of the injections and the muscles in the whole region were just sore from the test.

My back pain isn't 100% constant and I have good days and bad days where there is large amount of difference (such as I don't need any meds for the good days where things are just a 2 on the scale and just more of a discomfort than real pain which could be several days in a row and then the bad days which hit an 8+ on the scale and I can't stand up straight, barely walk or tolerate sitting for any period longer than about 20 minutes and it is all I can do to just continue on with my work and resorting to the 7.5 vicodins every 4-5 hours and that is just enough to take the edge off things to continue working until I can get home and lay down).

Has anyone been through this or have any insights? I plan to explain all of this to her when I see her in two more weeks for a follow-up and see what she says. I don't think there was any cortisone injection provided when she did the test block since the pain level has been climbing and more often than in-between the other treatments.

This may sound strange but I am considering just asking her to do the RF procedure on the grounds that it probably couldn't hurt anything to try (beyond just the procedure itself which probably isn't all that fun) and if I get relief from it, then great and if not, then back to the drawing board and maybe more focus on the SI region.

Thanks,
Alan.