SKZ

Bob,
I am queen of the injections, over here. I have alot of arthritis in my facet joints in the neck AND disk issues. I am having ACDF soon. Either Dec. or Jan. You name it, I have had it done to my disks and joints. The thing that helped my facet joints the MOST was something called radio-frequency (RF)denervation. It has a ton of different names. (rhizotomy is another name). They wont just do that procedure without doing several other diagnostic injections in the weeks before the RF procedure. (facet injections to make sure that those help the pain and its IN FACT in the joints). The literally kill the medial nerves, which do grow back. It aggravated my symptoms for about 4-5 weeks afterwards, but then it helped ALOT. Its supposed to give you up to a year and half of relief. (some people get more, some get less). My problem was that it helped my facet joints, but my disks were still hurting so I wasnt pain free the way I wished I could be. It was the difference though, between me being a bigtime basket case, crying everyday and being in pain without crying. To me that was BIG. I think my nerves are growing back because my joints hurt alot again. Its so hard to isolate all this stuff. (joints...disks....) I am finding out from the Drs. that its a very muddy scenario when you have alot of both issues. I had the RF done in April 2006, by the way. I have also had epidural steroids injections, which minimally helped, but the arthritis was still bad. They can never figure out how to help both of my issues at the same time. Hence, SURGERY.