A picture of the needles in my neck
during the last procedure
A long while back I stopped seeing the VA clinic for all my health issues. I forget if I mentioned this before, but here's a quick rundown of events that led to my decision. The local VA clinic as I'm sure all of them are, is very busy. Every time I had an appointment I felt like I was just a number that the doctor was trying to get through so he could get to the next patient. The pros of the clinic are that everything is free, but the cons were enough to make me look elsewhere for treatment. I felt like my doctor (who could barely speak English), would never listen to me and the solution was just more pills. I had a drawer full of various prescriptions I was on. The only ones that really helped temporarily was the narcotics. With all these prescriptions in my body I could literally feel my brain start to fade away. I felt like I was getting premature Alzheimer's or Dementia, and I'm not even kidding! It was getting pretty scary, it was hard to do simple math...remember people's names etc.
Luckily for me, the place that I currently work has a good health plan and even has a clinic on site that we can go to. I started seeing the doctor at the clinic and it made a world of difference. She had me start reducing my current intake of prescriptions. I wanted to stop everything cold turkey, but I'm no doctor. When I was finally off of everything, the only pills I was taking were vitamins and
Percocet for the chronic pain. The doctor also had me try a number of different ideas such as physical therapy, massage therapy, and so on. The physical therapy made the pain much much worse, the massage therapy was awesome, but gave me only temporary relief.
Finally the doc gave me a referral to the pain clinic. This is where the fried nerves comes into play. After consulting with the pain management doctor, we decided on trying a procedure which is technically called a "medial branch block". The procedure consisted of 2 diagnostic shots and then the actual "frying of the nerves in my neck".
The first diagnostic shot had me go in and get an anesthetic shot into 4 different locations between the vertebrae in my neck. Getting the shots was a bit uncomfortable. I had to lay on my side while the doctor injected some numbing agent (for the shots), then put in the diagnostic anesthetic into the nerves. The whole time I had to lay still and listen to him tell the nurse constantly to take another X-Ray so he could make sure he was putting the needle into the correct place. I had this procedure done on a Monday and for the first time since around 2013 I actually felt like a normal human being. I could run around, jump, do all the things that used to put me out of commission. During this time I had to keep a pain diary. The pain was minimal at first, kind of like a stiff neck from the shots. Once that wore off I felt normal. I can't put into words how awesome this felt. For so long I've dealt with the chronic pain every moment of every day pretty much. Imagine having a headache anywhere on the pain scale of 2-10 (out of 10) every day of your life. It can really make life just suck constantly. There have been a number of times where I just don't do stuff because I'm in too much pain. This first diagnostic procedure lasted from Monday until Saturday, then of course the pain came back and hit me like a truck! All that running around and jumping caught up to me.
The second diagnostic shot was similar to the first one, except the pain came back on Thursday. A couple days shorter, but the doc told me it wouldn't last as long.
Finally the third visit I had the actual procedure done. They had me take a Valium before the procedure and also had me lay on my stomach this time (much more comfortable). This time the procedure took a bit longer and was more uncomfortable than the first two. There was pain, but not unbearable. I just kept still and knew that it was going to help me in the long run. When finished they said it may take two weeks for the effects to kick in. The lasting effects should go for about a year, then the nerves will grow back and I will have to have it done again. A year without the chronic pain will be so worth it! I had my right side done, depending on the results I may have to go in and have my left side done as well.
Currently it's the day after the final injection and I'm feeling good. I'm super optimistic about the coming year. I should be able to work out, maybe even play some basketball, and who knows what else. One thing is for certain...I will be doing a lot more than I have been for so long!!
