Gerry, I REALLY SHOULD be using some other medications, don't have any, cannot take and work, so really don't want any. But I do lecture my ER and OR patients about pain management keeping ahead of that to improve function and recovery time. So I think actually at this time I would take them at night and on my days off
As far as the ablation it did help, the pain, I am not kidding that the "blind test" is beyond what I am willing to do unless things are this bad. Basically the "test" is they do 2 separate injections into the nerve root, one is the general epidural type mix, the other one... not sure what that was but I am a fairly tough old broad...it exacerbated my pain by 100x's. I layed in bed and bawled like a baby.... see the goal is to make sure you are "truly in pain" and the procedure might help. You rate your pain with all that good stuff every 30-60 min. They then compare the pain rating from each test.
The kicker to the whole deal is that the ablation may or may not work, may work right away or in several months. If it does work there is no guarantee how long it will last.
Was ready to do this again IF they didn't need to do "the test" for my insurance company.
Such is the life of an OLD OLD NURSE with RSD