I had a 9mm tear in my spine in 2012 and have CRPS in all 4 limbs at this point. I am a walking pain episode. I just had this procedure (radio frequency nerve ablation) done Friday and it's Monday morning and I am in some real pain from the procedure. I came here this morning looking for some encouragement after the fact (meaning, looking to be encouraged that after I get through the increased pain that my doctor warned me about, I have something better to look forward to, down the road). I must admit, this thread, at present, isn't doing that for me, lol.

I will try to post back here later (in a few weeks) as to any results I've gotten or not gotten from having it done. The actual procedure isn't that big a deal....some stinging, as described on articles provided in the internet, and when the doctor hit 2 of the more "angry" nerves he ablated, I absolutely felt it, but even so, not a big deal when you live with pain like what we pain patients live with. So, at the end of it all, what we all really care about is whether or not we will get the anticipated results from the procedure.

I have NOT seen anything anywhere, concerning this procedure, which lines up with my personal experiences, so far. For example, after my spine injury in 2012, the left side and top of my left thigh were extremely painful (extremely, like hovering at an 8-9 on the pain scale, for months). That pain has been with me over the years, off and on....gets worse and eases up. This RFA they did Friday has brought all of that back as if I were back to the original spine injury from 2012....which I find interesting (not so much, Im sure you can understand why). Anyway, nothing I read about RFA indicated that specific places where there is a lot of nerve activity in the limb would "light up" when this RFA was done....I've read more that we would feel sunburned on the back (I do...but believe me, there is sunburn and there is the pain I am feeling in the nerves in the limb, and the sunburn is like a cold to double flu).

Anyway, in all the places (at spine L4L5), on the side of my thigh and on the top of the thigh and in ankle/foot, where my RSD/CRPS and prior nerve damage/activity is, this RFA has "lit up" these areas with a vengance, and I am holding my breath, just hoping on hope that it's a part of the process. It is my understanding that I am now waiting for the nerves that were ablated to die off....and so hopefully, as that happens, this new intense pain will die off with it.
I will try to remember to follow up here and share what comes next.

Please do let us know how you are doing. I had L4-5 fusion/laminectomy over 10 years ago and still dealing with a lot of pain. Unfortunately, at this time, pain managementi medication is what I am using at this time. Dealing with nerve pain as well.
Thanks for posting...
Gerry

Hi everyone. I wanted to follow up on my previous post since it's been 3 or 4 weeks since my procedure.
As stated before, I had radio frequency ablation on 4 nerves on the left side of my spine at and below L4L5. I have no idea what people might want to know, but I am going to give my impressions.

At the time of the procedure, two of the nerves my doctor worked on were extremely sensitive (hence the need for the procedure, obviously, ). At those locations, my doctor told his assistant to switch to "pulse" to complete the ablation of those nerves. I have no idea what that means, but this if FYI.

Three days after the procedure the medicine he gave me to keep me numb wore off and let me tell you....it definitely wore off. The next two or so days were so intense with pain that on at least one of them, I literally sat and slept or watched movies to keep my body completely still. ANY movement stimulated my spine and it was extremely unpleasant for me.

On the next day (6 days after the procedure), at some point during the day, I felt a poof of nothing where there had been so much pain and realized that the nerves in question had completed the dying process and since then and to right now, all that nerve pain is just GONE. I do not have any nerve pain going down my leg. For me, and this is my impression.....I felt like I had lost a limb. There is no other way for me to put it. I had this constant pain and whether I wanted to or not, my brain was very "in touch" with the constant pain on the left leg side and then, that 6th day after the procedure, it just went away and is still gone. I continue to wait for it to come back in full force, but nope....nothing....this is HUGE for me in my pain relief protocol.

Now, for the rest of the story.
First of all, when you remove the most intense pain, you expect your intense pain to be gone, but...it's not really like that for me. I have other pains that are now aggravating me to pieces. My doctor said this would happen. I did not realize that just below the level of pain from my left leg/spine was other types of pain which are now more prominent since the other pain is gone.

Also, the "sunburn" feeling that remains following the procedure is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, and I am told it will last for 4-6 weeks since the date of the procedure. THIS pain can be pretty uncomfortable, but it's not nerve pain....it's like a whopping dose af allodynia. Not much to do or say about it...it's here and not going anywhere until it does.

My overall impression of the nerve ablation is strongly positive since I have gone from a person who felt constant and brain numbing nerve pain down my left leg and I no longer feel it. I think the biggest disappointment for me is that this procedure only does what it does...no more, no less....and I still have a lot of pain issues that haven't gone anywhere. I got my hopes up too high about this procedure and was quite let down when I realized that it would only solve the nerve pain down my leg (who am I to say "only" solved that pain.....I must be nuts.....that pain alone was so incredible there are no words, and it completely went away, vanished to thin air.....).

I would recommend this procedure to others based on my own experience with it.