Anyone Have A "Coolief" RFA?
 

Hi All-

Me again :eek:

Was going to put this up on my running thread on the Spinal Stim System but figured it is a bit different so started a new thread. BTW- that thread has been ABSOLUTELY AWESOME and I wish to thank ALL those who went above and beyond by both the support and education provided on it!

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread222850.html

Tomorrow morning I am having a Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) done, which I have had several of them before in the past. However, this one is a bit different since the equipment actually has Cool Water circulating around the needle, which enables the Dr. to get a MUCH hotter current thru it and thus cover a MUCH larger area of nerves to cauterize inside my Cervical Spine.

http://www.mycoolief.com/information...procedure.aspx

In the past, the diameter of nerves that get burned off (for lack of terms) is the size of a pencil eraser which generally SHOULD cover the most painful areas of nerves. The Coolief procedure is said to cover the diameter of a large grape-said the Dr.- who has performed hundreds of these in his past. Therefore, the ability to burn off MORE of the nerve endings that cause my pain is much higher and HOPEFULLY should last alot longer! They say relief can last up to 1 year but in my case it has NEVER lasted longer than 30-45 days so I guess I am a much different case. Either way, tomorrow am I will be put out with anesthesia and subsequently find out what post procedure pain I suffer from - which scares me the most since I am once again low on my pain meds! :eek:

I will provide an After Action Report on this treatment so any others who have NOT heard of it and have any type of back pain (Not just Cervical treatments available as seen on the link) , can take the idea to their Pain Management Docs for possible choices. Sound cool?
Until then friends. :cool:

Gunny Out..............

Thoughts and prayers are with you for this latest treatment, Gunny. You really sound up for it - I hope it far exceeds your expectations.

Dave.

Hi Gunny,
Thanks for the update.
Prayers this procedure will help you significantly!
Healing Thoughts,
DejaVu

Some Relief Soon
 

Hi Gunny, thanks for posting a new thread, I also read your SCS thread and I am really impressed with the level of effort your PM specialist went to. It looks and sounds like you are home and in lots of pain. I am praying that the wound area is not so big as to cause further pain for you. This life of ours is harsh, but as many have offered up before, we endure. When you get a chance please update us with your progress. :hug:

Hi Gunny,

Just checking in on you.
I hope you are having a comfortable day today.
:hug:
DejaVu

Gunny,
 

Hoping you'll soon feel up to giving an update on your procedure.

Not sure why you are not prescribed enough pain medication.:confused: This has to be especially worrisome with the possibility of not having enough to see you through this procedure.

Take care,


Gerry

Hello Folks-

Well, its been 19 days since getting put under and having this Coolief RFA to burn away a ton of nerves in my C2 thru C6 areas and the report i got from my Doc was that he hit them all dead on, which SHOULD produce the best results once I fully recovery from this Post Surgical Pain - which is still kicking my *** I must admit :(

Some days are pretty good and some are horrible, leaving me like toast laying on the sofa all day using ice every other hour or so. Only ice makes it feel better (NO HEAT)
Thankfully, my Director at work allowed me to work from home until Sept 25th which would be 6 weeks, and is VERY VERY cool (no pun) to do this for me. Meanwhile I am still eating my usual pain meds like crazy - which is something i wanted to ask (without using all that stupid forum terminology like SWIM, SWIY - have you guys ever seen that crap on those crazy drug sites? UGHHH.

Anyway, after so many dam years taking Oxycodone and my tolerance rising higher and higher all the time, I can now take TEN (10) TENS (10's) all at once and barely feel any type of head rush buzz at all. Pain relief is for sure but nothing of a high! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???? Wondering how many a person can take before their breathing just stops and thats it? I recall when just TWO would provide pain relief and give me a buzz!!! But now TEN????

Tell me how nuts I am my friends - Im sure you will be concerned and probably should not have even said a thing here (BTW- if this is against rules or not a good idea to post, someone PLEASE let me know asap ok?) Its just my personal truth though and I am NOT advising anyone to try this at home after a neck surgery! :)

Dear Friend Gunny,

You are right, I think you are Nuts and MUST stop. We really do not want to lose you.

Have you spoken to your Dr and Psychologist about the amount of pain killers you are still having to take? That has to be an essential step towards resolution.

There must be another medication/treatment route to go down.

Stay strong.

Dave.

Time to titrate down
 

Hi Gunny, is that ten a day or in one mouthful? It sounds like you are already acknowledging what you are consuming is not healthy.

At my highest I was on 140mg a day plus 200mg tepantadol. It lead very swiftly to dreaded bowel obstructions and I'm sure you have already encountered these, if not, at that rate of consumption they won't be far away. I got off oxy with the SCS and much angst. I now just take 1 temgesic a day, supposed to take more along with 200mg of tepantadol, but those bowel obstructions I suffer from are seared into my memory.

Gunny, your body probably will have developed a high dependence on them, you really should talk with your Dr about how many you are taking and together develop a plan to scale back and or change to a different medication completely at a lower dose. It is frightening how these prescribed meds can quickly get out of our control and man, we already have enough to deal without adding addiction to our list of challenges. Please, whatever happens do not decide to go it alone without medical advice, support and help. The consequences are not worth it.

The RFA wound area is quite large and will hurt for sometime unfortunately. When I had T345&6 done the pain lingered for longer than 6 months and I vowed never to have it done again over such a large area, 1 or 2 levels is liveable. I couldn't even wear clothes on my back and anyone hugging me sent me into a meltdown. It hurt! You have my utmost sympathy.

Please stay safe and with us, we enjoy having you around.

Gunny
 

I am truly sorry that you are in so much pain and wish there was anything I could do to relieve it for you , the amount of pain killers you are taking really concerns me please talk to your doc. and see if maybe they can give you something else for the pain (a very worried friend) :hug:

Hello All My Friends!
Just finished writing my friend Dave here a novel of a PM and thought Id say hello to all, and that it now seems that the Post Procedure pain is fading away and things appear to feel a tiny bit better. But I don't consider myself out of the woods by any means ya know? There are actually other procedures to go, and I openly admit much more mental health challenges to begin and hurdles to jump!

The medication thing is one that has a grip upon me, and please accept my apologies on the last post I made regarding that - it made it sound like I was an out of control Opiate Cookie Jar Fiend and all. LOL. They truly are the only thing which helps my pain for real though! Speaking of that, has anyone ever heard of this term, or better yet been diagnosed with it ever? Seems to be on my Dr's mind about me now? Hmm

"Opioid Induced Hyperalgesia" This may help some.

http://novusdetox.com/opioid-pain-effects.php

Thanks again all and best wishes to you my friends. I TRULY appreciate the kind words and thoughts articulated within this thread. They actually made me sweep up in tears to be honest! ;)

Hi Gunny,

I am so glad to see you are getting a little relief! I hope it keeps on going.

Opiate induced hypersensitivity is real and certainly something to consider. It is part of why opiates are not preferred by some docs for chronic CRPS. The mast and glial cells can get turned on by opiate use and don't shut down, something CRPSers have a problem with anyway.

At the very least you will have developed tolerance and might get better relief from opiates by backing down and starting up again. Embarking on getting off them or just reducing is a worthwhile challenge.

Thanks for the update. Sending hugs for the day, :hug:

Gunny,
Just don't understand why your doctor is giving you so much Percocet; but next to nothing of Oxycontin.

As we have discussed, Oxycontin is a time released delivering a continuous amount of the Oxy. It does not throw a 50 or 60 mg's at once like Percocet does which is usually used as a break thru when there is a time that the pain might spike using the Oxy; then one or two of the Percocet can handle the spike.

Using them all at once does not make sense. Your doc is taking you down from 30mg'sOxycontin of Oxy to 10 mg's twice a day. With 24/7 pain, you really don't get a high; but taking the break thru which delivers the full amount very quickly is a real problem in many ways. If you were getting a higher dose of Oxycontin to take maybe 2 to 4 times a day at spaced intervals;, (10mg's of Oxycontin twice a day does next to nothing to help control your pain). there would be no need to take so many Oxycodone (Percocet) at one time to control the pain for just a very short time and the pain returns with a vengeance. Also, when using up your supply of meds so soon; leaves you constantly in a state of withdrawal and not enough medication to get thru the month.

I'm glad you and Dave are PM ing. He is a very logical caring person. Gunny, wish you all the best as well as adequate Pain Management.


Gerry

Hello Friends

Just a quick update. Had my 2nd Ketamine IV Infusion yesterday (HOLY CRAP!!!) and was off in Never Land for 90 mins seeing more colors than a box of crayons! Sohoping that helps some, Doc is stacking up all these procedures to hammer all pain receptors as much as possible.

On Oxy- Main Goal is to get me off ALL Opiates soon and for me anyway, the Oxy were easiest to come off- NOT Percs! Will get into all that another time ok? Im so wiped out from 3 surgical type things in a month and pain has subsided a little. :)
Thanks for caring all. Means ALOT !!

Gunny Out........

Gunny
 

I am glad to hear that you're getting some kind of pain releafe from your pain and do hope that you're doing well :hug: