Pain Management Clinic
 

I am in the process of getting a referral to a local pain management clinic from one of my doctors and hope to start in mid July.

I realize we all have different symptoms, but can anybody tell me what might happen when I go to the clinic?

There are chiros, physical therapists, and other people on the staff. Do I pick one, or will they test me there and then send me to whoever will help?

I'm experiencing terrible neck pain, as well as excruciating pain/pressure in my eyes. I can handle my neck if I have to, but I'm hoping they can at least figure out how to fix my eyes.

Hi there,

I went to a pain management dr for my neck. Also had pain behind rt eye. The dr burned (ablated) the greater occipital nerves. I was living with headaches/migraines daily. Actually I had no life. I mostly lived in bed.

He started on the left. He injected a numbing med on the left. I had to pay attention for four hours after and let him know what percentage if any it improved the pain.

Let him know at follow up visit. A week later they repeated the injection to see if I got the same result. Two weeks later I went in for the follow up to let home know. Two weeks later I had the ablation.

Then the whole process on the right side began.

On each side I had injections down C3-C7 I believe. And the burning followed this also.

Numbing shots uncomfortable and painful but doable. I took xanax before each except the first one. I opted not to be sedated for the ablations. I took .5 xanax before both. I was afraid to have my brain exposed to something stronger. If the is a next time...I will go for sedation. 😳

Each procedure was about 10-15 minutes. Numbing shots take a few days to heal from as they go deep into the tissue. The ablation on the left took 5 weeks and the right took 8. It's an intense sore feeling the first two weeks like someone hit me with a sledgehammer on the back of the head and upper back. There are sharp pains and burning.

I still get burning, sharp pain every now and then and stayed numb to some degree for 3 months with itching that can't be scratched.

Would I do it again. YEP! But sedated for the ablations. I'm out of bed and am 50-60% better on left and 75-80% better on right. Eye pain is gone too.

Good luck to you and I hope your pain is gone very soooooon!

Jenna

Jenna, thank you for explaining all of that. I am terrified of new things lately, so I wanted to have some idea what to expect.

I think even if my visit goes nothing like yours, it still helps me to have some idea of what COULD happen. If that makes any sense lol.

Did they happen to say what was causing your eye pain? My doctors have blamed a few different things for it, but I am convinced it is coming from my neck! My eye doctor seemed to think I was crazy, but my PCP agrees it's possible and has said I have some type of neuralgia.

I was thinking my PCP would tell me more at my visit next week, but I checked my notes and it looks like he wants me to get more information from one of my other doctors. He basically said, "I think you have neuralgia but I don't know the best thing to do for it".

I do remember him saying that nerves sometimes repair themselves within 2 years (I might be wording this wrong, but I think he said "repair). Unfortunately, I will probably go completely insane if I have to spend 2 more years feeling like this.

My headaches are mostly gone, but the pain and pressure in my right eye drive me crazy. It's all I can think about for most of the day because the pain is so intense. It went away for a few weeks but came back worse than before.

The pain radiates throughout my face at times, too. Just terrible. I won't miss it when it's gone (I've decided to think positive and assume it will be gone after going to the clinic).