Denervation Experiences

Hi there, I am not quite clear of your situation. I am no Dr. I will briefly explain my situation to you. I was diagnosed with .R.S.D., .Peripheral neuropathy, I have .D.D.D., .D.J.D., .Chronic fatigue syndrome, bad back, bad neck, fibromyalgia and other things basically I am kind of falling apart. The .R.S.D gets me the most, as it spreads to all limbs I have had botox injections, nerve blocks, 24 hour drip blocks and not to much has helped but we are all different, I was supposed to get a stimulator and a pain pump but I lost my insurance, I still have not given up hope yet as I feel that their is something out there for me that can help besides all of these meds, which I have cut back on because they do not seem to help much anymore. My dr swears that I have ms along with some other things plus some strokes but he just cannot prove it yet. I have had 22 surgeries so I feel that part of this is scar tissue. My back problem is l4to s1 with sciatica and I do have arthritis.
Could you please explain more what your situation is, I am interested in finding out and seeing what your plans are.
I do not mean to put any negative thoughts and I understand your thought s and I have a big shoulder and sometimes it helps just to talk about it. Are you talking about where they go in aand cut the sciatica nerve. I know that this is part of the reason that I fall.
The best to you!

Hi sandyallen and thanks for your comments!

Blimey, you're situation sounds challenging! My complaints are minor compared to what you're going through.

Basically i've been diagnosed as hypermobile. This means my joints have too much range of motion (movement). This is down to the way my collegen throughout my body is made. "normal people" (for want of a better expression) have strong collegen which means strong tendons, ligaments etc. My collegen is very bendy (just the way i'm made).

I was happily hypermobile with no symptoms or problems until I had my first baby 3 years ago. When I was pregnant the hormone called relaxin made all the ligaments, tendons etc softer still. This is normal to prepare the body for birth. However, in my case i'm bendy enough so the pregnancy hormones make me too bendy!

What happened next was my pelvis became unstable which made my back unstable. As a result I have pubis symphysis dysfunction (joint at front of pelvis), sacroiliac joint dysfunction on both sides and a couple of facet joints need treating also.

What the doc has done already are diagnostic joint injections. He injected steriod and anesthestic into the areas listed above which has alleviated my pain but unfortunately is only a temporary solution.

The next step is denervation.

The dr identifies which nerves are causing me the pain and then burns them until they die. This should give me pain relief for approx 4 years until the nerves start to regnerate.

I very much want to have another baby but unless I have this treatment the pain during pregnancy will be unbearable. I was bed ridden with my first child and apparently second pregnancies tend to be worse. The body recognises it's pregnant again and starts making the relaxin hormone more efficiently than the first pregancy.

Sorry this is long and hope it makes some sort of sense.

Sarah
:)

I believe your talking about a risotomy, at least that’s the procedure name, is. Your doc might have called it a denervation, but it’s called a risotomy. What it is: it’s kind of like the injections you have already had in that they start with the novocain injections to localize the pain. The next step is where they differ. Instead of the steroid injection they use some sort of electric needle that heats up pretty hot and pretty fast. My doc called it the hot poker! At any rate the needle slides in, heats up and is supposed to kill the nerves in the area. It is far from a permanent solution and is supposed to work for 2 to 3 years in most cases. The nerves will grow back, or heal I should say and if your pain continues then you will have to have the procedure redone.

In my case I have had both the steroid injections and the risotomy and neither have worked. I currently have a facet joint issue as well which is the reason for the risotomy. It did not work, as I mentioned. In all honesty is scared the absolute crap out of me and I will not repeat the procedure even though my doc has mentioned his desire to do it again on more of the area. Since it didn’t work the first time, why would I let him do it again, especially since it would likely have to be done again in a couple years?

They will put you to sleep or should at least. They wont knock you completely out, but I have often found that whatever they use to kind of put you, will put you out anyway. Somehow the surgeons make a distinction, but it still puts me out for about an hour. You shouldn’t wake up with any pain, since you will have local novocain. The area will be slightly soaring over the next few days and you will have some scabbing where they make the injections. No scaring will occur and topical feeling (there is a better term for it) will be fine. You should be able to sense touch as well as pressure on, in or around the area, but about 1 inch down, you shouldn’t feel any pain. This is of course assuming the procedure works.

Should you have it done? That’s up to you. I seriously doubt I will have it done again, but I have pretty much sworn off all procedures these days. I have had so many and none have worked. The only reason they try anything new is because they are at a loss as to what to do for me. Why would I let them do these things, when they don’t even know if they will work? You should probably consider trying it anyway, since the other injections did work for you. Mine didn’t, but I a walking box of pain. Give it a shot though. Expect about a 4 hour or less procedure start to finish and expect to have a driver for you that day. Best of luck

I saw another post you made and wonder if it really is the risotomy after all. If you have already had injections and this one is different then I am probably right. If this is your first set of injections, then it will be a steroid injection using cortisone in all likelihood. Ask him if it is a risotomy though, so that you know exactly what it is your getting into. I seriously doubt that denervation is a clinical term so you will want to find out the exact proceedure. If he looks at your stupid or asks what risotomy is, then run like hell.