**** I am writing this at 4 pm on Tuesday since I will be unable to sit up after my surgery, I wanted to make sure that you knew about the procedure and the reason there will not be a face of the day post on Thursday. ****
Good morning beauties. I will not be doing a face of the day today. I am having Radiofrequency Ablation today and will be in pain after the surgery.
Basically my pain management doctor will be going in and burning the nerves in my lower back near my hips to help reduce the pain I get from the Fibromyalgia.
They give me anesthesia and once I’m under they take small electric rod needles and place them near my spin where the nerves are. They send and electric pulse through the needles into the nerves and that burns the nerve severing the nerve and allowing me to feel pain free in that area for 6 months. Well, basically pain free anyway. If I am standing or sitting for too long I still feel pain in that area, but at least for the most part I am pain free in the hip area.
This procedure only lasts 6 months, so every 6 months I have to undergo a new round of Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA).
I am very grateful for our health insurance as for the most part I do not pay anything to have it done. However if I haven’t hit my out of pocket expenses for the year the RFA does cost $100 a round and I get 2 done… 1 hip gets done at a time to allow me to have mobility while I heal from the surgery.
This is an out patient surgery and the recovery time is very fast… I’m normally in pain the whole rest of that day and most of the day after. I do get minimal bruising that typically goes away after a day or two.
For any of my fellow spoonies out there who suffers from lower back pain that radiates out toward the limbs I would recommend this procedure 100%!!
My quality of life has improved so much since I have been doing the RFA.
I’ve been getting it done for 3 years now. At first they didn’t use anesthesia, they would use a local anesthetic, so I was awake during the procedure. They would inject the anesthetic right into the nerve so it hurt a little while they did this, it also hurt when the injection rods were placed into the nerve ending…. but after the rods are in place it didn’t hurt as much.
For a Fibromyalgia spoonie we feel pain on a whole other level, so the pain I felt during the surgery was nothing compared to the pain I felt without taking treatment.
For more information on RFA talk to you pain management specialist. You can also get the gist of what RFA is here -> RFA on Web MD
For those of you suffering with pain due to Fibromyalgia or Lupus or any other spoonie illness looking for a good pain management center that treats your symptoms without throwing more pain meds at you … If you live in the Orlando Florida area I recommend Florida Pain Relief Group .
Well that’s all for now loves …. I hope you are finding the day with plenty of spoons and as pain free as you can be.
Remember dolls always save a spoon for a bit of lip gloss….
XOXO
A Spoonie's Makeup Bag 