Pain Management Follow Up

Today I had my first pain management follow up to discuss the results of my procedures and further course of action.

The caudal steroid injection has proven to be wonderful! My legs and lower back aren't achy anymore and I finally am getting consistent and restful nights of sleep. The nerve conductivity test showed that I have radiculopathy (nerve compression) at my S1 (sacral) region affecting my legs.

Our insurance company rejected the initial request for MRI coverage so the Dr. is contacting them further to try and get it approved so that he can get more specific information as to what is causing the radiculopathy to determine future course of action. For the time being, the caudal steroid injection is keeping the pain away which I am very thankful for so I am hoping that they are able to get the insurance company to reconsider the MRI, otherwise, we may be looking into what the full cost of it would be to have it done without insurance coverage.

The cervical medial nerve block however wasn't helpful in reducing my neck pain and headaches. It didn't appear to have any impact on it at all so this Friday, he is sending me to have another procedure done: Trigger Point Injections at the base of my skull which instead of targeting the nerves will target getting the muscles that the nerves go through to relax. I am not sure how I like the sound of that but the cervical medial nerve block was uncomfortable but not as bad as I was thinking it could be so this hopefully won't be much worse.

I was initially expecting the injections for the cervical medial nerve block to be done at the base of my skull but instead they were performed through the center of my shoulders at the base of my neck. So I already have myself somewhat mentally prepared for having needles stuck into the back of my skull.

Fingers crossed this helps! If we can get rid of these headaches and neck pain, I will feel like a mid 30s year old and not a senior citizen again! The back & legs are feeling great so here's to figuring out how to get some neck/head relief and then figuring out how to keep it & the leg pain away permanently.