Side effects of lumbar radiofrequency ablation

[kintman]

Hi. I have had both and left and right L3, L4, L5 and S1 surgery with radiofrequency ablation. The first one was my left and it was done a little more than 4 months ago and the second one on the right, was done a little more than 3 months ago exactly one month later after the first one. Well, after the first (on the left) everything seemed fine but after I have had my second (on the right) I have developed some severe burning type of pain around my L4 and L5 and this pain is causing my leg to give up and I can immediately fall down. I am already very tired of this pain as it becomes more and more overwhelming. I am wondering now what this could be. I think that my nerves that are growing back again could cause this, in fact I just hope that it could be so. But I also think that this can be a different problem and I am worried about this. maybe something went wrong and I shouldn’t have these pains after so much time after I have done the radiofrequency. Anyway, I am now here trying to search for answers to my questions and if there is anybody who has ever had this before can you please tell me what is this and if it’s normal or no? I would appreciate any opinion that might help me. please let me know everything that you know about this problem. thanks in advance.

 

[Laurapaul]

Hey, I am going to try to help you with everything I know. I have also had 2 of these RFA on my back. After the first RFA it delivered me absolutely no relief to my pains but after the second one I had some extremely bad pains in the left side in the S1. I have been told that people with fibromyalgia are having a lot of pain killers and it really takes some time from the work to recoup. I am currently exactly 3 weeks after I have had the operation and I am having severe burning, numbness and itchiness. I have asked my doctor a couple of days ago about these feelings I am having and he replied that some patients can experience these burning kind of pain because there’s a nerve that wasn’t supposed to be involved there and he might have been a little bit touched and because he is trying to regenerate itself the patient is having that pain. My pain is pretty deep in the buttox area and it itches like crazy very often so I am always feeling embarrassing.. you know why. Well, the doctor added that there is nothing we can do about it so we just need to wait until it disappears by itself. He said that it can take about 8 to 12 weeks or so. After 12 weeks my doctor said that in most cases the pains are going away but, as in any other things, there are exceptions so the patient may experience them forever if the pains are not disappearing after 12 weeks. As I said, these burning sensation can appear but it may not so, not all the patients are having it. at least, not after each RFA because, as I said, after my first one I didn’t experience it. It seems that the biggest problem now is that I cannot find out the true results until I would have it. I have a feeling that I do have a little relief, however healing from this burning sensation and the other side hurting too it can take full months until I am going to find out if the whole procedure has worked or no. That’s all I know and I really hope that this would help you. I also hope that in 12 weeks post op we won’t have it anymore.