Its a bandaid for now …….but at this stage I don’t care its relief.

It’s abundantly clear that the COVID 19 virus is spreading, and hospitals are preparing for another wave of patients. Subsequently, standard surgeries and procedures are beginning to be placed back on hold. #LuckoftheIsaacs dictates that, of course, it’s going to be another month before I can even get a consultation with the Interventional Radiologist to discuss the Diagnostic Shot that I mentioned in the previous post. I found out that I will have a consultation with the radiologist on August 8th, but at this time, no scheduled injection, and I have no concrete ETA.

However, luck was finally on my side, because I had yet to cancel the RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) that I had originally scheduled on July 9th. A Radio Frequency Ablation, also called rhizotomy, is a non-surgical, minimally invasive procedure that uses heat to reduce or stop the transmission of pain. Radiofrequency waves ablate, or “burn,” the nerve that is causing the pain, essentially eliminating the transmission of pain signals to the brain. I did have a couple of these procedures in 2014, and they were successful, lasting between 6 and 13 months. It’s a very archaic procedure, and only offer temporary relief, but my pain is so bad, I will try anything to alleviate it. Hopefully, this will be successful and will buy time until some of the COVID hospital challenges die down.

I will still be keeping my August 8th appointment, since it’s already on the books, but I’m not sure where I will be at my pain level by that point, so may have to start the process over.

This has been a really bad week with pain, which is why I have been late with posting this. It’s been a struggle to pull myself out of bed and get through the day. Almost every day this week was spent on the living room floor with the assistance of the heating pad and a mound of pillows. I’m exhausted but have the pain relief to look forward to in just over a week. How long for? I don’t know, but enough time to gather information to get the correct answers to have the correct surgery down the line.