I had been waiting for this day for about four or five weeks. I had been having excruciating pain in my back and knew that the ablation had worked before and it would work again. Leading up to this appointment I have been having horrible pain and no matter what I had done nothing helped. I had used some of the remainder of my pain medication from my surgery, muscle relaxers and ibuprofen, a heating pad, and even bought two lumbar support pillows, one for the house and one for whatever vehicle I would be riding in. The muscle relaxers and ibuprofen seemed to dull the pain a little bit but it didn’t take the pain away. It made doing schoolwork very difficult, especially when I had a couple days where I couldn’t really walk.

Not being able to really walk because of the pain was incredibly hard, especially when I knew that I had responsibilities to take care of, from doing my schoolwork to looking after my sick mom. I was more upset that I wasn’t able to by myself fully than I was anything else. If I could make it to a seated position it was a little better than lying down or trying to walk. But making it from my bed to my desk, was a challenge and even harder to make it out of my room. For a little context, from my bed to my desk chair is like 3 or 4 steps and it was less challenging when I had the earlier mentioned knee surgery. Finally after a couple days of hardly being able to walk and mostly being bed or desk chair bound, I was finally able to walk better. Then can February 5th, the big day.

The appointment was scheduled for 9am and I was looking forward to having the pain stop. That wouldn’t happen for, well I’m still having it a little bit four days later. We’ll get to that in a moment. I arrived at the office, got checked in and taken back pretty quickly. Now, before I continue, let me say that when I had this previously it was only for my L5-S1, which was like one area. This time it was my L4-L5 and L5-S1, two areas. (we’re not even mentioning the S2 tumor they found, I don’t know what they’re going to do with that.) I wasn’t expecting to have the experience that I did.

Yes, it had really hurt before getting me numbed up with all the sticks to my back that was done, but once I got off that table, I had no pain whatsoever. That wouldn’t be the case this time. I laid down on the table and they started the numbing process. Four shots, 1 for each area and both sides, and each time going deeper and deeper. I think I counted 12 total for the numbing. Then he had to insert the needles, or at least I think that’s what he was doing, that would actually burn the nerves. With each needle that went deeper and closer to my spine, it hurt more and more. Now, remember that I had told you that you’re not supposed to move during this procedure; yeah, that didn’t happen. No matter how much I tried to stay still, I couldn’t. I moved multiple times, yes, I can still walk.

When I finally got off the table, some of the pain was gone. The worst of it was where I had the procedure done, right along my spine itself. Today is Feb. 8th, and I can say that it’s finally gone, all of it. But, when I left, I went and got my taxes done and on my way home I started feeling extremely lightheaded and my legs started feeling weird. I honestly don’t know how I got home but I did. I would go on to spend much of that day in the bed. Now, if you are planning on having this procedure done, don’t let this alarm you. It’s actually normal and possible for all of this to happen. I just got really lucky last time and didn’t have this happen. It wasn’t until that evening that those feelings subsided. But, the pain from the injection sites remained until I woke up this morning and it was gone. I finally have complete relief. So I can focus on school, taking care of mom when she needs me, and my rehab to get me back in the water. If I had a brain, I would probably put the board down, but I’m going to continue until they tell me to stop. I’m content just watching surfing for now.