Wednesday was my appointment with neurosurgery and it went pretty much as expected. I was, however, pleasantly surprised that they didn’t decide to poke around on my back. This was the first appointment that I’ve had for my back that didn’t involve me leaving in pain. We discussed the Intracept procedure in detail and decided to go through with it.

The procedure itself is a $50,000 and some insurances cover it and some don’t. I’m really hoping that my insurance covers it. If it doesn’t it, that will have to be another conversation to have. But, when it comes to the procedure itself, it sounds like a painful one. Thankfully it’s not like what I read online.

It will happen at the outpatient surgery center and I will be put under for this, thankfully. But they will take needles all the way into your vertebrae and burn the root of the nerve on both sides of your back. Sound painful right? But at least you’ll be sound asleep for it. I was told that I would have pain for the first couple weeks after and that I shouldn’t do pretty much anything for the rest of the week after. It would take at least a couple of months to know if this has worked.

I have to wait until we found out if insurance is going to approve it or not before it is scheduled. In the meantime, I have the epidural shots to look forward to in May. I was also given Gabapentin for pain to see if this will help. I get to titrate up to be eventually on 1200 mg. Until next time!