Web Analytics

Friday, December 6, 2013

medial branch block diagnostic

Yesterday afternoon Craig and I headed over to Biltmore Surgical Center for my medial branch nerve blocks at C2/C3. We were there for a few hours but the actual procedure only took about 15 minutes. The injections really didn't hurt at all (less than the dry needling I had done that morning with Dr. Beran at PT). Dr. Schurgin explained to me beforehand that I'd be keeping a 3 hour pain log after we finished, recording my "percent improved" at each 30 minute increment. They didn't sedate me as much as the first time I had this done in the spring since the drowsiness can interfere with pain perception but I was feeling pretty groggy the rest of the evening...even stumbled a little when we walked in the house to keep things interesting. hah!

A few funny things that always happen when getting vitals and/or IV (which has been unusually common the last few months):
- Explaining the massive scar going up my forearm makes riding my bike into a tree that much more plausible.
- I have to assure every nurse that despite my resting pulse of 48 bpm, I'm very much alive.

The great news is that my pain definitely went down in those 3 hours. I recorded my percentage of improvement at a range of 30-50%, which tells us that (at least some of) the pain is coming from the facets. We won't know for sure if those numbers justify doing the pulsed radiofrequency until we meeting with Dr. Schurgin on Tuesday. I woke up this morning feeling pretty shitty, but I knew that was coming. Any relief the nerve blocks did provide would wear off after 3 hours and he warned me that bruising from the injection would likely increase my baseline pain. I did go to yoga this morning and was planning on playing tennis after with Tanis (we've been taking a "drill class" at La Camarilla) but had to skip out on that.

Now just looking forward to Monday so we figure out the next step!

4 comments:

  1. Katie-

    This is an INCREDIBLE story. Kudos to you for taking the time to actually sit down and pound out the whole story. I'm not sure I would have had the strength of character to rehash the details of such a trying situation without doing a lot of side crying haha. I hope you find out some encouraging information that leads you to an effective treatment soon; I'll be following you on here and sending you positive vibes from Huntington Beach!

    Lisa Catanese (Nelson)

    PS- When I read that your initial ER visit didn't involve any head imaging or neuro checks I wanted to go chew out that physician and medical staff for you! Absolutely ridiculous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa - thanks SO much for reading and your sweet comment. Very grateful for your positives vibes from Huntington Beach :) Hope you are well!
    Katie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Katie, I am so glad that you are writing out your entire story. The way you are day in and day out handling this battle is so inspirational. Craig, you are an amazing man, need I say more? Lisa, I had the same reaction when I read that Katie's initial ER visit didn't involve any head imaging or neuro checks! I love you Katie, POSITIVE vibes from Hawaii.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good work…unique site and interesting too if you want more information something like visit jacksonville pain clinic get more details.

    ReplyDelete

 
SITE DESIGN BY DESIGNER BLOGS