Just got home from RF Ablation (L2-L5)

[AZRickD]

To report ont the right side that they did a few weeks ago -- Four sites were zapped.

I think that three of the four have taken quite well. So well that I am no noticing a bit of sacral involvement that was masked before.

There is a third nerve that still gets jazzed a bit when I bend the wrong way under load. The disc bulges, touches the nerve and I feel my muscle contract. But it uncontracts fairly quickly. The doc says I should give it a few more weeks to see if the treatment to that particular nerve takes.

Hmmm. I sure am feeling my left side treatment now.

[jsewell]

I hope the pain you are feeling now is gone quickly. Try some of that ibuprofen !
Judy

[AZRickD]

The pain (pressure, really) from the procedure was gone by evening.

The hang over from propofol is still with me. Didn't happen last time or during my upper and lower GI probes.

Everything else is dandy.

[AZRickD]

I'm still hanging in there. I have to be careful, but things are much improved.

Working on my dirt bike is risky for my back. It gets stiff. Riding the bike is less a problem. A day of rest is usually all I need to recover, rather than a week or two, previously.

[AZRickD]

Sometime around mid-March I started to have a little bit of back tightness. It was a pretty dirtbike-race heavy few weeks. The tightness went away, but more slowly.

In April I started to experience some morning stiffness that I would have to stretch out. Now in May, after last Saturday's 113-mile dualsport ride around Sedona, I'm on Day 4 and still have some moderate muscle tightness (you might call it spasm).

So, it seems like the effects of the procedure are on the down-side of wearing off. I'll go back to the doc to see if I want to hit it up again or do something else.

Although short-lived, it sure was a nice few months.

[Maria]

I've never been anywhere near as active as you and probably never even felt as good as you feel feeling bad!

Hope you stay as good as you are whatever you're doing for treatment!

[AZRickD]

We are all just surfers on a bell-shaped curve. Sometimes I go tubular. Sometimes I get a really bad sunburn.

Last week I was on ice, stiff, and listing to starboard.
Last night I did a 16-mile night mountainbike ride.

I had another ablation scheduled for last week but my mandatory driver had to cancel. I haven't rescheduled.

[Maria]

Have you just tried an injection of 60mg of Toradol? Sometimes the docs make a cocktail and mix it with a bit of steroid material tho I do well just with the Toradol injectable. It's an Nsaid and even tho it's main action is antiinflammatory it acts very well to alleviate muscle spasms for me so maybe it would help with muscle tightness as well?

You were super active tho so if your bod is a bit beat up that makes sense to me Good luck and hope the "tightness" wears off or you get it ablated off or whatever! Maria

[jsewell]

I am happy to hear you are still out there able to live life and do the things you want. I think i am going to have one more surgery to get me the best i can be and see what i can do., No more mountain trail running and i miss it dearly. i went into a pool for the first time in a few years today. i used to swim a mile several days a week , today i almost drowned myself!!

Good luck getting a driver for the next ablation.
judy