Thank you for your reply Dr.
It was my understanding from the spinal Dr who did the facet injections that the injections are corticosteroids and local anesthetic. Not sure if it’s for health insurance that they only call it facet blocks. The pain was away for about 24 hours and then it all returned.
I do believe that he feels the herniation is to small for operating and that the risks of an operation is not worth it. But at the same time I am still in a lot of pain. Want me to go and do another MRI to see if the herniation might of increased.
But his personal opinion is that I must just hold out and that the pain will go away.
He did put me on very strong pain meds but I realized that I was developing an habit for them because they are opioid based. We decided that I should leave all the meds and only take over the counter pain meds. So the pain has been very high the last few days.
I decided to give it another 4 weeks of rest and working with the physical therapist. And if there still is no improvement to go and see another Dr (neurosurgeon) for another opinion.
I’m just frustrated and lost at the moment. I hoped that after the facet blocks did not work the next step will be a microdiscectomy and this will finally be over. But now that he said I must just hold out its a bit disappointing and scared there might be something els wrong they not picking up on MRI or scans.
I’m a very active person, paragliding, motorcycle racing, and not being able to even dress myself is very depressing.
Once again thank you for listening to my problem and taking the time to reply. It’s really appreciated.
