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You can try this intervention, but please don't have false expectations of a miraculous long term sustained improvement. I wish you all the very best.View Thread

First, your symptoms do suggest nerve compression which typically responds well to surgery after failure of conservative management, however, the indication for surgery is based primarily on your symptoms, in other words, you pain. If your pain at this level is still significant and compromising your quality of life, even if diminished from prior, surgery is very reasonable. If your pain is significantly diminished to the point where you have minimal discomfort, cancel surgery for now. Although a pinched nerve doesn't "unpinch" itself spontaniously, it can become asymptomatic when the inflamation resolves. Sometimes, if the the pinching is the result of a soft disc herniation or extrusion, the herniated disc may be disintegrated by the body over time.
In summary, let your pain and other symptoms dictate your decision. I wish you all the bestView Thread



The purpose of the MRI and CT myelogram is for diagnostic purposes, and definitive surgical intervention or any other invasive treatment is typically based on results of these studies. I agree that it is rather unusual for someone to have such great difficulty tolerating an MRI (including open MRI ?), but I assume you ended up having a CT without the contrast done. It appears to me that any treatment for your symptoms would be 100% elective based on quality of life considerations, and you should therefore discuss your options with your neurosurgeon based on the best information he has available to him. Please keep us updated. Wishing you all the best and a happy TG holyday.View Thread

First, I am glad to hear that you have survived cancer and that you are so motivated and determined to restore normal function for you and your family. You have the right attitude to overcome your pain.
Although you did not specify your exact spinal diagnosis, I can reassure you that Radio Frequency Ablation is an extremely safe and minimally invasive intervention that is extremely unlikely to put you at any significant risk for worsening pain or injury. The procedure is done as an outpatient with no incision, and has the potential to be therapeudic in that it may give you long lasting relief (even several months of pain relief would be most welcome.) Even if it does not provide you with long lasting relief, it could be diagnostic in the sense that it can localize your pain generator. That means it may help your surgeon identify and possibly treat the source of your back pain in a more definitive way.
For someone in your situation and degree of pain, there is no real downside to trying the procedure, and I would therefore encourage you to try it.
I hope you overcome your fear of this simple intervention, and I hope you derive excellent symptomatic relief that will allow you to restore a normal life for you and your family. Keep us posted.
All the bestView Thread

I wish you all the best.View Thread



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