Pain Intervention Management for rheumatoid arthritis
I have mentioned in my previous blogging that I had been staying in China for some time. The reason I was there was because my sister related how a pain clinic in Zhongshan, China was curing long suffering arthritis of the old folks from the senior citizens center in Macau where she worked. Immediately, she thought of me with my debilitating rheumatoid ailment as a likely candidate for the clinic.
On the first day at the clinic, after the usual history and note taking of the patient's condition, I was given an epidural. Then came four weeks of stellate ganglion and lumbar blocks and the whole treatment ended with another epidural. (See below for explanation of nerve blocks)
Was this procedure a success ?
Well it gave immense relieve from the effects of the rheumatoid arthrits for about seven months. During those days, I was still in Zhongshan and I was actively running around the town, climbing up floors to shop or to eat at restaurants. It was after these rompings for about seven months that I felt the sinister effects of rheumatoid athritis creeping in.It was back to the pain clinic again. But this time, the injections did not give the same relief as in the first time. The feeling of well being was shorter.
Why I blogged on this subject was because of the following articles I had read on the net.
Thursday September 7 (Health News) - Drugs to treat
rheumatoid arthritis were more effective when they
were delivered into the central nervous system of rats,
a study found.
More from the following article :
article 1
Another article relating to the same study
article 2:
The other reason for posting this blog.
Another sister of mine, who had been diagnosed with lupus since the early nineties has a remission from her lupus after taking the same sympathetic nerve block, from the same clinic about a few months earlier I had mine. She is still under remission at this very moment.
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What is sympathetic nerve block
Sympathetic Nerve block is the injection of anasthetics or other medication around and near to the sympathetic nerves in order to relieve pain by interrupting pain sensory pathways to the brain.
The type of blocks affects different areas in the body depending on which set of nerves the drugs are injected near to.
Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB) - injection of anaesthetic or drugs around the group of nerves at the neck. This affects the face, head and arms. My experience on injection was a feeling of a rush of blood to the injected side of the head with a nice feeling of light headedness. Injections are done on bothe sides of the neck at least twenty minutes apart
Lumbar Sympathetic Block - injection of local anaethetic or drugs
around the lower back (lumbar area). Depending on which set of nerves the injections are targeted at, at the lumbar area, the effect of the blood rush can be felt from the waist down right to the foot.
Epidural - infusion of anti-inflammatories at the tail bone area.
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Friday, November 10, 2006
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