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(Date Posted:02/12/2006 09:07:37)
Hi everyone,
It has been a very long time since I have posted on here. But I have not been doing the best, and just trying to make a living. Some of you know that I have been fighting with my insurance company to have a procedure called "Pulsed Radiofrequency Treatment" or PRF for short. It has been an over 2 year fight, and the insurance still denied me again, but I finally went ahead and had the procedure done last Wednesday (Nov. 29th). I had it done at OSU. Unfortunately, OSU got rid of their Pain Center and turned it into a Comprehensive Spine Center, but the doctor that performed the procedure told me he would keep me as a patient since I had already seen him before. Before I had the PRF done, he told me that he had done the PRF on 8 other LPHS patients. 5 of the 8 had some type of pain relief. He said that it would take up to a week to find out if the procedure worked at all. I must say the PRF is pretty darn painful to go through, but it has been a little over 3 days since then, and I am already feeling a difference. I have about a 2 minute period, about once a hour, where I have NO PAIN at all....the doctor said that it would start out gradual like that. Can you believe it??!! NO PAIN WHATSOEVER in the kidney!!
Now I have had LPHS for over 10 years, and have tried everything under the sun to get rid of the pain, and nothing has helped. But if this does continue like I hope it will, and the pain keeps getting less and less, I will be so grateful that something finally worked for the pain. Having the PRF only helps for the pain associated with LPHS, it does NOT get rid of any other symptom, such as the blood in the urine, vomitting, etc.
For me, I pass a lot of blood clots, and the doctor told me that even if I get down to having no pain in the kidney, that doesn't mean that when I pass a clot, that I won't feel the pain of it in the ureter or bladder, because I will. The PRF is only for getting rid of the kidney pain. But trust me, with how much kidney pain I am in, I will take whatever type of pain relief I can get. And the nice thing about the PRF is that it can be repeated.
I just wanted to share this with everyone, and let you all know that yes, I finally had it done. Even though I had to pay for it myself. Thank God for payment plans because the PRF isn't cheap. Between $10,000 and $15,000. And the insurance company says the PRF is "experimental" so it won't pay at all, not one penny. But if it works, and I can get off all or most of my pain meds and get some type of quality of life back, that $15,000 will be a small price to pay.
I will let everyone know how it turns out in about a week. I hope everyone is hanging in there and doing ok. I'm sorry that it has been so long since being on here last, but I rarely go on my computer anymore. I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and that you all have a wonderful holiday season. I will be thinking of you. If anyone has any questions about PRF, don't hesitate to ask them on here in this forum. I will be glad to answer them and try to help as much as I can.
Good luck everyone.
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