Pain Management procedure this morning.
Just local anesthesia in doctor's office. No thank you to Xanax or Valium. I don't get anxious about stuff like this after having my neck and back injected a couple hundred times over the last 30 years. In fact, I am going alone and driving myself. Radio-Frequency Ablation is the name of the procedure. In my case, it is being used to burn away four upper thoracic (T4-7) sensory nerve-roots.
Basically, it's simply a needle tip placed up against the nerve root and then an electric current from wires attached to the needles. The microwave tip of the needle heats up. This, in turn, burns away the nerve root. The procedure has multiple other uses. But, the cool thing is that the doctor uses video fluoroscopy: x-ray video streaming in real time like a movie. I actually like watching the needle as it approaches my spine.
Lasts 18-36 months. Had it several years ago and it worked well. I have had two sets of trial injections of local anesthesia to the nerve roots and both were highly successful.