u/acover4422

(See my previous post for background information and a diagram showing where my pain is.)

I’m really disheartened and dismayed and lost.

Very long story short- I have chronic pain in one spot of my upper right trapezius. I’ve had this pain for over 20 years; it’s been worsening in recent years to the point that some days I’m in so much pain I can’t even get out of bed.

The list of treatments I’ve tried is very long. NOTHING helped until very recently. The week before and week of my nerve block injections, I finally felt some relief thanks to basically a cocktail of different medications. I was pain-free for hours at a time, whereas before the pain was literally constant. I’m prescribed my meds up to three times a day; there were several days where I didn’t even need a second dose. I was doing GREAT. To even have a few hours pain-free was a huge, HUGE improvement. To have entire days where I was pain-free, without even taking the maximum dosage of my meds??? That had me feeling like “holy shit I might actually have a pain-free future ahead of me”.

Then I had diagnostic nerve block injections on May 22, so neatly 3 weeks ago. Ever since then, my pain has been considerably worse again.

To be clear, I am NOT talking about pain at the injection site. I’m talking about the specific pain in my upper right trapezius that I’ve struggled with for all these years. Since I got the nerve block, it’s back. Meds are less effective than they were before. I’m now taking the maximum doses of everything and still having pain.

Also, I understand that when you get a diagnostic nerve block, after a few hours the anesthetic wears off and your pain will increase. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about - my pain was under control (with meds) before the nerve block; now, three weeks later, it’s back and it’s not responding as well to meds.

Has anyone else had a nerve block which actually made their pain worse?