Switching Off the Pain: Spinal Nerve Ablation Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe spinal nerve ablation, the procedure that uses heat on small nerves in the back and neck. Most had already tried physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture or steroid shots, and some were told for years they were too young or that it was only wear. Writers include a truck driver, a welder, nurses, a firefighter, an offshore platform worker, a steelworker, a solicitor who could not sit through a meeting, a dentist, a ride-share driver with no sick pay, mothers with sacroiliac pain after pregnancy and an ultramarathon runner. They write from Ohio to Kuala Lumpur and Lagos to Dunedin. Treatments include lower back, neck and sacroiliac joint ablation, basivertebral nerve ablation inside the vertebra, an upper neck procedure for headaches long treated as migraines, and staged or repeated treatments, some booked yearly. A man with a pacemaker waited for his heart team's agreement, and a cleaner fought her insurer with help from a clinic staffer. Families and work fill these pages: carrying a baby up three flights, gardening at 81, getting back to the welding bench. The results vary widely. Some had years of relief and some months; a few had weeks of burning pain or a numb patch afterwards, two felt no difference, and one woman was told after her test injections not to go ahead.

Who it's for

For anyone with long-standing back or neck pain who has been offered test injections or ablation, and for the families who drive them home afterwards.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 235 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.