I have now had my 4th round of prolotherapy and my back is starting to feel stronger. I keep trying to find out information from other sources on what the pain cycle is for prolotherapy. Most sites talk about the actual procedure but not about how you feel in the days and weeks after the treatments.
Since I am doing what I would call an 'intensive' round of prolo, it is hard to tell what the overall effect will be in the end. After each treatment, I am extremely sore and I have had to take a vicodin on that day to manage the injection pain. By the next day, the injection pain is not so intense but I feel very stiff and still sore. I have noticed that this lasts for about a week as some of the stiffness and injection sites heal. During the second week, I am still a bit stiff but I can feel the carriage surrounding my back feels stronger. By the 3rd week, I don't feel as stiff and it takes me longer to get a backache after standing for longer periods of time. I still have some stiffness but it seems to ease, especially with stretching exercises or pilates.
My doctor is on vacation for Easter so there will be 5 weeks in-between my 5th appointment. This will be the first time I can see how I feel for a few weeks before going in for another round. It is important to have this time to assess your pain levels as you don't want to overdo the tightening affect created by prolotherapy. I am still on the fence about how well it is controlling the pain though. I seem to have a lot of trigger points in my IT band since my pregnancy 3 years ago that I can't seem to get resolved from stretching or massage. I have tried the foam roller for a year now and they are still there. The doctor injected all the way up and down my IT band this time and not just my back. There was an actual spastic reaction to the needle from my muscle each time it went in. I can't tell yet, but I am hoping that it helps resolve the IT leg pain too because that is really what keeps me up and night when laying on my side.
In my research, I found this website that explains a bit more about prolotherapy and I found it useful. Especially since it mentions that most people will feel stronger first before they feel the pain resolves. I am hoping I am one of the lucky ones. Here is the website for reference:
http://www.prolotherapynashville.com/how_prolotherapy_works.php
Now my blog just needs to come up in a search engine. I really want to chat to other people going through the same thing.
Take care all!
