Has anyone had a superior hypogastric block?

[ferns80]

Hi

I had a laparoscopy last week. I have severe endometriosis on my left side, on my bowel etc. Used to just have 2-3 days per month bad pain but since February I’ve had pelvic pain every day.

I’m back on the pill so not having terrible period pain but struggling with managing the constant pain in left hand side. Waking up in the middle of the night in pain.

I’m waiting for an MRI and a referral to a specialist at a BGSE centre and surgery. Currently taking paracetamol and codeine for pain. I have acid reflux problems so have to limit NSAIDS.

I was just reading about hypogastric block injections and wondered if anyone had had one and if it worked for them?

Codeine makes me really constipated even when I take laxatives and I’m not sure if it’s exacerbating my night time symptoms because the pain then feels like it’s related to my bowel. But when I don’t take it I’m in pain during the day. Also wondering if I’d be better taking amitryptiline at night?

[livvi_livvi]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time lately but I can totally relate!!

I have recently had an Ilioinguinal and Iliohypogastric nerve blocks. This was after my gynae at a bgse centre referred me to his nominated pain consultant. That consultant then put me on a higher dose of morphine and introduced gabapentin for the pain. His view is that I have chronic pelvic pain which has been triggered by the endometriosis. In my experience they won't do nerve blocks until various pain killers have been tried. The reason for this is because they are only effective on about 50% of people and even in those 50% they can't say how long the pain relief will last.

Since I have had it done it does seem to have helped to turn down my pain however it is not a cure. For example on the pain scale of 0-10 before my nerve blocks and on morphine my daily pain was averaging a 9 whereas now its averaging about a 5. (However, for the severity of my chronic pelvic pain this year my pain consultant did say that the aim of any treatment now is simply to turn down the pain as I will always been in daily pain.)

I would suggest going to talk to your gp to see if they can speed up your referral or suggest better pain meds and laxatives?

Did you have a diagnose and treat or just diagnose in your lap?? If you were only diagnoses then from my experience they wouldnt do a nerve block until the endo is excised or ablated.

Hope this helps, feel free to drop me a message if you want. Sorry about the seemingly long response. X