‘Look, I’ve got no problems with the procaine and intravenous Valium injections. I’m starting to feel terrific again.
‘While I still have bouts of pain at night, they’re not as diabolical. I feel the treatment’s a success.’
Jane, 29, a television script writer had had a long history of severe abdominal pain following surgery for endometriosis. This condition can cause severe abdominal pain and the adhesion of pelvic organs due to bleeding into the pelvis as a result of cysts bursting.
Jane had been told that she had adhesions and that this was the cause of her severe pain. She had been attending one of the major public hospitals for more than six months and had been seen by different specialists including gastroenterologists as well as psychiatrists.
Before coming to the pain clinic, Jane had been given full medical investigations including CT scans and laparoscopics.
She had also had some acupuncture, transcutaneous nerve stimulation and a spinal nerve block. She had taken very strong compound analgesic tablets such as Panadeine Forte without any relief.
Jane claimed she was only getting up to 20 to 40 minutes of pain relief from either Pethidine or Morphine injections. She was taking these frequently.
She was also taking very high doses of anti-depressants at one stage. One reason for her depression was that, when she came to the pain clinic, she had not been working for six months.The pain specialist suggested that her pain be controlled with medication other than narcotics. This did not really appeal to her and she disappeared after two visits.
She was later referred to an outside colleague of the specialist not associated with the pain clinic for assessment, and she was finally admitted to the in-patient pain program but once again quit after only a week saying that she did not need the program’s intense psychological aspects. So it was decided that she should try procaine treatment.
A test dose of procaine was given and she had a very marked psychological reaction from the treatment, experiencing perceptual distortions.
‘The walls seem to move in on me. I get anxious and edgy about everything and nothing in particular,’ she said.
It was noted that even after the test dose of each injection her pain was much better. The progress continued after each further injection. But she was so shaken by the sensory experience that it was decided to give her the procaine combined with intravenous Valium.
Even then, she was still very anxious and disturbed by the way she felt during the procaine therapy. This is one of the lesser-known side-effects of the procaine therapy.
Handling the psychological/tension problems caused by the procaine injection itself calls on all the experience that a pain clinic has gained. But Jane was still prepared to try this treatment of procaine and intravenous Valium because it worked. In fact, since the day she started the procaine therapy she had virtually had no other pain-killing medication.
Jane started doing part-time work and then eventually went back to full-time work. She had a procaine injection about once every month for a further 3 months.
The only other treatment she now has for the abdominal pain is the occasional injection to relieve spasms of the internal organs due to adhesions. But she has had no narcotic analgesia now for over twelve months.
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