For years, one of my patients lived with chronic pelvic pain that felt like a hot poker in her vagina. After I performed a targeted nerve block with numbing medication, her pain disappeared. Through tears, she told me something I have heard from patients again and again: “I forgot what it’s like to not have pain. Thank you.”
A peripheral nerve block delivers numbing medication around a nerve to interrupt pain signals. It can help identify the source of pain and, for some patients, provide relief that lasts well beyond the few hours before the numbing effect wears off.