It's early in the game, but here it is so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xPKpi0ILJw
I have been dealing with an ever-worsening lower back (lumbar) issue since high school and college wresting. Add dirt bikes, hang gliding, lifting, mountain biking, and running and doing stupider stuff like lifting 150-pound hitches, and you'll get an idea of the things I've done to my back over the last 30+ years since my first back lock-up. 30 years of chiropractic, ice-packs, three MRIs. No aggressive treatment or surgery such as disc trimming.
Over the summer my back locked up for four straight months. Usually it would only go for a week or two. Too many sessions hunched over working on the Gasser or moving furniture, with not enough ice-pack and/or rest.
My chiropractor sent me over to a "pain management center" where they specialize in RF Ablation. One has to qualify for it (insurance). If the lock-up and pain is being cause by, say, a herniated disk that presses against a sensory nerve to the muscle causing it to spasm, you qualify. The test is for them to go in with lidocaine to shut down the nerve. They did this from L2 through L5 on both sides. Eight injections. You can get a twilight general anesthetic for this test (propofol "Milk of Amnesia), but I elected to go with a local (which made the actual injections feel like I was getting Rolfed).
Test 1 worked. They told me to go about a normal day (office, P90X stretch, a light hike). Six hours of zero spasm. I was standing mostly upright for the first time since June. As the lidocaine wore off I was expecting the worse, but it felt pretty good. A few days later I did touristy things during a visit in San Francisco and tied my back in knots.
So now they do Test 2: A week later (two days after SanFran), the repeated the lidocaine procedure. They told me to give it a good test. So, I went straight home, put on my running shoes and fast-hiked Thunderbird Mountain in north Glendale, Arizona -- a 600 foot pile of volcanic rock with a well-worn trail. I hadn't done this in a year. No pain (either up or down) and a satisfying 160bpm heart rate. And it stayed nice and loosey-goosey for about four days. Yay. I qualified.
Did the right side first (my worst side). The left side would have to wait. Protocol. I had read all sorts of horror stories about RF Ablation. But these were coming from people with histories prior failed back surgeries, or fibro-myalgia. This didn't apply to me.
I woke up from the propofol (short half-life). All numbed up, I bent over to tie my shoes. As the local anesthetic wore off, I felt some pressure on my right side, but nothing a day's worth of ice didn't take care of. I didn't use ibuprofen until bed time.
Results: It worked pretty well. The doctor was able to zap three out of the four nerves nicely. From the forth nerve, I still get a signal from that nerve when I lean over to the right an extreme amount. But I recover within seconds.
After this, I spent an hour changing tires on my WR450 dual sport. All hunched over. My back was abused and it was tight, but it didn't lock up. I recovered after a day. Normally this would've taken a week or more of daily ice and ibuprofen.
On Wednesday I had my left side (minimal involvement) done. I felt very little pressure at the injection sites (four, again). Unlike the last time, it took me over a day to recover from the last remnants of the propofol.
The doc says no stretching for a couple of days.
This procedure is not a cure-all. First, while it isn't as effective as lidocaine, it should last for several months (6, 12, 18, 24?). I won't know until I feel the nerves re-engaging as they heal. If you're 25, they heal up faster. 52? slower. If I'm Joe-Average, it should last a year or so. Then I go in for the RF Ablation again. Prior success is predictive of future success in this case.
Second, I have to make sure that I don't do too much stupid stuff. I always ride with an elastic back brace. And on top of that, I have a more expensive brace that has a little block-n-tackle mechanism to really cinch it up. I have to do light stretching, take care not to stand weirdly bent over carbs and tire changing stands, and all the rest. I have an inversion table which I use at the beginning of each day, when I get home, and before I hit the sack.
Let's see how far this takes me.