I am not a redhead, but can't tell you how many times I've been assured that they would give me enough anaesthetic. My own dentist even used to send me with a note to specialists, because they never believed that I needed a 4 hour block for a short procedure, and would instead give me a 2 hour one that barely lasted that many minutes. I take two Tylenol 4's after my bowel movements (every three or four days), and they only sometimes provide a little relief. Over the last 20 years, I have had to go to emerg 3 times with a strangulated and thrombosed hemorrhoid and an active fissure, and after 5 or 6 rounds of morphine, they just give up on trying to find a painkiller that works. The last time I went, however, I had a brilliant young doctor who gave me a "local". I had to endure about 20 sharp needle sticks right in the anus and lower rectum, but it worked! I had just spent three full days in the bathtub (could not bear even being out for 5 minutes on that one), so was so incredibly grateful to be pain-free for awhile. And he also inserted a cigar-shaped dressing, that he said would hold the roids up inside the canal long enough for them to stay up (I couldn't even get them back in the hole during that episode). After that, I went home, the dressing fell out about 10 hours later, and the pain gradually went away over the next couple of days.

I have also never had any success with oxycodone and demerol, and honestly don't know if I want to go up to hydrocodone or something else stronger, even if there was a chance that they may work (I had been reluctant enough to use the original oxy's for fear of addiction, but they didn't work or produce any effect on me whatsoever).

I'm editing to add that the dental specialists still wouldn't give me more freezing, because they probably didn't believe my dentist about the issue either!

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I've had a spinal once (had both of my children via caesarian, one with an epidural and one with a spinal), but that was a long time ago, and I honestly can't remember how long it took for the effect to wear off. I had wondered if the CRS would be amenable to such an idea, or not, so will now at least put the idea in my quiver. Thanks.