That happened to me too, once upon a time (about eight years ago, to the best of my nonexistant mathematical ability). It was really scary, I remember. I couldn't move my hand really at all for about six to eight months. It was always a little looser in the morning (same for my leg, actually), but after a few minutes or an hour, it would be back to square one.

I guess I don't have much advice for you. My hand got better with lots of aggressive treatment, and I actually have no problems with it at all anymore. The inability to move my hand was part of the whole RSD movement disorders thing, and wasn't because of pain. I remember thinking that calling RSD a "pain syndrome" is a crock of...(don't want to get into trouble for posting the word I'm thinking).

Oh, if you can possibly keep your arm elevated, you should try to do so. The swelling won't help your inability to move. I always found that I had some more movement in my hand in the mornings because I kept it on my pillow at night, which took some of the swelling down.

I'm sorry that your mom wants you to see Dr. Sherry. I hope that you can convince her that you need to play a large role in the decision making process about your treatment. I ended up seeing doctors I didn't want to see because my parents denied me that role. It wasn't quite as bad as I imagined it would be, in retrospect. But it wasn't exactly a lot of fun either.

Oh, and fibromyalgia does not cause any part of the body to stop working. RSD does. Fibromyalgia is basically all-over muscle and connective tissue pain with severe fatigue. It's really common for anyone with a chronic condition (including RSD) to develop fibromyalgia as well. Rest assured that while it's painful and not fun, it's not progressive and won't cause any physical deformities.. Wish we could say the same about RSD.

So...this post may have been somewhat pointless, except to say that I've been there and lived through it. I hope you feel better soon!

-Betsy