Hi Desi,

I don't live in the US and have no personal experience of any medical treatment there, so please understand I'm not trying to influence you, I just thought you should be aware of other people's experiences of the CC that have been posted here, I'm sure there are a load of people who have had OK treatment there.

BTW, Artist will do very nicely, thank you, lol, I prefer my username on the board....

But your doctors are very probably right in what they're telling you.

I have a similar situation to you in that I have 4 conditions that cause neuropathic pain. I have spinal stenosis, cervical spondylosis C4-C6, RSI and RSD (and on top of that I have painful arthritis, rather badly in my fingers, and patchy osteoporosis).

They all affect my arms and boy, are my arms being affected quite a lot, it's got worse in the last 6 months.

The RSD is very specifically, in my case, confined to the left wrist and hand and is mild/moderate; the pain is a bit different (bone deep and whining) but the *really* big difference is that the RSD pain never stops, never lets up, it's 24/7.

The pain from RSI (severe widespread nerve stinging) and my neck problems (sickening, dull, tiring) can be considerably worse than the RSD pain during the day, but is always a lot better after a night's sleep, or rest. I take a half a zopiclone (ambien in the US, I think) at night, which does the trick.

I have severe pins and needles, a kind of overall "fizzy" pain in both arms, and my arms can fall asleep during sleep, to the point where when I wake up one of them just isn't there. It's simply vanished from my consciousness completely, no messages getting through of any kind.

I go to the HK government clinic, which operates very like the UK National Health service. It's very good, very cheap, but very slow. Because I've got 5 different pain-causing things, they've shuffled me between departments, from ortho (because I got RSD after an arm break) to neuro (briefly) then after they finally did an MRI and saw my poor old neck bones and spinal cord, to the Spine people.

The spine people seemed really disappointed that I hadn't visibly deteriorated whenever I saw them, so they have now passed me on to the rheumatologists. Not for the RSD, but for the RSI and arthritis. I have my first appointment with them on Thursday, I can't wait .

The only thing they do, all of them, is to prescribe Neurontin. Which is good, because it does help, but none of them seem to have any answers to anything.

I suppose I'm lucky in one way, in that I got RSD before the other things (excepting arthritis) became noticeable, so I'm sure about the origin of that painful area. Arthritis (burning joint pain) is easy to spot, it deforms me as it worsens, gnarley fingers. RSI just started this year and is OK if I don't use my right hand (ha ha!) but rapidly worsens with use.The rest...well, I just say "neck stuff" - not to diminish it, it causes things far worse than arm neuropathy further down the line, but because I'm a Bear of Very Little Brain and I can only deal with sooo much.. and what's hurting *right now* this minute.

So! Your doctors really are probably quite right about you, though whether they can do much for you ....well, I hope you have better luck than I'm having.

I'm just a couple of years (or so) older than you, but I reckon it's all downhill after 50. Friend of mine, she's 69, said to me the other day, "You know what's good about getting old?" I said "No, what?" she said, "Nothing!"

Just about sums it up, really...

Ha! Bet that's cheered you up

all the best!