Sandy,

I think that quite a while ago, I mentioned to you that you should have TOS ruled out.
All that pain in your head, and neck. Well the brachial plexus is where TOS is centered, your new doctor may not have said TOS, but, that's what he diagnosed! (Not being an "I told you so", but glad you have a dx now!)
My TOS is centered around the Scelanis Anticus (sp) muscles.

And of course you now know, (I went through 7 years of it), that NO STRENGTHENING exercises with TOS! You don't do that to muscles that are already in Spasm! Gentle stretching is about all you can do, and use a good professional heating pad for your shoulders. Lidocaine patches help me, but I have neck discs too.
Since it is a "Syndrome" it's like rsd, not all the same. Did he send you to a good hand surgeon? I doubt ketamine will have any effect on the brachial plexus injury. Which, is what I've come to know as "TOS"...

Ortho's have No Clue about this stuff. I've seen more than 50 of them (literally), and none had a clue. It's NOT an ortho problem!
I had one tell me I was malingering!

Sandy, I hope you do some more reading in the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome section on this board!
I'm sorry that you have this, but, now that you know, you'll find ways to deal with it...

Oh, about your question. I don't know that there's much you can do, but look and move forward. Like I said, it took 7 years to finally get to Dr S, and a dx. Some have it worse. But, I'm happy to see that so many folks are getting dx'd in shorter periods of time. Still not short enough, but... These Ortho's should send their patients to Neuro's instead of Psychs.

BTW, was the hand/arm test the one I've been describing to many folks here? Hands up, shoulders back? Watch your hands turn white? (Over simplified).


Pete