When nerve blocks stopped working for me and my RSD had spread far beyond the site of original injury, I started receiving lidocaine infusions. They were administered approx 3 weeks part, 300 mg at a time (mixed in a full bag of saline solution), and took a few hours to run.

They helped with the terrible burn, over time I definitely noticed a slight improvement. I had a total of 8 infusions. there were a few days that I even felt almost normal.

10 months after I started lidocaine, I started low dose ketamine infusions. Ketamine works well me. It has been 11 months for me since I started my infusions and I have received 36 (I started with the 10 day protocol set forth by Dr. S at Drexel.). Overall, I am 80% better than I was. 2 months after starting the infusions I was able to return to my FT job.

Lidocaine was readily approved by my insurance company after the other treatments had failed and because my RSD had spread and was deemed to be full body. My PM doc also offered the infusions in his clinic. Ketamine is harder to obtain because there are far fewer providers. And getting insurance to cover it requires a lot of perseverance, and even then you may not prevail.

Let me know if you have any questions... and good luck. sandy