Hi Vrae,

My RSD was so much like yours in the first and into the second year after I was diagnosed. It started in my shoulder but moved up into my neck and head (after a bunch of trigger point injections that left me worse off than ever), then down into one leg. But the sparks and random spots of flares - that was me. I know how you feel. I was terrified. I had 8 SGB and one LB during that time.

One year after my diagnosis I started lidocaine infusions and they they began to chill my RSD out. I had 8 of them, spaced about 3 weeks apart. It takes much more than just one infusion to feel much, so you can't give up after just one or two. The lidocaine was readily approved by insurance. I highly recommend it, it helped me about 30% to 40%, especially with the buring pain and shocky feeling. I stopped feeling like everything was so out of control. I got infusions of 300 mg at a time over the course of about 3 hours or so.

I am now doing ketamine infusions - they took a very long time to me to get set-up and then approved, first by United Healthcare and then by WC. You could consider starting with the lidocaine while you work on getting ketamine lined up like I did. Or skip the lidocaine and go straight to ketamine... I can honestly say after everything I have tried it's by FAR the most effective and worthwhile treatment out there. (But not perfect...)

So sorry you are going through this, I can totally relate. There are some awesome people on this board that have helped me enormously!! Keep in touch and let us know how you make out.

xoxox Sandy