I had the block at the end of January and it was my second in the series. The next day I had horrific burning pain in my back, that then spread up to my neck, and over the next few months then was in my shoulders, arms, hands, sides, stomach and chest. Sensitive to the touch, burning constant pain, redness of the skin, and swollen all over (along with a whole lot of other symptoms like loss of balance, dizziness, blurry vision, etc). It has been a VERY rough year. I really had hoped that all those things were related to something else, something that could be treated, but after months of tests it was determined that it was in fact a spread of my RSD. This all happened after my block. Now...was it caused by the injection itself? Did the injection cause an infection that then caused damage throughout my body that caused the spread? I will never know...all I know if that I have to now deal with more pain.

But after 4+ months of physical therapy I am now able to stand and walk a little with the walker, and have been able to get a few of the other symptoms under control with medications. It is a slow process but since I am finally headed in a positive direction after 4 straight months of only getting worse and worse after the block, I will take it. I am optimistic that I will be able to return to work (even if I will need to use the walker) if we continue with this plan of treatment. We took me off of all my meds and are now adding new ones one at a time so that we can determine what the side effects are (differentiating between side effects and symptoms) and how much they actually help. The doctors before just kept adding medications all at once, stopping and starting abruptly, and it made me a MESS. Now that we are taking a more structured approach and managing everything carefully I am slowly getting back the function and getting back my life. I celebrate every new thing that I am able to do that I couldn't do the week before and keep focused on the positives.

But I really had to stand up for myself and be my own advocate. I left my primary care doctor that I have been seeing since birth (he was actually the one who delivered me) and found the one that I am seeing now. The old one did not run any diagnostic tests, offered no treatment plan besides seeing the NUCCA chiropractor that's part of his office, and was not providing good care (just wanted to throw a bunch of pain meds at me). He said the worst thing I could do was look up information on the internet about different treatments and possible causes for my symptoms.

I know that my lawyer was not happy that I switched doctors...but I HAD to find a doctor who would work with me to find answers and to treat the problem. Best decision I could have made from a health standpoint (and that is above all my first priority). So I keep fighting to overcome these new problems and am on the right track I think. First goal is to get me functioning and back to work. Then we'll work on getting everything else resolved as much as possible.