Dear Debbie -
First of all, I am the most enthusiastic supporter of meditation you'll likely come across, and can wax on at length about such options as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction [
http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/srp/index.aspx] or my teacher, Shinzen Young and some of his materials on working with pain [
http://shinzen.org/].
That said, it's my sense that you are looking for some medical options and that's what I will address.
I just came across one of the most helpful pieces I have seen in a long time on the RSDSA Medical Achieves Page, an article entitled "Pharmacologic Therapies for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome," written by Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, and Steven Feinberg, MD, MPH,
Current Pain and Headache Reports 2007, 11:38–43. I have downloaded and attached a copy of the piece.
Please pay special attention to the discussion of Bisphosphonates. I have been on infusions of Zometa off and on for the last year and a half and it has reduced my pain levels by anywhere between 40 and 50%. The only downside if that in people who undergo major dental work while on the drug, e.g. root canal, it can lead to some jaw necrosis. It's worth checking out in any event, even if you have to get a "pre-clearance" from your dentist. I will warn you though that I was told that I was lucky to get insurance approval of the stuff, which is usually used to prevent the uptake of bone tissue into the blood stream of multiple myeloma patients, where a monthly infusion retails out at over $800.00, of course that's peanuts compared to what is currently being charged for low-dose thalidomide, another option mentioned in the article.
Another area mentioned in the article is the use of anti-inflammatory agents. Although not specifically mentioned in the piece, one class of drugs under that heading that has attracted some attention of late are the so called "Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor" drugs. Please see that attached "Successful Treatment of CRPS 1 with Anti-TNF." That said, I am advised that this stuff retails at roughly $1,500.00/month and it's almost impossible to get insurance coverage for it.
In addition to the therapies that are mentioned in the attached piece, there has also been some relatively decent developments with Prialt (Ziconotide). Usually, this is administered as an almost last resort implantable pump for people with intractable pain - it's one of the deadliest naturally occurring toxins on the planet - but one very exciting recent case note by Michael Stanton Hicks, MD, one of the leading RSD docs in the country, demonstrated that a teenage girl with horrible RSD was put into almost complete remission using an infusion dose that was roughly three times the highest recommended dosage. Once again the article appears on the RSDSA Medical Achieves page [
http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...ve/index.html], almost at the bottom of the page, under the heading of "Treatments," listed alphabetically by author. Regretfully, the file is too large to attach here. I urge you to give it a look.
I hope this is helpful. Rest assured that you are far from having exhausted all of the options out there.
Mike