Hi Kathy.....whew! I hope you're taking a list with you!

Ok. First thing that popped out at me was the Bath Pain Clinic. I am currently on the referral list as apparently it can take six months to get in there, and you have to have an initial interview....be assessed....blah blah blah...lol. I did a lot of reading about Bath, and there isn't much info apart from the site itself, and that is fairly thin on quantity of the sort of info you want. In the end I discovered that on a typical course, there will maybe be 2 or 3 CRPS patients max. All the rest are elderly patients struggling to cope with arthritis. You do not have your own room, but are in a big ward of about 20 patients. You are advised to take earplugs as the wards are next to a very busy street, and also many of the patients have sleep issues of one sort or another. As part of the course, you have daily hydro, physio and psych sessions, and in between are expected to be in the gym pushing on with the physio exercises.

To be honest. I've been very put off by the fact that it's not a dedicated CRPS course - I'd sort of been led to think that it was. And the idea of not sleeping properly for two or three weeks while going through such an intensive course that is going to inevitably increase my pain at least in the short-term is just not as appealing! I love the idea of having hydro, physio and psych, but I hoped to feel part of a group of similar people, not feel even older and more hopeless as I spend all that time with mainly old folk who at my age were at least pretty active, healthy and fit.... A good plus though is that they do have some ongoing studies into CRPS, although they don't offer the option of trying any other treatments other than the physio and hydro. Have a read around yourself and see how you feel. It's apparently very expensive, so your doc needs to be pretty persuasive. Although I don't feel it's for me at the moment, you might well feel differently. My doc said she would start the process in case I changed my mind later

I think you should definitely see a new pain doc, so push for that referral. So much of your list sounds like the kind of thing a GP is going to try and duck, they just don't have the expertise, time or budget to deal with it all. A dedicated CRPS pain doc should be much better placed to help you find a way through. The physio referral should be easy for him though, and he needs to 'find a pair' and do that properly for you.

I really hope you get some help and answers today, and that he at the very least gives you something for your 'breakthrough' pain. I'll hae my fingers crossed!!

Good luck,

Bram.