Thank you, it means a lot to have a voice here and to read everyone here's posts too!

I had facet joint injections as a means of locating the radiculopathy I have but they failed and I haven't been offered nerve blocks. SCS is a touchy subject as I would like to be able to discuss it with the surgeon who performs it, but the usual "route" is that the pain clinic refer you. My neurosurgeon who diagnosed CRPS wrote to the pain team recommending I was put forward for SCS, and the pain consultant refused, saying he has never seen a successful operation and that they are only made for a very small area of pain in one limb, not pain in both and my back. He says they never work for CRPS or back pain. So he refused. My GP has gone over his head and managed to swing me an appointment to meet with the surgeon who performs the SCS surgery, but whether he will take me on without the pain clinic's backing is a concern, and I think it's unlikely.

To top it off, the NICE guidelines say I have to have had all relevant other options and the pain clinic have not given them to me. One is psychotherapy and I think another may be nerve blocks. I have finally got a place on a pain management programme that might cover that first base. I have mixed messages on when that will come about, the pain consultant said I would start within a month (about 6 weeks ago now) and his secretary laughed and said more like a year. I wrote to and rang the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (again) and now I have an appointment to "discuss" the PMP with a physiotherapist next week. God knows when it will start though!

The sleep issue is really contributing to my mood and thoughts about the future (or lack of it) which I hate as I try really hard to see the positive in everything and joke things off. I hate that I come here moaning about things, and really I do it just as much to prevent me offloading to those in "real life" as much as to get that advice and support that is so amazing here. It used to be that if I had a bad night, the Kindle would save me, but now I am so tired all the time that I can't focus on a book. A new and very painful symptom (piriformis? pudendal nerve maybe?) means I am really struggling to get comfy in bed too as I can't sleep on one side due to that or my back due to seizing up, which only leaves me with the opposite side, and that means I can't change positions enough and seize even more. I've got to the point where instead of loving my bed and seeing it as the escape from the pain that it used to be, I now am pretty angry and even a bit scared of coming to bed. Which is a bit daft considering today I can't get out of it without fainting.

Thanks you guys for being so bloomin' ace.