Sonny--Well technically my injections are supposed to be one week apart, but because I am only comfortable with my PM performing them they are sometimes as much as two weeks apart because of his schedule. As for how I developed CRPS, it's not a very fascinating story...went to the ER for treatment of an abscess on my leg and after treating that they decided to give me a tetanus shot. They administered the tetanus shot in my bicep and not the deltoid (which is where it is meant to be given) and they damaged a nerve. I ignored the swelling and the pain for months and by that time all of the nerves in my brachial plexus were involved. I have very little strength in my fingers and the arm itself. I am in physical therapy now (since October) (first to prevent muscle atrophy and regain range of motion; we are now going to be moving on to strength training hopefully, as I am right handed and this has caused a great deal of trouble with the things you mentioned like zipping coats, tying shoes, etc.) I also saw from a past post of yours that you experience coldness in your hands. I have that too, it is because the autonomic nerve is not telling your blood vessels to send blood to the area when it needs to. Sometimes my hand is freezing and purple/blue/almost black and other times it is bright red and very warm. I wear a glove everyday unless I am at home because even what other people think are comfortable temps (in the office for example) are too cold for my arm and hand. The injections also help restore the circulation. The relief is short term, especially in the beginning, but the reason that they give they shots (how many will be recommended for you I can't say) in the succession that they are giving them to me is that I am told that the length of relief from pain and circulatory problems gets longer and longer after each block. I have had to go from working full time to only four hours a day because I cannot take my pain meds and drive or work (not a very happy boss is mine). I do take a narcotic pain med along with Cymbalta, Neurontin, Lidoderm (and yes I take benadryl to try to control some of the itching), and several others. Certainly the choice of taking narcotics is yours and yours alone, but I find that at least they help me sleep for two hours or so at a time (as opposed to being up all night with the pain). You do not sound at all like a nut case! This is a very scary thing. The diagnosis is bad enough (Lord knows that because no one can "see" anything wrong with you they all think you're imaging it (at least in my case I see that a lot) and I was dumbstruck when they told me that they would be going in through my throat. To be honest, I am still scared every time that I go, but my doc told me that it is my best shot at getting my arm back. I am 42 years old and would one day like to be able to hold any grandchildren that I may have (among other things, you know, like being able to cut my own meat at dinner LOL), so I sucked it up and made the commitment to see it through. It's not a walk in the park, but it is probably not as bad as you are imaging it (I know I lay in bed at night before the first procedure and didn't sleep a wink just thinking about it). Talk to your doc, if you like her and are comfortable with her make sure that you tell her everything that you are worried about. Any dr. worth their salt should be willing to take the time to explain everything to you that you want to know and hopefully allay most of your fears. Again, if you have any other questions you can just keep responding on this thread or you can private message me. It is actually making me feel a little good being able to help someone else, because yes, even though there are plenty of people that have it worse than we do, it is still hard and there are times when I think we all feel that we've just had it! Chronic pain is not something that anyone should have to deal with. Pardon my language, but it just plain sucks!

Yes, I've had 13 now over 3 years and 2 suprascapular nerve blocks, lately. I would have gone postal without them!