I'm sorry to hear about Allison's worsening problems! I hope she feels better soon.

Unfortunately, your biggest problem right now is that you live in the UK, to be perfectly honest. For some reason, they seem to be a bit behind on treating RSD there, though I really couldn't tell you why. Guanethidine blocks are a type of bier block (using the medication Guanethidine, I believe). Bier blocks aren't really used in the US for treating RSD at all. I know that a lot of doctors believe that they can just make things worse. I've never had one, but the process I've read and heard about sounds very brutal. It's no wonder to me that it could worsen RSD instead of make it better.

Here, people usually start off with sympathetic nerve blocks, which don't involve cutting off the blood supply to the affected limb or anything horrible like that. That doesn't mean they necessarily work better (all people respond differently), but at least it's not as brutal a practice, and therefore has less potential for making things worse (although, there are cases when these blocks have made things worse too...nothing's absolute).

So...that's just my little bit of information for today. I'm not sure all of it is entirely accurate, but that's just what I've heard from other patients and from doctors. I hope it helps you find the treatment Allison needs.

-Betsy