Thank you all for the support and kind words - it means a lot knowing that you are all here at times like this!!!

Its still really hard for me to type one handed so I have just copied and pasted a email that I sent to s relative about the appt yesterday - hope you understand!!!

We have just got back from the hospital. The Orthopaedic Dr in the fracture clinic was really nice. She took a good look at my x-rays and said that they were inconclusive. She could see 3 really big lines on the xrays though so said that my arm could be broken in up to 3 places but she wasn't entirely sure - I think the swelling has been masking a lot of things. One of the areas that could be broken is in the radius, right above the joint and also on a bone called the Scaphoid which one of the doctors initially thought I could have broken when I was in a flare last year.

My Pain Management nurse came to the fracture clinic also and explained to the dr what RSD is. The Orthopaedic dr said that there were a number of things going round in her head as to what could be the matter. One was that I had fractured my wrist, that I had really bad ligament damage,clotting issues or osteoperosis. The dr knew that RSD could cause osteoperosis as it weakens the bones and showed us my xrays. She explaimed that healthy bones should be thick white which I had but in other places, they werent. She said that tthey wouldn't really know if something was wrong though unless they did a bone scan.

The dr said that they were treating my arm as if it was a fracture. In a normal case, they would cast it but with RSD, that is something that you should never do as it can make things soo much worse. The dr has given me a really thick bandage that I have to wear and cant move my wrist but have to keep moving my fingers to get rid of the swelling.

After we saw the dr, my Pain Management Dr came in. He took one look at my arm and couldn't believe how bad it was. He said that he had never seen anything like that in RSD before! He spent about 10 minutes just staring at my arm and then went and looked at my x-rays. He also said that there are a number of things that could be wrong but doesn't want to cast me if at all possible. He wants some really good pictures of my arm as he has never seen so much bruising in RSD before. He asked how my pain was and I told him it had been really bad since I fell and has increased my ketamine. I can take it 3 times a day if I need to now. Hopefully that should help with the pain as its really bad at times ... I think its because I have RSD and something else on top of it.

My dr also took a look at my leg with me saying it is giving way a lot more. He said that he could tell that it hadn't changed and was pretty swollen and spasming a lot. He discussed the botox with us that the physios have suggested and said that he has spoken to lots of neurologists about it and basically no one in the north of England is willin to try it because of my history with needles. He agreed that something needs to be done but said that we would have to try and go to another hospital to get it done.

My mum also got him to look at my left arm as it has been hurting a lot lately and he said that it looks as thouh the RSD has spread based on the symptoms. He says that I am one of those people that can get a chronic pain condition real easily.

We have to go back to the hospital ndext Tuesday. I am going fot physio on that day also. They are going to re-xray my arm and should hopefully by then be able to tell wheter or not its broken. I'm so upset about the whole situation as things semt to be going OK and then this happened!!! Its time like this when I get sick of being strong.

Well, have to go as its took me over an hour to type this 1 handed and my arms hurting! Hope all ok with you.

Thanks again for the support - you're all the best and i'll keep you all updated!!!