Hi Denali, I hope I can help because I had this same treatment done for my RSD/CRPS, but I had it in the lumbar region as it was for my legs.

I had a quick surgical procedure to place the epidural and I stayed in the hospital for the week. My pain was practically nonexistent during the time the epidural was in and it was great. I had physical therapy every day in the hospital to keep myself moving. When they pulled it out my pain came right back, but since it worked, my doctor said the next step was to have the pump for 6 weeks as an outpatient treatment. I had to come into the doctor's office once a week during this time to have the dressing changed and I had a home health nurse come to my house twice a week to change the bag of medicine. I also wasn't allowed to shower during the whole time or drive because of the medication. I had more mixed results with this while it was in. There was improvement with my pain but it would still get bad sometimes. They adjusted my dose several times and it was hard to get a balance of enough pain relief while not having too much numbness or my blood pressure getting too low and me feeling lightheaded. The week before it came out they lowered the dose to half the amount to ween me off of it and then they took it out and once again the pain came back. That has always been the problem with RSD treatments for me, though, because nothing ever lasts with its relief except the spinal cord stimulators I have, since they are permanent. However, that doesn't mean the same thing will happen with you.

According to my doctor as well it would be the next step in the course of your treatment, but it's up to you whether you want to try it or go with something more invasive. I don't know much about epidurals being more risky in the cervical area, I do know it is a tight space there. But also the reason the one doctor you talked to said that it's risky might be the chance of infection. If you get any infection in the site or catheter you will likely get meningitis since it is in the spinal cord. This was especially a risk with the 6 week outpatient one that they drummed in my head so I was super careful and I was fine. I was very careful not to get it wet and they had me taking my temperature every day and if I ever had a fever or any symptoms of meningitis I was supposed to go straight to the hospital.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you, I will keep you posted, that is if he ever returns my calls.

Happy 4th of July!