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Wow, I am kind of speechless as to the response to the different experiences with the doctors which you've gone to.
Then again, before I was diagnosed with RSD, it took about 14 months to finally get diagnosed. I started out with 3 compression fractures in my back found on an xray from my family doctor. After that I went to physical therapy and my pain was so bad in my back, that they couldn't touch me, just only ice me, and even electrostem on the highest setting I would be able to take, would feel like I never had it done about 2 hours after I got home. After this, I went to an orthopedic surgeon, who thought I had a pinched nerve in my neck.
Oh by the way, I'll describe the symptoms and background as simple as possible. Basically 5 years ago I was in a car accident as I'm type 1 (insulin dependent diabetic). I ended up passed out behind the wheel hitting a tree head on at 65mph. I also had just gone to a drive through and gotten food and I didn't put my seatbelt back on after reaching up to get the food because I was in such a hurry and already had low blood sugar and wasn't thinking straight. So, anyway, as I said, I hit a tree headon, no seatbelt at 60-65mph. I ended up with my butt on the floor board of the drivers side down in a crouched position with my knees up by my shoulders as if I was squatted down. The only thing is that I was pinned in that position for an hour and a half while they cut the car apart to get me out. While I had to wait for them to do this, I had the lever that is used to move the drivers seat back and fourth in the car pushing into the middle right side of my back. Basically it was like someone pushing on one of your pressure points in your back without being able to move for an hour and a half, and REAL HARD TOO!...I ended up with a broken top right rib and fractured the 2 vertabre next to it. Real lucky. Took 6 months to recover at home in a neck brace and it took a while because of all the chest trauma I had as well from the impact. Basically after that I was fine for 3 years. TOTALLY fine, I moved to Los Angeles where I worked 60-80 hour work weeks for 2.5 years until I burned out. I also walked everywhere I went and moved more equipment and computer server hardware than I care to remember. So after the burn out I moved home to return to college to finish a degree, and BOOM then the back pain started, and soon after I found out I had the 3 compression fractures......
Then the physical therapy, which only hurt me more. Then onto an orthopedic surgeon that said I had a "pinched nerve in my neck". Basically my pain is from my neck down to the middle right side of my spine (thoracic level, exactly where the handle was pushing into my back), then it goes up through my entire shoulderblade area on the right side of my upper back on both sides of it, then down my right arm.
After the orthopedic surgeon recommended more physical therapy with traction I basically decided to try an intensive naturalpathic wholeistic healing chiropractor, attending 4 times/week minimum to try to "break the pain" and basically after the 6th week, I was getting turned over and cracked on a vertabre in my back which is pushing into my spinal cord because it's elongated. Believe me, after 4 days of driving home with tears in my eyes, I said "f#@K this!". I then went to a great pain management doctor who thought he could cure me. I felt that I was getting great care as he was well known and he actually did an MRI low enough to see the compression fracture pathology, and deal wiht my pain management. From that point on, we tried 2 epidurals into my back at seperate times. The 1st epidural was directly into the area of the back where I had the most pain. Well not only did it make it worse, I had a nice softball in my back basially for a few weeks afterward. The 2nd epidural was going to be the doctor running a catheter up to the affected area instead of going into the directly inflamed area to do the injection. Well after 45 minutes of me SCREAMING on the table and them constantly giving me more and more pain meds he finally gave up and went like 2 vertabre away instead of 6 because he couldn't get the needle up. This didn't work either. I then tried accupuncture, and some eastern medicine approaches, with herbs etc. to help "heal" my body. Basically, my insurance didn't cover my accupuncture, so I paid a minimum of 120 bucks / visit which I went 2 times/week for the first month and 1/time per week in the 2nd month. All the accupuncture would do, is take my pain away for 2-5 minutes tops, and as soon as I got up again and went out the door of the office, boom! the pain was right back. I also took it upon myself to goto the Northern CA spinal institute and goto the "hot shots" there. After 1 hour and 45 minutes of me waiting only to be examined by a doctors intern/assistant and to be told that I had a disease called schueramann's disease, and that narcotics wasn't the way to treat my condition, that physical activity and physical therapy was the way for me to go, I again had to say "F@$K YOU" yer wrong to him......After going to all these doctors plus a few more I won't mention experiences with, I was probably where you feel you are now.... By this time, I was on so many opiates from the pain getting worse that I had to go through opiate withdrawal because I was taking so much that they weren't working anymore. Opiate withdrawal was horrible. I sweated for weeks and when I did come off of them totally, I couldn't sit still for 24 hours. I couldn't stop moving my legs, when I did stop moving them I got great immensely horrible shooting pain in my legs. I will one day have to go through it again but holy crap I wouldn't wish that stuff on anyone. Now I know what heroin withdrawal must be like....SHEESH!
I was so frustrated you don't even know. Basically I found a forum online where they were talking about thoracic injuries and the administrator was a surgeon. He suggested I goto another orthopedic surgeon for another opinion. I was skeptical but I did it anyway....FINALLY someone that listened! He basically told me he thought I had fibermayalgia (however you spell it) and recommended me to my current doctor who in my opinion is an absolute miracle to me....
She's an arthritic, rhuematoid inflamation specialist. Not only does she manage my pain regimen WITH me, she's more than willing to make sure that I have enough pain meds, because she knows I'm not going to abuse them and that I need them to be able to deal with this. She even took the time to tell me, that for a while any physical activities, like physical therapy, chiropractic care etc, weren't an option because the level of pain i was in was only worsened when doing these activities. Basically, other then manage my pain she gives me injections in my back in the "hot spots" basically where I have the most pain. I also jump if you even happen to lightly touch my back even barely. that's how sensative I am. But the injections are lidocaine followed by a small amount of cortizone. Small enough that the cortizone doesn't even mess my blood sugar up. Further more, she's working with me to get physical therapy for my arms, because I've lost all the strength in my upper body by sitting around for the last year and a half. On top of that my right hand is getting really bad. I can only type for so long. I can only write about a page worth of words, and I'm trying to goto college. So I know what hand issues feel like. I'm also going to physical therapy for that. One thing I will say about getting treatment for the hands, I wish I would have done it at first symptom....
Anyway, to sum it all up. Every doctor has 1 to 3 opinions. Some are smarter than others, obviously. Doctors also by no means are any more smart than you and I. Remember, they are tought to fix "trauma" or things IMMEDIATELY. Basically they deal with a broken bone by casting it, a cold by medicaton...and so on and so fourth. You've got to be your own best advocate if you are going to get well because you can't obviously count on your doctors to do it for you. Some doctors are there only to make money, some don't even really care about you. Others are scared to give you pain medication because no matter what's wrong they have an issue prescribing something that's addictive. I had that problem with my first pain doctor. He'd give me BARELY enough to make it, basically enough for baseline pain but not enoguh for brakethrough pain. SO if I had a bad day and was in extra pain, I'd end up running out before my next refill because I had to take an extra tab or 2. To me, that's fucking wrong! I like many other people have no problem taking narcotics because they work, and we take them AS PRESCRIBED. I don't know how people can actually get addicted to them seriously, but there's all types in this world!
All I can do is say, keep looking and searching for a doctor that you feel cares about you, is good at what they do, and wants to actually help you. I've been lucky to get a few of them that do this. My specialist for RSD even answers the phone HERSELF when I call her. Believe me, just from the above, I've been through HELL trying to find the good doctors from the bad ones, but you've just got to keep your head up and keep searching for someone that fits you, and when you do get that doctor do everything you can with them that's within a plan that the 2 of you develop together, and that you are comfortable with. So this way you'll have goals and expectations with your treatment and you aren't just sitting back going through the same ol' routine and slowly just getting worse. By the way, I'm 29 years old too. I'm not any younger, but right now going to college and trying to finish a degree is HELL. I'm taking 2 terms to finish one term of math and other subjects right now. I have an issue of not being able to sit longer than 20 minutes or stand 20 minutes at a time before I'm in brutal pain. So we all have our own hell, and issues, it's just a matter of doing anything and EVERYTHING you can to get YOU better because really, when you think about it...there isn't any other realistic option!!!...I hope this helps and sorry for the novel, but I think you get the picture I was trying to paint to help you all out that read this who have bad experiences or rough times with doctors....
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