Hi Phil,

 I was completely under when I was given the uppidurals, both times I woke up in revovery. Besides having RSD in both arm,hands and shoulders I have an advanced stage of degenerative disc disease. The upper eppidurals I recieved were higher up in my spine then a block that was done a few years ago that was right at the sympathetic nerve between t7 & t8, that block was not as successful as the last two I had in the last year. The last two were done between C7&C8 were specifically for the pain in my upper spine for the pain from having a spinal disc disease causing my disc's to deterioiate...feel like someone hit me in the middle of the back with a big piece of pipe...right between my shoulders. Even tho they were not for the RSD the help a lot with the burning in my arms, the Dr explained that he put in a lot of medicine and it ran down my spinal cord and made its way to the sympathetic nerve also calming my arms as well as stopping the pain in my spine...Im a 55 year old car wreck with problems from one end to the other.

 There could be many reasons for us having different out comes, different procedures,different medicine,different Dr's.....who knows. Not every one is going to have the same experiance and its a good thing for us to post our differences to give others a wider view. Of the two uppidurals I have had in the last year were done by different Drs as my first pain specialist was killed in a balooning accident before he could do the second one. Another Dr from the same Pain Clinic In Ft Collins Colorado did my second eppidural Jan 2 this year, the first one lasted about 6 weeks, this last one lasted 6 months...go figure! What ever these two Drs used for medicine in the eppidurals can only be used every 4 months, some of the other patients of this clinic that I have talked to have had the same experiance Ive had as to how long they last...some only a month or two and some as long as a year. We are all different and are going to have different outcomes and that is the beauty of our group, we get to see how others react to different medicines and procedures.

 Thank you for posting Phil and being an active member of our group!

Franklin