I'm curious about accupuncture on this arm and shoulder.
I was off for 5 weeks with RSI, and it still hurts after a few hours work now.
That was 6 months ago, and I wonder if it'll always give me bother? 
Rog.
A few years ago I was in big trouble with pain around the neck/shoulder area mainly on the left side (I'm left handed). I also had a constant aching in my left arm. As you know, I was using traditional methods then. I'm pretty sure it must have been caused by window cleaning. I was in such distress over it, I went down to working the equivalent of two days a week for a while. I had tried osteopathy and massage - neither of which helped me.
In desperation I looked up an acupuncturist in the phone book completely at random. It turned out that he used acupressure so didn't use needles. Because I had the problem for a few months, it took a while to come good. Apparently the sooner you deal with something like this, the quicker it heals. At first, I needed twice weekly sessions at about £20 a pop (and he was cheaper than most). After a few weeks I started to feel better and we reduced to once a week then two weekly phasing out to nothing after about four months. A word of warning though. During the first three weeks the problem felt worse. Apparently it's something that sometimes has to be gone through in order to come through the other side. During those early weeks I nearly threw it in but I was kept going by the knowledge that nothing else had worked. I am so glad I stuck with it. Sure I've had some aches and pains since from areas of my body - including the one that he worked on. I've occasionally had to slow down for a few days because of my back tweaking. But I've never since had a problem like the one mentioned above. I put up with it for 6 months before I went for something that I thought was quackery. I now understand that it is not quackery and has a legitimate place in healthcare.
Problems like that don't just hamper physical movement with me though. I found that I was getting run down, got angry more easily, snapped at people more readily, and just generally felt down and a bit depressed. Acupuncturists tend to take a more holistic approach whereas western medicine tends to focus more on just the area giving the problem.
I'm going to stick my neck out a bit here. I know money is tight for you and that you've lost a fair bit of work lately. I also suspect that you haven't made great efforts to replace it partly because of the pain. I try not to give advice unless it's asked for but I'm going to make an exception now.
Beg steal or borrow (well maybe not steal) the money to go and visit and acupuncturist for three months. If the problem is treatable, it will be one of the best investments you have made. In fact, you may even decide to do occasional follow-up visits. If the problem is treatable, the money you spend will be repaid many times over. Your pain will gradually reduce to nothing, your movement will become a lot freer again, But I found that something else can happen too. I started to feel better WITHIN myself too. My outlook started to feel more positive.
You never know. You might feel so well that you throw your poles away and get the ladder out again
