Newbie to shoulder/arm, hand pain, general guidance?

Hi All: new to the Board. I'm a "newbie" in terms of this shoulder thing. Woke up last October, '04 with a shoulder pain that just won't go away. Happened from time to time as I would sleep on my left arm but always stretched it out. Problem: it remained and nothing works. Can't move it too much and we've done the run-around, delay thing with the HMO. Finally, we did arm x-ray and doing an mri on neck and shoulder. Someone told me about this forum and I'm glad. Thank you! The problem is also along with time period, my elbow, upper bicep and left hand is inflamed and hurting, too. Basically rendering my entire left arm almost useless. What type of tests and strategy would you all recommend that I do as we get to the bottom of this. From posts, I'm gathering that arm problems are easy to misdiagnose or even to diagnose to begin with. Any ideas of subjects I should research, I will be meeting with the Docs for follow-up soon. It's awfully tiring being in such pain!