Hi Dabney,

I am also a fortunate soul who realized what I was up against early on. Like you, my RSD (right leg) was a result of a routine (ankle) surgery.

I just want to echo some of what Tessa just said. Movement and desensitization are very, very important. I did 5-10 minutes of mirror therapy every hour on the hour for three months. Have your wife grab a full length mirror from WalMart or Target (less than $10). Self-directed massage, and then having my wife do it when I could tolerate it, was also important.

MEDITATION, VISUALIZATION, and POSITIVE IMAGERY are crucial. Sorry about the caps Close your eyes and visualize yourself doing things you did in full health every night before you go to bed.

Set environmental positivity controls. Surround yourself with soothing music. Take a relaxing bath with epsom salts, like Tessa said. Go outside and soak in a little bit of the sun if you feel up to it (although RVA's had a crazy couple of recurring random snow days hey?!)

Drugs/nutrition/environmental factors are different person to person, but the key for me was to first limit, and then eliminate, anything that I identified as causing STRESS. Easier said than done when you're in 24/7 burning pain :/ I applied a 50-50 DMSO/vegetable glycerin treatment to the affected area 3x daily, and took 800 mg NAC 3x daily. Blessedly pain free in 90 days.


You can beat this and I will pray for you and your family every night.