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Originally Posted by LovesTerriers
That sounds like a complete nightmare! That is horrible that you had to go through such a stressful situation, especially having RSD, being pregnant and having an infection to boot...YIKES. I am fairly new to this whole RSD thing. My symptoms started at the end of December 2013 and I was diagnosed mid February 2014. Since then, it seems like all of my days have been bad days. I had to resign from my job as a vocational rehab counselor in January and have been on LTD since. My only good days are after my outpatient ketamine infusions. However, when those wear off, I am back to square one and in bed, again.
I am very curious when you talk about your "RSD flare up protocols". Being a newbie and all, would you mind sharing what some of those might be? Anything to help between my infusions and get me out of bed would be awesome. I wish you the best of luck with the remainder of your pregnancy and I will say some prayers that all goes well for you and your new family.
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It took a lot of trial and error over the course of years...but I have a very specific set of things I do at the first sign of a flare up to get me back to my "normal" level of pain. Everyone is different...but these are the things that work for me. I do not take pain meds and haven't for years after having a bad reaction to a bunch of them that made me much worse. None of these things on their own makes a significant impact on the pain...but it is the combination of treatments in this order that acts to get me leveled off and back to "normal."
So here it is (in this order):
1. Warm/Hot bath with Epsom Salts (warm but not so hot you can't step right into it)
2. Ultrasound Heat therapy treatments on the worst spots (portable device)
3. TENS unit treatment on the worst spots for 30-60 minutes each (only areas that can be surrounded completely by the electrodes)
4. tDCS treatment for 20 minutes (I alternate the side of this treatment each day to affect both sides)
I will do this multiple times a day or once a day until I get back to "normal." It works every time...but I do need to do it right away...once I get too far into a pain cycle in the flare up then it is a lot harder to get things back on track.
I was so scared this time too because it was the worst flare up I have had in YEARS and it came on so fast. Being stuck in a bed, not able to move, no one around me who understood or cared what I was going through...that was very scary for me...which put me in a high level of stress...which of course made the pain worse.