AB:
I applaud you wholeheartedly for getting back in the ring. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose my son. Well, I can imagine - but just the contemplation of it tears at me. All I can say is I believe there is a reason you're here now.
The medical field is not set up to help us. Fact. It's not their fault; they were trained otherwise. There are always flowers in the weeds, but they're an absolute rarity, and even then, a good flower helps you help yourself.
This place has a lot of good flowers.
So, because our own best medical professionals don't understand this condition, lots of us here are desperately seeking ways to take this into our own hands. But we're so twisted up in this awful RSD Gordian Knot that we have no idea where to even start, let alone what to do. And lots of the things we do try make it WORSE and we have no idea why.
I have to defer to many of the fine folks here, as well as PTs/occupational therapists, on the appropriate guidelines for physical rehabilation. With RSD, the line is so very very fine as far as what constitutes actual forward progress and what constitutes adding another layer to the Gordian Knot. On the physical rehab side, all I can say is to get to know your own body and trust your own non-emotive intuition above all. I do love the warm water recommendation. Constant, easy motion of the affected limb(s) is, in my opinion, the best way to proceed here.
Getting back to the core issue though: How do we fight something that is quite apparently NOT understood by medical professionals? Indeed - many traditional therapies and modalities actually make RSD
worse.
What
I am very well versed in, by necessity, is the mental component of rehabilitation. And there is no standardized training for it. Not yet. There's no PhD in "Consciousness." Neuroscience is trying to circle around it, but they're still trying to look at the tangible, material component of something that is
not physical. The brain is the creation, not the creator. But I digress.
And yes - it helps to have working knowledge of the human body to get there, to the point where we can start to untangle the dang Knot, but not a whole lot is required. The one thing RSD experts seem to agree on is that the nervous system is affected. Whether it's the affectOR or the affectEE is another story - but regardless - at least there is common ground for the following:
With RSD, the nervous system is in a self-sustaining fight or flight mode.
Looking a little deeper - it's primarily the autonomic nervous system we're talking about here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system
Quoting Wikipedia: "The autonomic nervous system is a control system that acts largely
unconsciously."
AND HERE LIES THE BIG PROBLEM. RSD has its most significant impact within a control system that is outside of our normal CONSCIOUS awareness. It acts in our sub-conscious and "un-conscious." So it appears there's this system gone haywire and we're apparently helpless to do anything about it. Until we ask the question:
How do we consciously influence our subconscious?
By using our own mind as a tool.
Here's a post on how I got started:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread202210.html
It's not mind over matter - it's mind IS matter.
And I'm not saying we can just close our eyes make a wish and POOF - we're healed. I'm not recommending New Age crap about "manifesting all of your desires through the law of attraction" like
The Secret. Just an open mind and an honest attempt to truly get to know one's self.
It took a long time for our respective Gordian Knots to get to their current size, and it takes a while for them to unravel.
The good news is - to the best of my knowledge, EVERYONE has a mind, and there's no added risk of further complications and side effects if it doesn't work. And it's something that we can do ourselves - actually taking matters into our own hands.
...Sorry for the diatribe on your thread, AB. I've become very passionate based on my own relative experience and want to share and help. I just hear so much honesty and heartbreak in your posts... along with a willingness to look deeper at yourself and forgive.
Wrong.