Ice is bad if you have "cold" RSD. What "cold" RSD means is the skin on your affected limb feels very cold to the touch. "Hot" RSD is when your skin feels hot or very warm to the touch. There's usually a color difference too. With cold it is usually mottled, blue, purplish kinds of color and hot it's usually all shades of red from light to dark.

Cold rsd can't stand the cold of any kind and really hurts. Hot rsd can't stand the heat and loves cold. The few people with hot rsd have used ice and had no problems. The majority of rsd'ers have cold rsd though and anything cold hurts like a son of a gun!

Ice hurts so bad because our circulation is already compromised. The blood vessels have contracted during the first injury to protect the body part we hurt. When rsd kicks in it stays that way thinking we're still hurt. Ice applied to the rsd limb further constricts the blood vessels making a bad situation worse.

I'm here to disagree with the whole "pain meds don't help rsd pain" statement! If it didn't then why bother? I went without any meds at all thanks to work comp for far too long when I was dealing with them. When I was finally given pain meds it cut my pain in half. If it doesn't work then why did I get relief? Stupid doctors reading stupid things. If I didn't have my pain med I wouldn't ever move at all. With it, I can at least get up and do some things.

Hope I helped.

Hugs,

Karen