Originally Posted by Imahotep

Someone posted a really great link to RSD symptoms a while back. I think it was Sandel but am not sure.

It's a truly remarkable list. There is no symptom that appears 100% of the time. Even pain only affects 97% of us. In my case if pain were my only problem my life would be unaffected. The pain gets pretty bad but even when it does it's usually brief. The constant pain I get rarely is most distracting. It's much more the fear of the pain and the other symptoms that are so debilitating. I never know when things will hit or how I'll feel in a few minutes. Sometimes I'll feel fairly good for hours and hours on end and then it comes to a screeching halt and everything hits me at once. I'm afraid to use my hand or arm except for the simplest tasks because if I overuse it it WILL hurt the following day. It gives me no warning whatsoever that I'm overdoing it so I always have to protect it. If it's forced too much then my blood pressure goes through the roof, pain increases sharply and eventually it gets pseudoparalysis. This is extremely disconcerting because it doesn't feel real, it feels like it's fine but the hand is virtually paralyzed. ...and of course there's gonna be a lot of pain.

The first few years there was no real overt sign of trouble except that it rarely had the chamelion syndrome where it would turn various colors for short periods. Since it has spread and affected my mental state. I can still be in good moods but the depression is just under the surface. Anxiety in various forms plagues me and can interfere with sleep (and anything else) for weeks on end.

Then there are the dozens of little physical problems that seem to require great effort to keep at bay but sometimes I wondeer if most don't just come and go on their own. To look at me most people wouldn't know most of the time. One day I limp and drag my whole side and the next day I feel healthy as a horse. But most every day I wear out after just a few hours.

If I fight this it fights back. So I try to just give into it and do as much as I can.

I have great doctors now who seem to understand (even if I don't) but many of the docs don't seem to understand at all. Mine wasn't diagnosed until it was too late and there was nothing to do.