Cheryl,

I'm glad that you said No to the PT assistant using ice on your shoulder!!! Unfortunately, not that many Doctors and Health Professionals are educated in RSD and therefore don't know how to treat it or what to do etc. Before I was diagnosed with RSD, the PT's were constantly using ice on my RSD leg and it made the pain SOO much worse and I came out in awful blisters - they couldn't understand why my leg was doing that and said that it can't be the ice making it worse but it was and it was only when I was diagnosed with RSD that my Pain Management Doctor told me that ice is a big "No-No" for RSD ... needless to say, I never went to see those PT's again LOL!

I hope the flight to Seattle on Wednesday goes well and that you have a great time and don't have any additional pain, swelling etc!! As you might already know, I am flying to Vegas on 1st March and I am VERY nervous about it as it will be an 11 and a half hour journey for us but I have got lots of good tips off members of Neurotalk and my Doctors so hopefully everything will go OK!!

Here's a link to a post on this forum that I made about flying with RSD that you might find useful if you haven't already seen it:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread70810.html

After speaking to my doctor about the flight, he said it was VERY important that I tried to move my RSD limbs as much as possible even if it ment just walking up and down the isles on the plane to try and keep the circulation moving and prevent any blood clots or anything. He also suggested that I sit in the seats at the front of the plane because of the RSD being in my leg as well as my arm as that would give me more leg-room and should be more comfortable hopefully ... I am in a wheelchair anyhow for long distances so my mum has requested this already!

Make sure you have all of the pain medications that you will need during the flight ... I spoke to my PM Doctor about what to do to try and prevent any flare ups and he said that he is going to sort out an "Emergency Pain medication pack" where he will sort some medications out for me that should try and combat any flares so you might want to talk to your Doctor about that also.

Take care of yourself and I hope you have a smooth and pain-free trip and have a great time - Please let us know how it goes when you can!!