Originally Posted by ali12

Hello Grammadur and Welcome to Neurotalk!!! You will meet many great people here who I am sure will be more than happy to help you in anyway they possibly can!!

I'm so sorry to hear that you suffer from RSD also. I have RSD in both arms (although it is still to be confirmed in my left arm but the PT's say that it is more than likely RSD as all of the symptoms are the same) and my left leg also. I developed it when I was 12 years old after an ankle sprain and am now 14. I have tried all sorts of things to try and make it better but nothing has really helped.

As some of the others have said, unfortunately there is no cure for RSD HOWEVER it CAN be managed with medications and different therapies such as PT etc. You are lucky in the sense that you were diagnosed very quickly - doctors say that the best chance of RSD going into remission is if it is caught within 3 months and you start with agressive therapy. Remission basically means that you have no symptoms of RSD or that you can do all of the things you want to do with little pain.

Are you currently seeing a Pain Management Doctor?? They are usually the best doctors to treat RSD as they can prescribe pain meds and do nerve blocks etc.

As for the nerve blocks, everyone is different in how they react. They work really well for some whilst they might not work at all for others. I have had 2 nerve blocks and the first one didn't go well at all. My Doctor injected directly into my RSD leg and it made me SO much worse - I was left wheelchair bound for 13 months afterwards. It was only when I had the nerve block that we found an article on the internet stating that you should NEVER inject directy into an RSD limb unless it is absolutely neccaasary - unfortunately, my doctor didnt know that at the time!! I later went in hospital for a splint making for my RSD leg as I have severe Dystonia and my doctor had to splint under general anaesthetic and he did a Ketamine Epidural on me to try and manage the pain afterwards. The epidural worked very well and the pain went down from an 8 and a half on the pain scale to about a 6 although the affects only lasted 6 hours or so unfortunately. It's believed that the nerves in all of my RSD limbs are so wound up that no one can do anything invasive as it will make things worse. I have to stay away from all surgical interventions if at all possible in my RSD limbs.

I hope I didn't scare you with what I said about the nerve block and how I reacted - that was never my intensions but I just wanted to tell you to be careful and not let the doctor inject directly into your RSD limb unless they absolutely have to!! If you decide to go ahead with the blocks, I would research as much as possible and also make sure the doctor knows what he is talking about - dont be afraid to ask him any questions as its important you feel comfortable and dont feel like the doctors have to force you into doing anything - it is entirely your choice and no one can force you into anything - you know your body better than anyone else!!!

Are you having Physical Therapy at the moment??? It's really important that you keep moving as much as possible - I KNOW it's really painful but it is probably the one thing that will help you in the long run!!

Take care of yourself and if you need anyone to talk to, please know that I am here for you and that I DO understand how scary it can be when dealing with such an awful condition!!

Sending many pain-free hugs your way and hope to see you around here more soon!!

Alison.