Perhaps I need to clarify my thoughts better on this.
I have not referred to RSD here as a "pain condition" nor did the article so I'm a bit perplexed at the misunderstanding and where that is coming from.
Here in Canada (we have universal medicine similar to the UK) our government recently recognized "Pain" as a disease, it is no longer just a symptom of another disease.
The concept itself really has nothing to do specifically with RSD and how it is designated but it does have a huge potential for improving the treatments that pain patients receive.
Now that "pain" has been designated as a disease rather than just a symptom of another disease, my doctor, his pain clinic and our hospitals can all get more funding for treating patients with chronic pain. They will be able to provide more treatments and services for those of us who happen to have RSD.
That being said the article specifically talked about periphrial nerve blocks which I know from personal experience do help patients with RSD. In my case when I returned from Germany and explained to my doctor that the Germans have used the continuous peripheral nerve blocks successfully to help newly diagnosed RSD patients my doctor complained that he only had 4 beds in the pain center to treat the entire population of the province of BC! Essentially I was told that there was no money in the budget to treat patients right in the first place.
When I was first diagnosed with RSD I had to fight tooth and nail to get bumped ahead of a 3 year wait-list to see that pain doctor. To learn that my efforts to be treated within that 6 month window were all in vain was rather disappointing to say the least. I don't want to see it happen to others.
I thank god the doctors on the front lines with the Iraq soldiers have a more complete understanding of how to treat pain to stop new injuries from developing into RSD.
If my posting was confusing I apologize for becoming overly enthusiastic that pain (what ever the cause) will now be treated as a complete and separate disease.
Perhaps I should have split my posting up into two threads;
- about the recognition of pain as a disease and
- about the peripheral nerve blocks
but since the article itself discussed a treatment I received for my RSD post surgery I didn't think to do so.
It was not my intention to start a discussion about whether the designation of RSD or CRPS is a condition or a syndrome.
MsL