Dear Nancy,

My RSD started in my shoulder and spread upwards through my neck to my head after a series of trigger point injections last summer. I was diagnosed in June of 2008. I suffer from horrific head pain. My shoulder and arm still hurt a lot too.

Then last winter I had a terrible time with my feet, but it was intermittent. I walked on them ALL THE TIME. They hurt terribly, and would go numb (and it was also very cold up here in southern NE), but I continued to walk about 5 miles every day. Finally, in the spring, the spread of the RSD was confirmed in my right leg, but my feet and ankles continue to function OK. They do still hurt at times, though, especially when I first get up in the morning and at night when I'm tired. And at times my right leg is very swollen and changes color, it also has bad varicose veins which it really never had before. They were there, but not at all like they are now. Right now my leg is killing me and I plan on taking some meds soon and then napping. I have had 3 Lidocaine infusions since July which helped my leg a lot, and a lumbar block.

I don't at all want to give you false hope. But intensive therapy is used to rehabilitate some RSDers. And that is what I was thinking last year when I walked and walked and walked on my painful, numb feet. I still have the bad, ugly leg, but I haven't lost my mobility yet. It is likely to my advantage that my original injury was to my shoulder, not my foot, so that I didn't have to learn to walk on my surgical site where the RSD started - I can't even imagine how painful that would be.

Good luck to you, and try to keep moving... Sandy