Quote:
Originally Posted by tjack
Dec 9, 2009 I tripped over one of many lumps in the carpet at my office at work falling into the door jam and bruising my forearm at the elbow & down my arm aprox 4-5 inches.. At the time I didn't think much of the bruised arm more of my bruised pride and was upset because this bad carpet had been a safety issue for over a year for anyone walking into the office. I had the next couple of days off, and by the next afternoon my whole arm was hurting like heck and significantly swollen clear down to my hand. So I called and went into see my primary care physician the next day ( 2 days after the fall). She took xrays and nothing broken I didn't think there was but she wanted to make sure. She sent me away with a note to my employer that it was just a contusion.
Problem is the arm is very painfull still and swelling off and on the pain now extends all the way up my arm from my hand all the way up my shoulder and into my neck. I don't know if it was related to the fall into the door jam or something else. My PT thinks I should file a workman's comp, but I don't know if this is or could be related or is it just the RSD flaring?
Not sure what to do, and is is too late to file a workman's comp claim now?
Would welcome any thoughts on this.
Befudled
TJ
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Hi TJ, Trust me, file a claim and get your injury documented. It doesn't mean you have a contusion. Many Drs. don't recognize RSD. Get pictures taken of your arm,shoulder- rumpled carpet (if you can) with your cell phone.
I flew from Arizona to Eugene, Oregon 4 years after getting RSD but wasn't diagnosed and kept speading. It's a sports injury group at Sacred Heart. The Sports Injury Group are well known, I know Jones is the knee Dr. I saw the Hand Dr. and he looked at my hand and said RSD in 1 minute. He sent me over to nuclear med department at Sacred Heart that confirmed RSD. I have a good friend at the other large hospital that is in nuclear med dept. If you need the hand specialt name, I can call and get it for you. I don't know what part of Oregon you live at.
He started me into physical therapy the next day. Then I came back to Arizona and got a good neuro and ortho hand doc and continued in physcial therapy. Because of the delay ( I had been wrongly diagnosed here in AZ) I have 50% use of left hand.
My RSD was actually caused by a Eugene Dr, but I didn't know it for 4 years. I didn't sue. I had 100 physical therapy treatments to get the use of my shoulder, and the p.t. department at Sacred Heart didn't know what they were treating-just trying to get the use of my shoulder back, which I did. Then remission for a year, then spread to other shoulder-therapy here in AZ and another remission. then spread to hand from water skiing-misdiagnosed, then went to sports injury group and diagnosed in 1 minute. I'm grateful for the diagnosis and he started me in pt next day and ordered a Tens Unit which Helped.
Hope you get the help you need. This is an expensive disorder-lots of medications, therapy, HBOT is the treatment I'm going to try next. Psychiatrist helped me tremendously to adjust to a life of pain and change is ability to do things. It's really like a grieving process. Take care, loretta