Loretta from this Board also used massage therapy extensively when she was initally diagnosed. 100 units.
I had horrific problems with touch the summer I was first diagnosed. And I will never forget having the pain of having to wear clothes when it got cold here in RI. I just cried and cried. I used to walk my dog and I was in agony because I needed a jacket, it felt like having a one ton rock sitting on my shoulder.
I still have an adversion to anyone touching me, perhaps I always will. My husband knows to be careful and I'm not as guarded around him. I think massage therapy would be too much for me, but I can see that it's a personal thing. So I am glad that someone else gave you another point of view. That's what this board is very good for....
Good luck XOXOX Sandy
Quote:
Originally Posted by daylilyfan
Every person with RSD is different, and every massage therapist is different.
I credit my massage therapist with helping me a lot. The doc at Clev. Clinic told me that having early massage therapy probably has kept me from developing the terrible sensitivity so many have.
I used to start crying before I went into the building - my body knew how much it was going to hurt to be touched. But, after a lot of treatments, it did get better. Sometimes she would just hold her hands over me - sometimes light touch, sometimes actual massage.
I already knew the woman - and trusted her - from her working on me prior to RSD...
I can not afford to go any longer. The areas that the RSD spread to since I quit going do have a lot more sensitivity than the ones the massage therapist worked on.
However - I was worked on one time by a physical therapist, briefly, for muscle spasm and I thought I was not going to be able to drive home, it hurt so bad afterwards. 
And, while visiting a friend, I was having problems with pain, and his wife is a massage therapist. She said let me give you a massage - and I did - and it was not TO bad while she was doing it - but oh, man - afterward - for days I HURT all over. 
That has been my experience... If you have the right person doing it then it can be helpful in the long run, even if during the massage or right after, it is worse.
Jules |