Don't ask me how I got so lucky, but two of my doctor's who take care of me are Mayo's trained and so brilliant they almost scare me. It's my RSD/Sports Medicine doctor (was was offered a permanent position but then turned it down!)who's the head and ultimately in charge of all the big decisions of my team who explained to me so much about RSD during our 30 - 45 plus minute talks each and every time we're together over the past 11 years.

Since you're 15 years into this RSD saga, you're not in the typical boat boat most are in, but of course you know that. What hurts me is when I read postings by people who've just been diagnosed with RSD but then think their lives are over when that's just not necessarily the case. While there's never a situation where "always" is the rule, those of us who've been around have seen a great deal of RSD cases get further along not just because of one problem, injury or disease that's going on but other contributing factors hence the RSD is just one piece of the puzzle, but rarely the sole reason for all of their health problems. My only goal was to give some hope instead of just more of the "sky is falling" scenario which is so easily found all over the Internet these days.

The more we can help guide those new into RSD toward finding a doctor(s) who really know their stuff from day one and then convince them to stick it out instead of constantly shopping around with more and more physicians because they're not getting the results "they" want, when "they" want it, the more help we can be. Unfortunately pain sometimes drives us all down the path of doing the stupid and not following through with whatever course of treatment or action they're being advised to take simply because results are not taking place fast enough. For those of us not blessed enough to be born with patience, in the end we'll find it because we have no other choice.

It's been a delight visiting with you, Bob.