Originally Posted by gennipenni

I have recently been diagnosed with RSD and found this forum to be the best source of info! It all started when I woke up the weekend before Halloween with what I thought was a charley horse in my left foot. I did pointe ballet for years but haven't done it in about 3 years so I figured it was an old injury. When it didn't get better I went had x-rays which were negative but was waiting on a MRI so was in a boot and on crutches. The MRI showed I had a Morton's Neuroma (a bundle of nerves in between your second and third toe) but by now my pain was in my big toe. I was sent to another Dr who told me that the bones in my foot weren't in the correct positions and my arch was too high so he sent me for orthotic inserts and gave me a cortisone injection into by toe to bring down the swelling (which worked for a bit). Over the months of December and January my foot continued to get worse and then started turning blue/ getting freezing cold to the point where I thought I had frostbite and my foot was going to fall off. All this time I had been seeing Dr's at college so I then saw a Dr when I was home. He finally diagnosed me with sesmoiditis (after a second MRI showed that the bone there was abnormal) and a mild form of RSD. He suggested physical therapy. I am now back at school and went to physical therapy but the therapist took one look at my foot/calf and told me a needed to see a specialist because my foot/calf/ankle is atrophied. My calf is two inches smaller than the other and my foot is visibly smaller as well. At this point I'm using one crutch to walk and "shape up" shoes to roll in since my ankle muscles are nonexistent. I am currently looking into specialists but since I have only had the symptoms for a couple of months they are hesitant to say this is definitely what I have. From reading these posts I now know I need to act quickly as treatment in the first couple of months is crucial yet the waiting list for Dr's is certainly longer than the time I need treatment in. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it because my situation is becoming unbearable and this is not how I wanted to spend my last semester at college or my first year of being 21! Thanks for everyone here for understanding and I'm excited to see there are others out there that understand exactly how I feel.
xo
Genna