Just a little update on my own progress with the tDCS treatments. I've been doing this new protocol for 2 weeks now and I am very happy with the progress. The reduction in the pain has been consistent in my hands and arms (went from a 6-8 normally down to I would say a 4-6) and the allydonia (in my hands and arms) is also greatly reduced. I am wearing the gloves less and less (though I still keep them with me all the time just in case) and I also haven't been having the freezing/stiffness in them at all for the past week and a half.

Now...I did have what COULD have been a very bad setback a couple days ago. I was riding in the car, we were stopped at a stop sign...and we got rear ended. Oh my lord...that jolt! I thought I was going to die. I had a very similar experience with a jolt like that in the car last year and it sent me into a flare for a week. Well...as the day went on the pain got worse, started in my back and neck, went to my shoulders and down my arms. My back and neck were so stiff and in so much pain I could not even turn them at all. When we got home I set to work, pulling out the heating pads (one for my neck, one for my back), attached some lidoderm patches (one to each forearm), and plopped myself down in front of a spaceheater for a good hour until I felt like I could was getting the range of motion back in my neck and body. My ankle...surprisingly didn't seem affected by the accident this time but I had the TENS unit on at the time pretty high...and it was my back that got REALLY jolted against the back of the seat.

Anyway...followed all this up with a hot bath with epsom salts at the end of the night and ultrasound therapy on my arms and shoulders. The next morning I took another hot bath with epsom salts and just did the normal routine that I start every day with and aside from a slight ache in my back still...the pain was essentially at normal levels. I couldn't believe it...I was on edge all day waiting for the flare to hit me again...but it didn't. I continued all my normal stuff throughout the day and this morning I feel completely back to "normal". I am amazed. I definitely feel that this is related to the tDCS treatments because before the smallest things could cause flares and something like this really would have lasted a week or so. But it didn't. Just a couple of hours really of the bad intense flare (swelling, pain, temp changes, etc) and with just pulling out my "flare kit" and responding to it with all my normal stuff it just melted away. And the achiness the next day was likely not really related to the RSD at all but more just stiffness from the actual accident itself.

So yay for tDCS and dodging a bullet with this flare. I was so scared that this would set me back a lot but instead I am free to keep plugging along as usual and working on all the things that I am trying to accomplish. Hope this can give everyone some hope. I'm going to continue using this protocol and look forward to hopefully more improvements in the future.

Take care everyone.