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In Remembrance
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SE Kansas.
Posts: 374
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In Remembrance
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SE Kansas.
Posts: 374
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Hi Cumene,
No disease ever follows an identical course or timeline, but for the most part RSD is a three stage process.
It begins with a physical trauma followed by inflammation, a normal part of the immune system's response to trauma, but rather than subsiding over a period of a few hours to a day or two, the inflammed area widens until an entire part of a limb is inflammed.
During this period you can usually expect to see your skin color change from its normal color to anything from pink to a bright red; my foot was so red the first doc to see it seemed to enjoy pushing down on the top of my foot and measure how long it took for the white from the pressure to return to red. You can also experience the kind of burning pain associated with a sunburn.
Inflammation is designed to make you protect the inflamed area, so there will be pain from swelling and if a joint is involved, range of motion is limited by pain.
The second stage is really a transitional one; from inflammation to cyanosi, and from sunburn pain to a burning pain you have probably never felt before (I hope you never do). This transition pretty much follows the original path of inflammation, with the new pain and evidence of cyanosis beginning at or near the site of the injury and gradually widening.
The third stage of RSD is widespread cyanosis, severe burning pain, allodynia, and a painful hypersensitivity to cold that makes 70 degrees feel close to being frostbite. Your skin temperature will lower in the affected tissue; usually one to three degrees.
This process can be quite rapid, but usually involves a few months before the cyanosis and other RSD pain involves the entire limb.
I wrote extensively on RSD at another forum, but it crashed and my posts (and everyone else') were lost. Among my posts were explanations of another RSD event called symptom migration: new symptoms spontaneously appearing in another limb. I wrote about the science and my personal experience in delaying symptom migration; which boils down to this: 300 mg of the antioxidant grape seed extract daily.
There is research showing that topical application of the antioxidant DMSO can minimize the consequences of RSD.
I am not a physician, but I can tell you that if I knew in the summer of 1995 what I know today, I would be applying DMSO to all inflamed skin three times per day and taking at least 300 mg of grape seed extract daily. I don't know that it would have stopped the RSD, but like I said, if I had known...
Good luck, and I hope and pray that your doc is wrong and we never have the opportunity to know you better. If that doesn't work out, you came to the right place...Vic
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