hmmm.. I have atrophy as well despite the work outs I do to try and retain muscle. it is hard to see the atrophied muscles because of all of my swelling.
Now I have seen alot of pictures of edema in some other RSDers. and Mine is not the worst. my feet, legs, arms, and hands all look like they should (just much larger) the discoloration is in my feet (sometimes my legs, arms and hands get really red) but my feet are (mood feet) now when Im really swollen my feet are white, red, powder blue, blue, purple..etc but when swelling goes down they are black, brown, purple/darkblue. my toe nails RE BRITTLE, and rippled, and split if not constantly manicured. im sure you all know how much fun that is. but back to my point it is possible to not swell like others. I havent been xrayed in a long time but before I had my solid dx my orthopedic surgeon said I had a loss in bone density. then he sent me for first bone scan then neuro sent me for tri-phase nuclear bone scan and that is when they saw pooling deformation in the bone (in fact the closer you looked from hip to foot the less of the appendage showed up(almost like I had no bones in foot and ankle and part of shin.. I guess now they find it pointless to keep checking ..