Hello friends, I just found this site and am very grateful to see you all here.
I live now in Daytona Fl. and am a single 60 years old feamle with RSD for 21 years now.

I got RSD in the dark days when there was no one to talk to and all the doctors told you that you were just crazy.

My RSD started from an ankle sprain in 1991. I had the added pleasure of fighting a 16 year Pa. workers comp suit and 7 years for SSD.
You had to do your own homework then too. No one but God had ever heard of RSD and He wasn't happy about it either. No one should have to live thru that kind of condemnation and degradation and torture phsically or mentally.
It was a nightmare. 16 years of workers comp doctors and hearings and lawyers and judges, it was nasty. Not to mention being single and poor.
I lost everything I had ever worked for. My business, cars, house, savings, and next was my pride...they almost beat me down.


Took me 4 years to find a doctor that even heard of RSD. By the time I got to the 58th doctor, Doc Marty, confirming my Pysical Therapist's suspisions, Doc Marty helped me start a new life of this horror. I began going into the hospital for 5 days at a stretch for treatments. I had a 24/5 continuous Lydicaine drip in the spine, epidoral block. Some call it a sympathetic block.
However, after 2 years and 6 blocks and tooooo many drugs, I had no releif from the pain.

The first block did however, take away the huge edema in the right leg. It has never come back. I treated with Dr. Hoosmand in 1997 and he deemed me Systemic RSD. I kinda knew that before I saw him though. I knew it was taking over my left hand and arm by then. We all know our own body and can tell when things are wacked out.

However, it was Hoosmand's name on the dotted line that won my SSD case. He was honest and told me how bad things really had gotten. I had to pay for his care out of my own pocket but it was worth it in the end.
It isn't always what you know but how to handle who you know...
sometimes that might unlock the doors that are crippeling you.
RSDHope helped me to get off of my rear and start living in this RSD world.
They opened the door for me to meet other RSD people, a true blessing.

REMEMBER, you are not only fighting the pain you have to learn and fight The System. It was not a pleasent time, and my friends and family did not know how to deal with the peson that now lived in Andrea's body.
They suffered with denial as much as I did during those times.

I lived in Mars, Pa. at this time and truely thought that martians were taking me in the night and doing these things to me. It was a circus.
Only an RSD person can appriceate the Martian therory......I was really starting to question myself.
However, time has gone by and I've accepted the facts of learning that there is no fix -just treatment and always miracles.

I am a faithfilled person and never stopped praying most importantly.

I owned my own business at the time of my injury and worked Heavy Highway as a truck driver and heavy equipment operator for Pa. Steelworkers building bridges and highways.
I also owned a hair salon and had 5 employees at Love Your Hair. I have been a hairstylist since 1969, owning and operating numerous salons.
I like the open air and am a Chevy Gear Head so got my CDL and started truckin for a living as the salon held its own. I have only been married 4 years of my 60 and have , thru God's grace, been an independent woman,
even now.

I can tell you horror stories all day long, but it only creates more anger sometimes. So as a vetern of RSD I will encourage you to learn about RSD and include your family in that knowledge so they do not suffer too.
Keep faith and know you can live thru this nightmare. Keep your sence of humor and cry when you need to, it helps. You have to find what is left of you and your passions, and continue to Live. It ain't easy but, you can.

I have started support groups from Mars, Pa. to Daytona Fl. to North Pole Alaska spreading the word of RSD. In fact next Sept. I am planning a 10 year reunion with the North Pole folks. I am truckin' there for RSD. Going to fish for salmon in Valdez before it is too late for me. You have to keep living.

I will leave you with this thought tonight: It could be worse.

You could be the boat captain that had to take me parasailing last week. Poor guy, he didn't know what to do with this chunkey crippled old lady with 2 canes trying to walk the plank to get to the boat.
I could see the terror in his face. I explained my limits to him, told him my darkest secret..how much I weighed...and we set a plan. He landed me back on board on my butt like he had done it a hundred times. It was a Blast and the captain is to be commnded. Will post pics soon.

YOU have to keep on living... search thru the doctors, the lawyers and money problems and know there is light at the end of the tunnel if you work at being who you have become and use who you were. I heard Cher say during an interview I saw one time, "If a cock roach can adapt so can I..
I am smarter than a cock roach." I have heald on to that all these years.

There is always an ear and a shoulder for anyone who needs it. Please don't let anger and the System beat you down.
Any mediacal, legal, spiritual, emotional questions, please just ask...
I found my best avenues of treatment thru Alternitive care. Keneisiology, Reflexology, Yoga, suppliments, exersize, and prayers. Keep on truckin".
Thank you all for your efforts and being here.

Sending Peace & LUV to all. Andrea
RSD from Mars with LUV. Lending Unity for Victory.