full body bone scan?
 

Hi there

Has anybody had a full body three phase bonescan done? and what kind of results did they show.. I have one coming up on the 24th and I am just curiouse as to how much spread has shown up using this test.

Thanks an hope yr having a good day,
Sandra

I had almost a full body bone scan and I had only been dx with RSD in my right hand/ arm/ shoulder at the time. The results came back normal but I think that is because I had not had RSD for very long at the time.

They did the bonescan of every part of my body except my feet.

I hope you are doing well. :hug:

I had two of them. The first was after about a year and showed nothing except celulitis in the "unaffected" hand and the second was after seven years and showed nothing.

I have found nothing in the literature that suggests any bone scan has any value in RSD except to confirm the diagnosis. It can sometimes be useful for litigation, but it isn't going to help the clinician understand what is going on in your body, nor will suggest a more effective therapy.

These scans help hospitals pay for their very expensive equipment, so subjecting yourself to one could help future patients by amortizing the cost of the equipment. I have no moral qualms about seeing insurance companies billed for useless tests and procedures, so if you're willing to endure the discomfort in order to help others, I'm on your side...Vic

Thanks..
 

But if a person had a positive bone scan previously (sept 2005) and since then RSD has spread.. would that spread also show up on a bone scan?

Ohh and yes I am hopefull it will help with my WCB apeals Vic, they are still only taking responsibility for my right ankle and are paying me a little over a days wage... per month.

That amount won't even cover the meds they won't pay for due to the fact they are to treat my uncompinsatable organ involvement. *sigh* an I just lost an apeal because there was not enouph medical evidence an they got all their docs sayin it's not.. ect.. a sory state an I am getting very scared they will win.

Not full body
 

But the full lower half of the body. The first one found the pelvic bone on the right side had a low normal density reading, And one year later doing the same test again. They found osteopenia in the right hip and lower back. The right leg also showed signs of developing osteopenia.

That second test really sent home the feeling the the RSD was some serious stuff. In just one year things really went downhill for me. I am afraid to go get another one because it is now 2 years since the last one, and I am really afraid to hear what my body is already telling me.

At least they dont hurt :)

Hello Allen: I recently had tests done and found out I have osteopenia and osteoporosis in my hips and spine. I cannot remember which has what. My doctor told me to be very, very careful (her words) because I could step off a curb and get a fracture.:(

If possible, you may want to get tested again just to know what condition your bones are in. Maybe you could ask your doctor if there is something you can do to improve bone health. Good luck. Lil

Hi again Sandra,

I don't know whether a new bone scan would show osteoporosis in new areas. The truth is that I haven't paid much attention to osteoporosis and bone scans because the little I did read suggested that these scans are not all that reliable and osteoporosis is not always evident in RSD.

I'm not going to use your thread as a platform for another lecture about RSD, so I won't talk about why it isn't always found; there is an explanation but one has to understand ischemia reperfusion injury in order to understand the explanation for the varying degrees of signs and symptoms in this disease.

Given that insurance companies have more power on this planet than God (for now), anything that might help you win is definitely worth trying.

I was shocked (furious) (sad) (ready to shoot someone) at reading that you are really afriaid of losing your claim. I'm not going to hijack your thread and convert it into a platform to talk about why allowing your claim should be automatic, so I'm going to quote you in a new thread.

I hope you won't be offended at my using your post as an example of why RSD people have to wake up and take responsibility for our own recovery, but your few words here say it all. (Not about you; about the liars who tell us they know about RSD)...Vic

Hi,

I don't have anything to do with US insurance requirements, I speak just as someone who went through the process of trying to put a name to a condition and a set of symptoms.

The scan itself is not able to diagnose RSD, but in conjunction with RSD symptoms it can be a diagnostic clincher.

Among other things, RSD causes patchy osteoporosis. This is picked up by that type of scan. Certainly after I took the 3-phase bone scan that is what showed up, and that's what got written up. It clinched the diagnosis and I was relieved to have one, there's nothing more mind-numbingly scary than diagnosis limbo.

Where I live, in SE Asia, there are *so* many little old ladies bent into a severe L-shape because of osteoporosis, I see it every day, it's almost epidemic here and it's heart-breaking to witness. It's not a bad thing to be warned about it, in my view. The local population here can't afford scans, they just get progressively more bent out of shape.

Women, in particular, are prone to this after the menopause. But RSD or no, for anyone, osteopenia (precurser to osteoporosis) and osteoporosis itself are conditions to take seriously.

As Lil says, it at least gives you some warning that you should protect the affected areas, because it takes almost nothing to break brittle bones.

all the best :)