Hello all, I am new here and I was just wondering after reading some of your posts if anyone ever just feels/gets cranky for no apparent reason?
I was diagnosed with RSD 26 months ago and while I usually deal very well with it (at least according to my doctor) sometimes I just get so cranky and I have no idea why. I snap at my family and I envision myself as an old cranky dog that just wants to lay in a warm spot . It's nice to be able to read/receive input with this problem because others just don't understand what you are feeling. They can look at the purple arm, touch and feel the coldness, but no one can relate to that pain except someone else who has it. Mine was caused from a work related injury and we are still fighting workers comp and the employer on it. I'm just thankful I found this place.

AND we are tickled you found this forum..as we all care here..you have every right, just as the rest of our RSD friends to get cranky from time to time....this is a very nasty illness which we have to digest and live with every minutes of everyday.. not to mention how incredible the pain is..Right.. NOBODY.. knows..NOBODY until they have walked in our shoes!! Until they do...feel free to bite off heads and spit em out!!!

KS....

YES. I get crankly at no apparent reason. Sometimes, i will be sitting at the dinner table- and people eating and chewing drives me CRAZY. I cant handle it and just get really irritated, and I have to walk out of the room and just tell myself to calm down. It is completely normal and it happens completely out of the ordinary. The worst is when I am around a group of people an they dont know about my rsd and it happens... I have to just laugh about it... It is tough, but breathing exercises help alot

KS, you are hilarious!!! This disease is dysfunctional to say the least, one minute it is hot, cold, swollen, shriveled up as if it embarrassed, the pain is high, low, moderate, bedbound, I mean we are human beings here, there is alot of fluctuation and distress, we are bound to blow once in awhile. It is so hard on our loved ones too, because they just can't understand, and they will truly never understand, so forgive yourself, apologize if you need to and move on. It is ok. God Bless you both.

Jeanie

Oh wow, thank you so much for your responses. As I sit here reading this I came to tears. It's just such a relief to hear that others go through the same thing. Hannah1234 I thought I was just losing it. Sometimes the strangest things just get under my skin, and it is usually when I am having an issue with the RSD, like sometimes the pain lessens and it just feels so good and then it ramps up again. Boy, believe me sometimes I do bite them off, chew them up, then if I'm in a good enough mood I'll spit them out! When I feel that way I usually tell my family I'm just in a mood and I don't know why so they give me my breathing space. It really doesn't help that I used to have a job, granted it was only 2 days a week, but at least it kept me out of the house. Now they have decided to challenge the work restrictions and try to force me but I refused so I am being terminated. All that aggravation doesn't help much. During the course of this it caused severe tendonitis in my right arm from having to use it all the time when the work restrictions initially stopped me from using the left arm at all. I am terrified that I will develop the RSD in that side too, as I see some signs of it from time to time, mostly in the color change and coolness of it. I guess in the meantime I'll just be thankful I have found a place where people understand this nasty disease (which by the way, the workers comp insurance adjustor says I have NO right to be angry in the least about it). Thanks to all!!!

I completely understand!!!

I too am wc (Dec 08) and this started in my left hand then up into my elbow and my shoulder started a few months ago. I use my right arm alot and am sure I am over compensating. That has started hurting the past wk, so much sometimes I have trouble picking up a water btl. I am afraid it is going to spread also. Everyone seems to think I have such a good attitude but they just don't see what it is doing to me. I have lost my job, hoping to get unemployment now since wc says i am mmi and cut off my benefits. Who is going to hire me when, in such a crappy economy, they can have someone healthy? I am a wife and mom and I don't expect my kids to understand but my husband could just a bit. He doesn't talk to me about it, when I try I feel like I am talking to a wall. We are so far behind in bills, I feel like it's my fault. I tell him all the time to write things down (ie;needed groceries)and he does'nt, then I feel guilty when I forget. He thinks that just helping out with dinner and dishes, we do have a dishwasher, that he is being supportive. I am on Lyrica 300mg, Cymbalta and a compound gel. I am always tired and am afraid to go higher on the lyrica that i will be too tired to function. I know I could be worse off and feel guilty complaing but I guess it just builds up. just

I feel the pain causes us to be cranky. It's so intense at times, we can barely live with ourselves much less anyone else.
I can remember how cranky and stressed I was when this first started. I think too the fact that it takes us forever to find Drs. that actually want to help us or know how makes us even more cranky and it makes us feel more alone. I am better these days with crankiness but boy was I a mess when the RSD came on?

I do get stressed every once in awhile now but not as bad. I am in councelling also and that helps. I can talk to my Dr. about what is bothering me and he helps me accept it or realize it's not the big deal I am making out of it. He always told me that I could take my anger out on him and then go home and treat my family good. I did that enough. I would also get angry at him because I felt we weren't getting anywhere at dealing with my medical problems. What I learned is that getting RSD calmed down to where we can live with it to a certain point is a long road.

I never dealt with WC but I dealt with Social Security and to me it was just as bad. It takes years at times to get too.

People that doesn't deal with cronic pain doesn't understand it and when most of us look normal that have RSD then they can't see what causes our pain.

Hopefully for you, you will find that right Dr. that will help you get the pain under control to a point where you can live with it and then the stress will go down too.

Ada

I tend to snap off also, mostly at my very supportive husband that deals with me on a day to day basis. Brave Soul! LOL!
injured at work 3-25-09, Crush injury to great right toe, have been sent to a lot of chiro's, on my third attorney. first attorney when I would call to ask a question the secretaries and attorney would yell at me, second attorney, could never prove they were my attorney no signiture no calls, run around, my new attorney calls me back within 24hrs. he shows he cares, just sent me to PMD. when I went to see PMD. he is requesting (SCS) If I don't want the SCS DO i HAVE TO GET IT? I'm on W/C. Will they use that against me on my settlement, I get so stressed, tiered of meds. never been a med. taker, can't stand it, insomnia since injury, I wish the best foe ya, and I too am trying to improve my Stress levels.

We all get stressed.and its hard to hold onto ones integrity and stay focused and stay composed,,It will either be a stumbling block and destroy us ,,or be a building block and strengthen us,,,I get so mentally weak at times,,I dont want to verbally mistreat my wife due to my pain and distress from watching this disease spread with fear and frustration of being in a wheelchair,,I go to the Lord Jesus for my strength,,My dr's that ive seen dont show much empathy because they do not feel my pain and grief,and its not like a broken arm that will heal in 6 wks and then life goes on,,,to me, this is a side by side corralation of cancer when you in stage 2 [causalgia],,,rapid spread , praying for healing from this monster,,,,God bless you all,,I dont want the likes of this disease to consume me,nor to control me,nor to destroy my inner being and charactor and zeal to help others,,I desire death,,before it comes to that point