The way my symptoms started is the same way yours started....so are u saying the day you found out you had RSD on your hands... you been in pain every single day or your pain come and goes for a long period of time?

I hAVE IT IN MY LEFT HAND AND UP PAST MY ELBOW. (Sorry about my typing). I also have a bit of it in the tip of one of my right hand fingers where I bgot cut a few months ago. I have a compound cream that does help. Also on Lyrica, Cymbalta, mobic, flexeril and have a spinal cord stimulator that has done wonders for my pain but has it's own imperfections. I can no longer do my job (dog & cat groomer) so I'm going back to finish my B.A. Still need to find a light duty job but there just are no jobs out there. My wc attny is useless. I am grateful that wc did get me a great Dr that cares about me not wc.

RSD is a challenge in every aspect of our lives. Some days I want to throw in the towel but others I know I have to fight this. The past 3 yrs have literally been hell. I got hurt and ended up with this, lost my career/job because of it, my husband had to accept a HUGE pay cut to keep his job, my home burned to the ground killing my 6 show dogs and all our posessions.Now I'm coming up to the end of unemployment with still no job. I am fighting, going back to school and working on certification to substitute in the schools. I cannot give up. None of us can. I am sorry to steal your thread and rant . I just want you to know that whatever life throws at us we have to do the best we can with it. None of us are the same Not all experience spread and some meds work for some and not for others. Hang in there. Use your hand everyday wether it hurts or not.

Constant pain but the level of pain is constantly fluctuating. Any and all activity escalates my pain--meds and coping strategies help to decrease the high level pain. Other areas are not nearly at the same pain level as original site, but I've definitely experienced various forms of spread.

In the beginning the pain was here and there, (like a 2-3 days at a time, then 4-5 days at a time then 7-10 days at a time) then it was more often until it became everyday. The doctors knew I had it before it became everyday pain though. I think they really realized it when my hands felt like they were on fire and then would turn ice cold. That is when they sent me to a pain management doctor. My hands also were very sensitive to touch, they had to desensitize them because anything I touched hurt them, even cotton balls. Since I have been on medication for nerve pain and have had nerve block injections the pain is not as intense but it is still there. I still get the ice cold feelings as well. Hands/fingers still swell and get stiff at different times, nothing really goes away ever, they (symptoms) all just take turns rearing their ugly heads and for how long at a time nobody can say for certain...but it does progress and last longer and longer (for me). It is about time for me to get injections again because the burning, fire feeling is getting more intense again..my last series of 6 injections was back in july. They inject whatever in the front of my neck to get to the root of the nerve stem for my arm, which causes my arm to go numb for a few hours and it is supposed to "calm" the nerves for a while. Some people get great results, some people like me get temporary. I hope this helps you some more, but if not keep asking!!!:)

Healing Touch for RSD
 

You should consider trying Healing Touch which is energy work - worked well for my mom. *admin edit* Not expensive either.

In the beginning I had a swollen purple red hairy stiff right hand, fingers and wrist. It hurt to even pick up a piece of paper. The pain was constant and my hand was cold sometimes and hot other times. Then it spread up to my right shoulder and then to my other hand and wrist and feet and stomach. The pain is still constant but sometimes it's worse then others. I have excessive hair growth on both of my arms and I can't bend my right wrist after three years of rsd. I can't bend my fingers all the way either. I type mainly with one hand and have to go back and correct my typos and it is very frustrating. The same with writing. My fingers cramp up. I'm right handed and of course of first got rsd in my right hand and wrist. I first had a deep cold aching to the bone pain and stiffness from atrophy and bone fragment left in my wrist which they can't remove because of fear of my rsd spreading. Now I also get burning and deep aching pain on my hands and feet and stomach. Neurontin helps to calm the burning pain a little and the constant deep aching electrical like vibrating internal pain I feel. I also take percocet for the pain too and xanax and zoloft for depression and anxiety. I cut back on my advil because of the problems it was causing my stomach. I see my pm dr every month, my psychiatrist every three months, my neurologist every six months and the list goes on. I hope and pray we will all be cured someday. Don't give up hope. With love, Renee.

PS - I've never been tazed but have seen it on tv and often wonder if it feels like what rsd feels like. It certainly looks like how I feel with rsd. Especially when I'm having a flare.

Van,
I fell on my right side and I got rsd in my hands back on dec 3rd of last year and was diagnosed right away. My symptoms are burning pain,dark redness,blotchy redness, shiney skin, electrical shooting pain,numbness,ice cold pain in the tips of my fingers, numbness and burning pain in both feet . All of these symptoms occur at different times. At times I'm in a lot of pain but nothing compared to some of the poor souls on this site and at times the pain is just a tremendous nuisance.

At times I feel like I am studying for a doctoral thesis with all the research I have done on this disease and the most important thing I've come to realize is it's different for every person. Keep a journal of your symptoms and research as much as you can and keep asking questions,the people on this site are not only informative they are compassionate as well.

take care,

Joe

Mine started back in 95 when I had a forward impact fall at 35mph. I was out for about 1/2 an hour off and on and couldn't get up off the ground and could not understand why. The Paramedics told my DR that there was paralysis in my right hand and leg. I had severe pain in my right hand immediately. My DR. Said he would not treat me because he didn't think I was really hurting. The pain in my hand was wicked. My rt hand swelled up and turned purple. I was misdiagnosed for 7 days and my wife finally got me to a hospital with an MRI machine and I had a central cord contusion that almost severed the spinal cord. If my DR had sent me for an MRI the first day they would have given me 2 days of steroids before the operation. They had to operate that afternoon. My DR said the MRI was to expensive ?? My insurance would have paid for it.

Now I am an incomplete quad with numerous nerve damages because of that DR I couldn't sue because I didn't believe in it. The steroids would have help minimize the nerve damage to the spinal cord. If I could today [ sue ] I would most assuredly do so, wouldn't bat an eye! My operation and fusion went great, by the way excluding the stenosis [ narrowing ] where the bone spur hit [ c5/c6 ] Murphys Law??

Oh yeah! the RSD. It started in my right hand as I said, wicked crushing pain, my hands peeled 7 times like a snake almost. The hair on my arms turned black and I looked like a bear. My wife took pics. From there over the years since 95 it has gone from my hand to arm to left hand/arm to both feet and now climbing up my calves. It has change from severe crushing to burning pain and occasionally full body hot and cold and shirt soaking sweating. My fingernails are so brittle I have to keep them cut back all the time. They will break off and split down the middle and that kinda lights your bulb.

Stress is your enemy ( you are in a battle ) high emotions are also, avoid fighting and bickering. Research your disease and these RSD friends in here can be most helpful. Many people won't be able to 'SEE" your disease and may be negative, learn to brush it off. It isn't easy but you can do it. Your journey may be long or short and that is exactly what it will be "Your Journey". We are all different and react in many different ways or we would all drive black cars [ Henry Ford ] You have to play the hand dealt to you. We all gamble. We gamble on Doctors, pain clinics, medications, needles, implanted devices, and the list goes on and on. That was/is my journey . I know pain and live with it but now I can live with it better than I did back in 95. May your journey be short and full of Doctors educated in RSD/CRPS. Wishing you the best, you made a good move posting here.

Hand is constant background burning pain with random sharp stabbing pains

Well put crow