Thank you for your reply. I had my spinal surgery at Huntington Hospital which is affiliated or one of the LIJ locations. I saw the Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Manhasset branch of LIJ (around 45 minutes without traffic).

Sorry to hear about the amount of surgeries for you and your husband. I am thankful that my car accident was after I was fused. It could have been so much worse since my neck was unstable prior. I thought about getting a 2nd opinion at HSS for my neck but wanted to stay closer to home and not travel into NYC. I live on Long Island in Suffolk County. The commute is not fun (train 1 1/2 to 2 hours plus the subway). I guess if I can't find any recommendations who may be considered an of RSD eld I may need to go into NYC. Just curious, why did you switch doctors?

What exactly was the treatment for the RSD? Right now I think my case is mild. Swelling in my hands and feet especially the toes and fingers. They can get red hot and burning like they are on fire or blue and ice cold. Not sure if other issues are cervical or whiplash related or all connected. Achy joints: wrists, hips, knees ankles. Muscle spasms and major knots in my shoulder blade region and in front in the same area. I also feel that some cuts on my hands are very slow to heal. I was checked for Rheumatoid arthritis and it came back negative but there is some osteoarthritis.

At what point did you have the 3 - 5 day inpatient ketamine procedures? I have read about this on line but not exactly what it is. What other procedures did you have? Just curious, how quickly did your symptoms progress? I know that everyone is an individual, but I have read that it is important to get accurate help and treatment with in the first 3-6 months.

Thank you again for your quick reply and your experience.

Happy Holiday and have a healthy and happy new year.

Dear frenchfri1003,

Yes, my husband and I have had many orthopedic surgeries but I believe both of us have had success do to the doctors, nurses and all others at HSS. Again not everything is perfect but they do a great job. I haven't left HSS I just don't require that type of help and they recommended a PM doctor closer to my home. Like you I live far from the city and the commute is a nightmare. As far as the RSD I was diagnosed about 6 months after my injury. I was very lucky. The first treatment I recieved was a series stellate ganglion blocks, my injury is upper extremety and that seems to be the normal starting point. I had to have additional surgeries to correct my injury while I had very active RSD. After I got my arm back that's when the ketamine treatments came in. Ketamine treatments are used to, for lack of a better word, reboot your central nervous system. It took a few times but it did work. My RSD symtoms did settle down and I haven't had any spread and was able to go back to some type of a normal life after it was all over.

Hope this helped.

gabbycakes

Thanks again for your replies. I was hoping that there would be a connection in my report from the vascular dr to the car accident. But there wasn't. There was also an error with stating that my brother has RA and it is my sister. So I may send him an email asking him to change brother to sister ans ask if there is a connection and if he would put it in the report. I finally contacted a lawyer since this diagnosis may have life long medical expensive and may be directly related to the accident. The lawyer stated that he has a dr. in Jericho (on long island) that specialized in RSD. He I think would like
In my OSS's office there is a pain management dr. I just got a call from them stating that they feel they can help me. I made an appointment for a consultation. I will ask about the stellate ganglion blocks, and ketamine treatment. Generally my hand and feet are affected, but I have read that joint pain and decreased ROM is also part of RSD. I can not figure out what is related to my spinal neck surgery, the car accident, osteoarthritis and the RSD. All of it is so in-twined. THANK YOU for al of your insight. Happy New Year. Hope you have a pain free year with full ROM.