[cmcelfish]

My name is Joe and I am new to this group. My wife has stage 4 R.S.D. for many years now. I was wondering can R.S.D. cause Stroke like symptoms or aphasia.
Thank You
Joe

[catra121]

Very sorry to hear what your wife is going through. Other members may have more experience with this, but I do know that RSD can have some definite impacts on our minds. I know that I have difficulty concentrating and can get confused very easily. When I was in a really bad flare and at my worst I had difficulties communicating and finding the right words at times. I have a very difficult time reading now because I find that I have to reread pages over and over...and I was a voracious reader prior to getting RSD. Filling out forms seems like it takes forever now because of the difficulty concentrating and when I go to the doctor I have to take a list of things that I need to discuss so I don't forget anything.

I'm sure other members will have more experience with this sort of thing and the varying degrees. I've only had RSD for 2.5 years now and the mental stuff really only started to get noticeable this past year after my RSD spread to my upper body (started in just my ankle).

Are there any other specific things other than the aphasia that you are wondering about? Of course, you should make sure she gets checked out to make sure that there isn't something else wrong. So many of the weird things that RSD can cause could also be caused by other conditions and you'd hate to have something go untreated just because it COULD be caused by RSD, you know? When all my weird symptoms were going on earlier this year I went through so many tests just to make sure they weren't being caused by something else. Even though it turned out it was just the RSD, I'm glad that I got all the testing just to make sure it wasn't something else. This helped me and the doctors find out what the proper treatments were to help me, as the way you would approach certain things cause by RSD vs the same things caused by another condition can be very different.

[catra121]

Just looked up other symptoms of stroke besides aphasia and here are the ones that I have had that were caused by the RSD:

•Numbness or tingling on one side of the body
•Trouble speaking or understanding others who are speaking
•Problems with eyesight, including decreased vision, double vision, or total loss of vision
•Sensation changes that affect touch and the ability to feel pain, pressure, different temperatures, or other stimuli
•Changes in hearing
•Change in alertness (including sleepiness, unconsciousness, and coma)
•Personality, mood, or emotional changes
•Confusion or loss of memory
•Difficulty writing or reading
•Loss of coordination
•Loss of balance
•Clumsiness
•Trouble walking
•Dizziness or abnormal sensation of movement (vertigo)

That's actually a lot of them as it turns out. All of these things can happen as a result of the RSD...but they are serious enough that you should definitely make sure she gets checked out for anything else that could cause them.

[alt1268]

Welcome to the group. I just wanted to reittriate what catra said, some symptoms can be caused by RSD, however, symptoms of drooping and aphasia should be immediately checked by the dr. or the er. Stroke patients only have a limited time frame to be treated. so the sooner the better.