I know that sounds like a strange title & nothing to do with RSD, but it really is the last straw today, so please forgive me.

For about 1 & 1/2 days now I've had really bad burning pain, swelling & bright red in the RIGHT leg ... I have RSD in my LEFT arm & foot/knee ... so why is it playing up over there??? I know it spreads but it hasn't finished spreading in the left leg yet, can't it stick to one at a time! I'm only just managing to stay up right on my 'clawed' left leg with out it starting on that one. Maybe it's only a pulled leg......??? Well all we can have is hope!

Where's a squeaky g key come into all this I hear you ask ... well you could say it's the straw that broke the camels back! I've laughed so hard, cried a lot, so I think it was hysteria, either that or the tears were from laughing, in which case I highly recommend everyone gets a squeak in their key boards, cos with RSD you sure do need a laugh when you can get one.

I just wish I could've finished my blog without using a g anywhere in it, but it would've been non readable like that, kinda like one of those puzzles ... work out the missing letters, only I would've only had one missing so it'd be easy to work it out! Thanks for bothering to read this, it's nice to know there is some where to go to vent a little, even if it is a very strange one. BTW my i key is now squeaky too... I'm going to go get myself a very large herbal tea, snuggle up on the sofa & find a really good movie that has no g's or i's in it!

Just wanted to say that I am very sorry for what you are going through. It sounds to me as though the RSD is spreading. It can spread anywhere at any time so there's no set "path" that spread follows. I would try to be very aggressive in treating the RSD in the right leg and try to get it to go into remission ASAP. If you read ballerina's tDCS thread that is on here she just dealt with the start of spread into her leg and got it to completely go into remission. She gives pretty good details about everything she did. With RSD...we all know time is of the essence. So don't wait when it comes to pain in your right leg. Treat it IMMEDIATELY and AGGRESSIVELY. You just might be able to save it.

I know from my own experience that the spread from my left ankle to my upper body (including both arms and hands) could have been much much worse if I had not pushed myself with physical therapy in those areas even when it hurt so bad I thought I was going to die. Unlike my ankle which took months and months to get diagnosed and started on appropriate treatment, I KNEW what to do for the RSD in my upper body and once I got working on it the spread stopped and I was able to get the function back and the sensitivity to a manageable level. This has been much easier to do than it was in my ankle which is still by far the more severe of the RSD areas even though the others cover more of my body. Does that make sense?

Take care.

Hi, thanks for that, I just been & read it. Unfortunately tDCS isn't available here in the UK, or if it is it's certainly not in my area. I'm working hard on the exercises I've got but I don't see my consultant till May. I've tried to ring & see if I could get in sooner but he's booked up. We have very few doctors here that can treat RSD, there's only 2 in my area. (The other one is as much use as a chocolate teapot in the desert! ) I'm going to see my physiotherapist in about 2 weeks, I only see her once a month (or 2 if she cancels again).

Treatment here is ****, I wish I lived in the US. It sounds from the posts here that I've read, that you have much better doctors & treatments. All they do here is give you pregabalin & lidocaine patches and let you get on with it

Sorry that it is so hard for you to get good treatment. No matter what system you have though (UK, US, other countries) there are always pitfalls. Whenever a country discovers a perfect system they better share it with everyone.

But on the tDCS thread there's a post towards the end...either the last page of second to last that goes through the OTHER therapy she did when the spread started (desensitization, physical therapy, mirror therapy, etc). It was a pretty intense program and even disregarding the tDCS treatments I personally think it would be successful for many people in the early stages of spread. Don't get me wrong...the tDCS is probably a part of her success...but it is all the other stuff that may be really halpful especially if you can't get in to see the doctor any time soon.