The palm of my hands get mottled with pink and white when I take walks and let them hang down and swing or overuse them. My toes get a kind of a deep pink at times. Looks so wierd.

Ada

That is one thing that I dont think I get. Sometimes my ankle will have a very light purple/blueish kinda color, but mostly the whole leg is abnormally white. Plus shiney, very shiney, even when lotion is applied. This is the legs im talking about, and also nearly no hair anymore.

I also get the cold, DEEP cold going on, and lately the right side of my stomach, side, and back are colder than then the left side. Something that concerned the ER doctor.

Did have an emg done and they found no H reflex in the rt ankle, and when they did the bone scan they found osteopenia in the rt leg and hip. The skin is very sensitive to air movement, and cold water.

I just wanted to add one thing to this, regarding Vic's post.

I had ten months of lower pain levels thanks to a ketamine infusion. A lot of the time I was totally pain free, the worst I got was probably a 4/10, but that was often provoked- such as the time I burnt my rsd hand in the oven! ) It only came to an end when I got bitten by a spider on my leg and caused nerve damage (resulting in rsd spread) and that started my arm up again.

And I've had over two years of no allodynia pain. Before my first infusion my kids couldn't touch my hand at all- for three years it was out of bounds. Within a few days of the infusion started my husband could hold my hand for MINUTES, and I could bang my hand and it wouldn't hurt. It's only in the past few months this has come back, and that was from my infusion in 2004!

So there are some good stories out there, but unfortunately the majority are not as lucky as me.

x Kate

Hi all--the cyanosis thing, at least for me, is "usually" associated with cold weather, or CHANGES is weather. I have recently noticed over the past year or so, however, that HOT weather aggravates the RSD as well...

So, I either have icey-cold, reddish/purple hands and arms, with a "burning pain" (like when you play in the snow, things go numb and start to thaw out), and then bright red, mottled shiney stuff going on in the palms of my hands. Sometimes, my skin feels as though it has a "sunburn".

The REAL difficulty is-- it just "does it"...this can be "problematic" when being examined so BRIEFLY (as seems to be the custom), by INSURANCE docs--THEY DO NOT examine for fingernail changes, differences in skin temperature, etc., and somehow "overlook" the OBJECTIVE DOCUMENTATION of these findings by other treating physicians , as PROPERLY noted in the medical records..

However--if we all could be placed in front of an air-conditioner during one of these "exams" for about five minutes...bet things would be rather "interesting"!

Again, I have often wondered why thermography isn't used as often to aid in the diagnosis of RSD/CRPS, particularly since technetium bone-scans have such a proven rate of unreliability, especially in the early stages of RSD. (50/50). And what about the "reliability" of a bone scan, when the individual has been doing either formal physical therapy or a home exercise program? USING the affected limb is what helps either RESTORE or PREVENT osteopenia from occuring...(and also helps reduce swelling, muscle atrophy).

As stated elsewhere, the "symptoms" of cyanosis/ischemia ARE the skin colour changes and the temperature changes; part of the "diagnostic criteria" for RSD.

Bottom line re cyanosis: Doesn't it seem like the "thermostat" is "broken" in the affected body parts?!

Brokenwings

I noticed today that right after one of my pain episodes that my leg turned a different color, light red then bluish purple, almost grey....

Jeeze. I had no idea.

I don't get a lot of color change and haven't noticed any cyanosis. I do get the mottling on my palms and several colors on the originally affected hand but it's usually no a dramatic change. It isn't always indicative of pain but there is a lot of correlation.

Oddly enough I get what appear to be copper deposits just under the surface of the skin once in a while. These tend to be on the fingers of the affected hand, especially behind the second joint of the index finger. Wilson's disease has apparently been ruled out.

I've been trying to whip my nails into some kind of shape and the copper is most likely to form after a little soak in hydrogen peroxide to remove dead tissue. This copper appears as bluish threads but if they are dug out and viewed directly they are very distinct and brilliant aquamarine. Most are horseshoe shaped.

I'm still toying with the idea that there are two infections at play with one being a spirochete and the other a quorum sensing bacterium.

From a distance the skin affected by the apparent copper deposits appears blue. This is, no doubt, an entirely different phenonenon than what others are seeing.

Good evening to all:

I have attached some pics that show severe edema of my rt.foot, where the RSD began. Both feet are deformed slightly and I am working with PT on that. It also shows cyanosis in a few, where my foot looks bluish and has some shininess to it. There are also a couple that show severe redness and inflammation.

These are just a few pics that I thought you might be interested in. My feet used to be very thin, bony, and cute. Not anymore! My RSD is now bilateral and up past my knees on both sides (almost to my mid thigh).

Heather

Attached Images

	Both Feet Edema and Severe redness.jpg (29.2 KB, 946 views)
	Edema.jpg (27.4 KB, 749 views)
	Edema, feet turned inward, and curling of toes on both feet.jpg (36.3 KB, 1056 views)
	Rt.foot RSD.jpg (30.9 KB, 735 views)
	RSD compared to Normal feet.jpg (38.2 KB, 7663 views)

I know the pics aren't that great, but you can get a general idea about some of the RSD terms like cyanosis, edema, etc.

Heather

Thank you Heather,

Those are very interesting, and also show something else that I have: extremely prominent veins, even more than yours, though I have no edema at present - anyone else have that? (Hey, nice gold nail varnish )
all the best.

This is a pic of the other foot, you can see a lot more veins. This is how they look during a flare-up...

Heather

Attached Images

Lft ft..jpg (30.3 KB, 1236 views)