[mollymoo123]

Today i went to the physiotherapist and they confirmed that i have RSD in my left hand and arm. Thanks to this forum i was prepared for this even though i was hoping for a basic nerve damage diagnosis and to hear "this is normal after a burn injury". Nope its got all the signs of RSD except for the skin discolouring, but atleast we caught it early. Probably because of all the reading i did on burn recovery and what to look for.

So I have been on 25mg of Amitriptyline for the past few days and its helping with the pain a little. Im going to try 50mg to see if there is any extra pain relief. The doc said to start at 25 and go no higher than 75mg. I think less is best but it has to work.

The physio gave me gentle excersises to try, which is much the same as my burn physio. Im not to push through the pain, but to stop before it hurts. Because i have been to the beach and the water has helped she has asked me to continue that while the weather is still good. This is great because im an hours drive from the clinic and its pool for hydrotherapy. Plus the beach gets me out and about and gets the dog excersised. Next week i will be starting Mirror Box Therapy, which ive read good things about.
Mostly at this stage we are focusing on pain management and resting my hand with gentle physio.

Personally, Pain aside, I feel my outlook on this is pretty positive. I was prepared and im just glad to be moving forwards and have some control over the pain so that i can atleast tollerate it most of the time. Im annoyed to be going through this after my burns, but i guess ive built up good coping skills from the first round of pain. I am bored out of my mind though so ill also be looking at some things i can do to occupy myself, esp on my "good days". I treated my burn injuries as time out and found a positive from the experience and ill do it again. I do know ill have my bad days but like before ill deal with them. At least ive got some pain relief now. Its made such a difference.

Can i ask one question? Before this set in i had started to work on getting fit. I was mostly running and really enjoying it. Because its my hand and arm, would it be a problem to start again or should i hold off? or try something else? I just know im happier and healthier if i burn off energy and am worried about not being active. any advice would be wonderful.

Thanks everyone. I hope at some point i can contribute to some threads on here.