I was talking with the doctor that did the Calmare treatment on my daughter and on me, and he mentioned that in his experience, a large majority of people started with a foot injury, and of those people, a large majority of people started with the LEFT foot. Reading these forums, I seem to see a lot of RSD starting in feet, so I thought I'd ask the people here where their RSD started, just out of curiosity. It might even lead to something helpful in treatments - any new information can be helpful. If it really IS a large percentage in the left foot, maybe there's something unique about circulation or nerve wiring or something like that ...

Slo, my original injury was on my left leg it now goes from the tip of my left big toe to mid-high left buttock. Mine started when a cow (yes a COW ) fell on me LONG years ago. My ortho would tell you I injury my left side about 19 times over 1 on the right. He would also tell you that for an old nurse I seem to get injured in the most odd ways most of them have involved livestock vs nurse encounters. I did take a nasty fall one time and dislocated my shoulder (left of course) 2 weeks after he took the external fixator my lower left arm ( nurse vs cow again) I have been "fired" from helping out on the ranch for the most part (unless they need an experienced person to show the ranch hands what they need to do, they tend to get more involved when the old lady can do whatever they are supposed to be doing

Hello, pooh_ac! Is your username from Winnie-the-Pooh? I love the original (NOT the Disney) illustrations - they are so lovely. And the stories are so cute! Enjoyable for all ages, IMO.

OK, we are 3/3 as far as left foot (I forgot to put in my own statistics - I had RSD in my left foot after surgery, and my daughter got it in her left foot after a stress fracture).

"nurse vs cow" - You need to try to pick on someone your own size!!! My original injury was pretty weird, too - it was mom vs. son-jumping-out-of-truck-into-his-wheelchair-and-it-shooting-backwards-and-hitting-her-foot. My son has caudal regression syndrome, and he has little stubbies for legs. He is very active using his upper body and leg stubbies, and he loved to jump out of the car into his wheelchair while I held it still for him. We did this hundreds of times, and the ONE time when I turned my head right as he was jumping, my foot slipped, and WHAM it shot backwards and hit my foot and blew off the big toenail and tore 2 tendons. I walked on it for a year before they finally found the problem, and then had surgery, and then developed RSD for a couple of months and was on the point of getting my first spinal block when I tore my shoulder (rotator cuff) and had to have shoulder surgery, and the RSD in the foot went away.

But nurse-vs-cow sounds funnier

Thanks for sharing the info - I hope more people can chime in because I think it's pretty interesting. My daughter was wondering if the people with the left foot as a starting point were all right-handed, because the numbers seemed to be about the same as right-to-left handedness. Are you right-handed?

Oh this made me laugh ironically....

My CRPS started in my left knee after a minor op (sorry it wasn't more glamorous lol!). It then spread to my left foot, and then spread out from my knee to my whole thigh and upper calf. It has also crossed over to the toes of my right foot.

My left foot is the biggest problem for me now, although my knee is still swollen, painful and weak, the pain and burning are far worse in my foot. I too have noticed that the foot is a common place for CRPS to affect.

Interesting....

Bram.

So far we are:

4 for 4 for starting anywhere on left side
4 for 4 for starting lower left limb
3 for 4 for starting left foot

Hello! Mine started 22 years ago in the right side of my face after biting a rock that was in my food at a Mexican restaurant then having major dental work done to repair the damage (lost 3 teeth after root canals and ended up with implants) I hurt my right hand in 2009 and developed it there, it mirrored over to my left hand. Had a venipuncture injury in my left arm and it spread there. Had a spur removed from my left shoulder and it spread there and somehow down my left leg and into my right shoulder. I hurt my right foot Dec 2011 and developed it there, then it mirrored over to my left foot. It has since gone into my abdomen and head

Left foot!

Started there then went up the leg to my hip across my pelvis. It then crossed over to my right foot. Somehow it also landed in my left eye.

Mine started after I fell while roller-blading. I had all the gear on. Thought I was pretty good at it. Had just learned a month before. Being over confident, I was zipping along too fast and hit a pebble or stick (?) on the pavement. Smack! Landed on my left side. Ruptured L5S1, fractured my left hip, which eventually caused a stress fracture in the base of my second metatarsal in my left foot. The CRPS hid out there till about 4 years later.

The cow story is by far the best one I've heard yet!

Lately I have been having trouble with spasticity in my hands/wrists. I see my Neurologist on Friday.

I have heard this too. I know I have PN, but may have RSD in left foot and ankle. Had no correct DX of Anterior tibial tendon disfunction. MRI showed 5 years later, three torn ligaments-tendons, not healing right. Had two surgeries for ganglion cysts that the roots were going into my joint in the ankle. I now have two more, and can't have the surgery because of the PN or RSD. I am better however as I have tried B12 shots and use the pain patches. I also had no fall or injury to account for the injury to my foot and ankle to begin with. Just adding information here, about where this started on me. I hope and pray it never spreads. ginnie

I have RSD in my left foot. The excruciating burning pain is eating away at me. I have lost the use of my foot. Mine came about after I was in an auto accident. I needed spinal fusion and immediately following my surgery my foot swelled and the pain never subsides. It has affected my enter life, left me permanently. I am at the mercy of narcotic meds...but the drs don't like to keep raising the dosage, meanwhile I suffer.

I'm so sorry that we're all here with this diseases but am grateful for this forum to share ideas and sympathy. It's amazing how when you're healthy, you just have no idea that there are all these people out there with all this pain ...

Updated info:

Lower left : 10
Upper left : 1
Lower right : 3
Upper right : 2

Feel free to check me, I could have missed someone. I'm basically going for where did it START, not where it is now. And it's definitely swinging towards what my doctor said - mostly starting in lower left. Obviously, this is a small sample size, but it might be the start of something triggering in some researcher's mind somewhere. I'll get this info back to my doctor when I get a few more people, since he was the one that first mentioned it.