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My first post, have read this forum for awhile. Here goes my story. I worked in the construction industry for 7 years. I am a 52yr old male. I was injured on the job which tore my rotator cuff. I had the first surgery in Jan 2005. Started PT. Therapist retore the rotator cuff. Had second surgery in April 2005. Went back to work on restrictive light duty. Employer had me doing things I should not of been doing. I contacted my doctor and he told me to take it slow, but "I" had to do it and he would not change my restrictions. Well, shoulder was retore once again and had my 3 surgery July 2005, which was open shoulder surgery. Restarted PT, therapist in Aug 2005, mentioned crps, I was burning all the time, severe redness, spasms, swelling. He told the doctor about this. I went to the doctor for him to look at it and the workers comp case worker and the doctor went into an office to talk. When the doctor returned to talk with me, he told me I did not have crps. The doctor called my PT and reamed him out for mentioning crps. I had no idea what it was, and actually paid little attention other than the fact I was in severe pain 24/7, no sleep etc. Oct 2005 I went for my monthly visit and again told the doctor I was burning, it was swollen and I could not raise my arm. I had an arthrogram which showed a tear, but the doctor told me that it should not be bothering me. The doctor then scheduled a FCE, which I could not do because of spasms, swelling and severe pain. When the results came back, the doctor stated I did not give good effort, but I did my best. He then released my without restrictions to go back to work, which btw I drive a 80,000 redimix truck, have to shift 700-800 times per day, and have to lift 70lbs about 30+ times per day. I could not do it. Contacted the Industrial Commision in my state for more medical care which I won. In Jan 2006 started going to a great Univ hospital 2 hours away in my state. Tried everything from injections, pills with to help and the burning, redness, swelling, spasms and no sleep was getting worse. Did a CT scan, and MRI..which btw was the first MRI I had vever had on the shoulder. The doctor told me I had a torn rotator cuff and he did not think surgery would help me at this time. He put me on Gabapentin which made me very ill and told me in front of the workers comp case worker that I had rsd/crps and he had a personal friend in my city that could treat me for this. This was May 2006. He sent me to a pain center which diagnosed me with rsd. I had 3 stellate ganglion blocks, which none worked, actually it made me burn more. He sent me to a hand and wrist therapist who had no traing in shoulders. The only thing we did at therapy was hand therapy. I was getting worse. I went back to this pain doctor and he asked me who did the shoulder surgery which I told him. His attitude changed totally...they were best friends. They consulted. He changed his opinion on my rsd, I did not meet all the criteria, and because my "arms were tan" there was nothing wrong with me and I was exagerating my condition (I walk 10-15 miles per day and wear sleeveless shirts because rubbing of the shirt hurts so bad and if your in the sun you will get a tan). BTW, he was not aware that my rotator cuff was still tore. Because the physical therapist mentioned crps in Aug 2005, he is covering his best friends butt by lying about my condition. I went back to him again, explained that the burning was going to the other arm an d into my toes. He told me this was impossibe. Now, the doctor at the Univ hospital, has lost all my records for the visit when he told me I had rsd/crps. Went to workers comp court, I lost..the judge believed the doctors..medical records missing, but is on appeal. Since Jan 2007, I have started taking pictures every flair up that is visible. I sent these to the judge who ruled against me. This is not good proof..she believes the doctors. Since my first surgery in Jan 2005, I have lost my house, my job, a loving relationship of 13 years, my lifes savings. I live in pain 24/7 with no relief, no sleep, and take 180 10/325 vicodins per month with no relief. 3 shoulder surgeries in 5 months and its still torn with no help from workers comp or the state work comp judges. Its not my fault, I didn't intend to get hurt. My employer reinjured me the 3rd time and would not listen to me when I told him it was hurting me. (BTW, I'm a trainer also and have top seniority with the company after 7 years, so I'm not some newbie but a grat employee as my employer testified under oath). I am in "Phoenix AZ" for 14 more days because my Father was very ill. Are there any doctors here that I can trust to go see? Thank You and God Bless each and every one of you here. I will edit and post some pictures of my condition here shortly.

Hi Michael and a huge welcome! wow after reading and seeing the pictures you posted.. sure as all heck.. well, 100% looks like RSD to me. Your hand and mine look the same, by the way. the swelling, shiney appearence, the redness. gosh, those doc's all stick up for each other. You need to get you a lawyer ASAP They have to be total jerks to treat you like you were just a "fly on the wall". I don't live where you are, Michael and can't reccomend a Dr. hmm.......... medical records some how got lost?? to me this just makes me so darn mad, I can't see straight. buddy.. kissing buddy (other Dr.'s Butt) seems to me. Michael, keep on hanging on in there, find a good Dr. (I wouldn't mention anything about loosing records, etc. though to a new Dr.) he may know him and go golfing with him?? LOL ) sorry, don't mean to laugh, but I just hope and pray that you find a really good understanding doc. with some knowledge on this. can you ask around?? friends?? anything. good luck Michael and God bless you too. Love, Desi

Michael,

It has been many years now, but when I took part in the gov't trials on Guanethidine, I did it in Phoenix. The blocks were done by a Dr. Arthur Schurgin. (If ya see him, tell him I said hi He was the only one who cared back then, a truly loving & caring guy... not something you find often amongst Dr.s)

I'm in th PN forum but was in head on collision in 96,and sounds like
what's happen to you,is what's going on to much. I was a ER (truma)
nurse for 25 yrs. now retired,never seen the way people get pushed
around the way they are today. The post above gave good advice
those Drs. stick up for each other. I'm sorry i can't help more,but i
wanted to say welcome to you and wish you all the luck in the world.
Please keep posting there are some very wise people here,who know
what your going through,please don't give up. Sue

Michael,
I am so sorry to read all that you have been, and continue to go through. I wish that docs would put greater importance on the oath that they take to become doctors; "First, do no harm", because I think that some of them forget it. Either that, or they just disregard it when they see $$ or something.

Now..on to your question about any docs there in Phoenix that you might be able to try to see while you are there. I know that there are a couple of folks on the board that are from Phoenix, and I hope that they will check in soon to see your question. I also know that if you can do a search on here, there has been posts about an RSD Support Group in Phoenix that does some amazing stuff. Maybe you can get in touch with them, and see if they can help or have any suggestions for you? (From what I understand, it is a pretty large group....maybe there would be some sort of listing in the yellow pages or something? If I can, I will try to go and look up the past posts about that group. My computer is acting flukey these days though, and isn't letting me click on some links......don't have a clue as to why, or what makes some links work and others not. Maybe Jo will see this, and do one of her wonderful searches for you too? Crossing fingers that someone will pop on that is of more help then I am being at the moment. LOL)

I do have some suggestions for you, as to whenever you go to docs. This "losing" of your medical records is inexcusable. If you have ANY proof of that you went and saw the doc that day.....(insurance stuff, the appointment card....a receipt or cancelled check from when you paid your co pay there in the office....a prescription or any other thing that shows you were there, and that there SHOULD be records for that day) you might dig it up and keep a hold of them, to show the judge as proof you were there. It won't help to show what the doc told you during the visit, but it will help to show that something "fishy" is going on, and that there SHOULD be medical records for that day.

Also...from now on (or at least for a while, until you finally find a PM doc that you can trust and is good), you might consider taping your visits. You can get a small tape recorder, similar to the ones that the doc's themselves use for their "notes" for the transcriber to type out. There are even voice activated ones, that will turn on and record when there is a voice talking. I had one (it is old...and isn't working now) that had a little microphone that you could clip outside of your pocket (or in my case, my purse), to help it pick up the conversation better. If there is some question about the laws for recording a conversation in your state (in mine, only one party has to be aware that the conversation is being taped for it to be legal...or at least that is how it was back when I was using my tape recorder. Good for me, since I was a "party" in the conversations, huh? LOL) then just look it up. It isn't hard to find. And, you can always just let the doc know that you are taping the visit.....it is helpful to do for other reasons, like helping you to remember what he said, and the names of whatever meds or illnesses he might mention, so that you can have it on hand to find info out about....and for any directions that he might give you during the visit (like how many times a week he wants you to do PT, or to take a med....or whatever else). If the doc won't let you have someone back there with you to help you remember these things, or if you just don't have anyone....then a tape recording of the visit is not an unreasonable request.

Then, there is always the option of taking notes....but with upper body RSD, that is another reason that a tape recorder would be a good idea, and not an unreasonable request.

There were other things that I started doing, like requesting copies of medical records shortly after my visit (which might not work well...some docs don't like this...but I needed mine for my SSD case, as the SSD folks are notorious for running behind in their info) when I had to deal with some butt head docs. Some of those (like the one I mentioned just now) might not be very good ideas now....and may not have been even back then (I have had RSD for about 10 years now). But, if I think of anything else...I will mention it.

I hope that things start to go better for you, and that someone can help you with finding a better doc. I am sorry that you are having to go through all of this, but am glad that you decided to post here with us.

Take Care,
Jose

I found the support groups listings - all of them here -
http://www.rsd-fightingback.org/support.html

Phoenix, AZ Area RSD Support Group, For Sufferers of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy,
A Chronic Pain Illness, their Families and Friends.
For Further Information contact: Leslie Glassmann at 602-247-3746
or write to Ms. Leslie Glassmann, 2926 North 54th Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85031

"pain medicine Arizona"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...na&btnG=Search

that should give you some places to call. Best of luck to you- let us know how it goes.

Hi Michael,

So sorry to read your story, but I'm so glad you found us, welcome!

The poster about the Phoenix Support group was Loretta. We haven't heard from her in a while, but here are the links to her posts:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...2&postcount=18
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...73&postcount=3

You could PM her, it's possible she "lurks". Very good to see you here, though, of course, very sad that RSD's the reason, but I hope we can be of some help,
all the best

I want to thank all of you for replying to my post. I will try to contact the group in Phoenix. I will be leaving AZ in 2 weeks to return back home to Iowa where the doctors there are total idiots. If only we could all transfer our pain to these so called "experts" for a few hours, maybe they would see that this is no fun! My heart goes out to each and every one of you! Hopefully some day we will all be cured! Again I say thank you, and may God bless you! PS: my lawyer thinks its all in my head and he failed me miserably when he represented me in court. Go figure, not your typical workers comp case and he was not prepared for this as I was not prepared to get this disease. I was forced by the Iowa Worker Comp judge to repay $29,000 from my settlement which left me nothing but the attorney got his 33%.

Michael, I just went to that link for the Phoenix pain dr.s... Dr Schurgin is on that list! He's the one I mentioned earlier, that I did the gov't trials on Guanethidine with. I really think you ought to check in with him, he's awesome. He was even willing to go over my lawyers dumb head and write the judges himself. No, it isn't allowed.... but he did it anyway, and god bless him, it worked quite well.

But regardless of who you end up going to, best of luck!! This disease sucks, and having an exam done by knowledgeable caring dr.s is vital.

I have to say that your story is beyond despicable, it may be wrong but i hope someday those doctors have to feel some pain themselves. I too tore rotator cuff at work and i too had to have a second rotator cuff surgery due to physcial therapist screw up, should have sued her as well! i am also fighting w/c to get benefits reinstated. i have total empathy and sympathy for what you are going through, they should all be ashamed of themselves, i wonder how they sleep at night! i wish i had some answers for you, i really do. maybe you should contact local newspapers, media, government rep? doesn't sound like your attorney did you much good either. have you looked into suing for medical negligence, malpractice? they don't charge you unless you win. there is a statute of limitations on how long you have to file such claims if interested. i hope you find the care that you need and am so sorry you are going through this! before i got hurt i was a nurse and never imagined the medical system was such a farce, my eyes have truly been opened. god bless you and good luck.