Yes...I take the Topomax for Migraines also...those came later and the Topomax works wonders. It's probably helps me more than any other drug that I am on.

Yes, the Roxicodone is oxycodone, it is the highest form. My tolerance is soo high it's terrible.

Also, you are right about the disease being isolating...but you have the power not to let it. That's why we are here. You need people that understand. If you truely have RSD, you are going to run into a lot of people that just don't understand or that don't believe you.

Like I said, feel free to ask away!

Heather

After reading your pain & injury description - I would like to suggest your read a bit about Thoracic Outlet Syndrome also{TOS}.
TOS and RSD have some overlapping symptoms and some people do have both conditions.

I'd just hate for you to have a mis-diagnosis or missed diagnosis.

TOS info:
http://www.medifocushealth.com/RT017/index.php
http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/thoracic_outlet/
http://tos-syndrome.com/newpage12.htm
http://tos-syndrome.com
http://www.doctorellis.com
http://www.cwce.com/feinbergarticles/tos.htm
http://www.tellmeabouttos.com
http://www.vascularinstitute.com/Resource_TOS.htm
http://drbrantigan.com/about/index.htm
http://www.ecentral.com/members/rsanders/
http://www.causeof.org/posture_tos.htm
If you skim thru these it will give you more of an idea about TOS and if it might apply for you .
more here-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html
and the main TOS page if you have questions -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

thanks for the info and the links, they are very informative. and, you are certainly correct, I do not want to be misdiagnosed. thank you!

..was just reading, about TOS, on one of the links you sent me. Are you supposed to, for diagnostic purposes, have all the listed symptomology? I never have any kind of chest pain, ear pain, anything like that. How does a doctor differenciate between RSD and TOS, or any alternative condition altogether. Though I will not claim to know tons of info. on RSD, I did read that, what makes it hardest to diagnose is that its symptoms and patient's complaints/descriptions of pain, resemble, very closely, other problems in a variety of areas etc.

No not all of them are "required" to be considered a TOS case.
A mix of those symptoms are the usual.

And at the beginning of TOS the symptoms can often move around- and that really confuses the non TOS drs.
And the severity can fluctuate with uses that aggravate it.

Delayed pain is a usual sign- the pain will get worse hrs after certain uses and take days or longer to recover from.
Constant tight neck muscles or easily strained neck muscles
tight or strained feeling in the forearms

Oh and look in a mirror and check to see if your shoulders are level or one higher than the other and then if you can or have a friend check your hip bones for evenness.

If uneven - check that useful sticky for the chiropractic links - it explains how the body will try to compensate for crookedness.
That was a part of my TOS cause then adding in the yrs of repetitive work.

I don't have RSD but have read a lot here from the group.
They can help with the differences too but I'll try.

RSD
Painful burning skin, extremely sensitive skin - to touch, fabric, even air or light breezes will be painful, lots of swelling, skin color changes, texture changes

TOS
loss of fine finger coordination in hands, upper body muscles {neck, shoulders, back, arms}that tighten up easily or ache constantly, nerve zaps, bruit {you can hear your own pulse whooshing sounds}, tendency to get triggerpoint knots in muscles, blood flow in arms can get stopped if arms are raised to certain positions, can present as many different RSI injuries at first.
The vascular system compressions can cause swelling for TOS too - but usually not as extreme or colorful as RSD.

The chest pain comes on usually if you get a major muscle spasm of the chest muscles.
I had it once from extreme physical overuse at the time - took months to recuperate from those.

I see where you are in Louisville. There is one of the best TOS Drs. there and Jo might remember his name. I don't but I was going to see him once when I'd went back home for a visit. I will try and find his name for you if Jo doesn't remember it. There is also a list of TOS Drs. on the TOS forum.

I have both TOS and RSD.

I was born and raised near Louisville. I still have a lot of relatives in that area.

I hope you start getting some relief soon and do get those blocks. I hope you don't have both. To me it has always been a tossup to which is worse. They run a close race.

Have a good evening.

Ada

thank you both, again, for you insight, yor desrcriptive sharing, and your willingness to share your own experiences.

honestly jo, from what you have said about TOS, it sounds, if there is such a truth, better than RSD. RSD seems very much like an indefinite curse. How is TOS treated? it is a chronic condition as well, correct? Are the treatments similiar
?

If your diagnosis is confirmed as RSD/CRPS, while one med may not work, another may. I was put on neurontin initially, and then was prescribed a host of med cousins (in turn, not all at once), in hopes that one would help more than another. My neurologist told me Lyrica has a 1 in 3 chance of helping, and fortunately I was a one in three. It saved me and decreased my pain enough for me to do the exercises that I am sure were part of the healing process. Water therapy -- that helped too. The thing is, the process can be so slow and sometimes the increments of improvement are so minute it seems like nothing's happening. It helped (me) to get used to expecting slow results, meaning sometimes I wouldn't see the results until two months into a treatment of some sort, but there was still progress. Just in baby baby steps.

I completely understand the baby steps in the process. And, I try to, on the darkest of days, change my perspective and remember exactly that; those baby steps.

How long did it take, after med adjustments, finding the best meds most efficient for you, and various treatments, in order for you to truly notice a decrease in your everyday pain? What is an average pain day like for you now? How long have you been going through this process?

And there are different degrees or severity of both TOS & RSD.

If you have a early dx of TOS and proper care you possibly can turn it around - especially if it is mostly postural, alignment and soft tissue based.
Or at least get it back to where you can function at most things as long as you are careful.
It's usually the long time to dx and trying to keep working while in pain that sets up the more severe cases. Some have gone to 10+ Docs before getting a correct dx. Most times the work comp system is part of the problem of delayed dx too as most RSI type of TOS is very hard to"prove" in cases like that.

Like RSD it doesn't usually show up on any easy to show tests- xray or MRI, or blood work etc.

basically that's why I mentioned it - just in case - so you don't go yrs with out knowing about a possibility of TOS and the knowledge of it.

Did you try the "hands up" test on the one website?
It isn't proof , but an indicator , it would show you if your pulse is getting stopped in your arms when up like that. There is a % of normal people can will lose pulse also in this position - but just something to look into more if you do.
here it is- http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/thoracic_outlet/