Gosh Darn Needles!!!!!!!!!
 

Hi Numb,

Nice to meet you, sorry we have this in common...

Has your RSD spread?
Unfortunately, yes. It started in my left arm while donating blood October 2006. It seemed to slowly get better over time then re-erupted several months later. It spread within a year to affect the entire left arm, shoulder, neck, mouth, both hands, left leg and foot. I've been to every specialist there is, everything has been ruled out. 2 Specialists agree I have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. They are a Rheaumatologist and an Orthopedic Surgeon

Have you or someone that you know obtain a full remission from the venipuncture RSD?
Unfortunately, I personally know no one who has.

Have your RSD gotten worse overtime or remain about the same?
I fear the worst...but I have had good days in between, sometimes several, so I look forward to those days and I savor them. It helps to have things to take your mind off it. I have developed my own pain coping skills throughout this ordeal, I've had to...but it gets more and more difficult as time goes on, I must admit. There is a certain pain level I have come accustomed to, sad to say...but I can tell it's there, but focus and block it out sometimes. There's a certain level it passes that is beyond ignoring that brings me to the point of desperation where my pillow gets tear stained at night..

What treatments have your tried and any success from the treatment?
I had tried Physical as well as Orthopedic therapy for several months. It did not seem beneficial much at the time, nor would it be now for me to go when I still keep my muscles just as active at home in the shower, it's the most comfortable way to move them, with the moist heat...less strain but still keeping them going. I'm at the computer a lot, so I'm moving my muscles that way as well. (Have to have a space heater on me, even in the summer)
I had an Epidural Cervical Injection, my CRPS "Specialist" thought that might be the problem, was hoping it was not CRPS. Talk about PAIN! Yes, I had a bone spur on my left cervical spine which is pressing into my nerve canal...but whatever he did made my pain worse all over all the time. Burning pain...miserable, couldn't sleep...torturous pain. Called his receptionist a few times in tears, took her forever to call me back with an appointment, like it took two weeks for someone to see me crying like this. So he sees me and sympathizes...and does the following
Took me off the Gabapentin I had been on for about a year or so and put me on Topomax and Tramadol. It worked for like a month and a half and I felt great, but now my hands are puffing and burning all the time! Maybe I need a medication adjustment? My neck has been fine since the injection for the most part though ever since...

I am very concerned about my prognosis and what the future will hold for me
Of course you are...and that is precisely why I'm so frustrated with my doctor and his insensitivity on the subject. He calls himself a Complex Regional Pain "Specialist". He deals with Chronic Pain. (PERIOD) My Attorney asked for his medical report after his injection and when he sent it to her, he wrote that he thought the Epidural Injection was successful and that he felt my Neuropathy was from an anxiety disorder rather than Complex Regional Pain based on my emotional state during my office visit with him. (While I was in extreme pain, sleep deprived mind you). He mentioned my talking about "fear of the future and how he feels I should seek counseling and used the word 'unstable' " and stated I was in a "fragile state of mind and he did not feel it was safe at the time to suggest it".
Now...I would like to point out...I simply sat there with tears in my eyes explaining my pain to him. He didn't even touch me or look at my limbs at this time. He didn't look, at my other doctor reports at that time either, he said he never received them, even though I had faxed them to his receptionist. Yes, I admit it...I told him I was worried the pain would never stop, it had spread, I was worried about my future, I had muscle loss already...of course I said that!!!!!!! You would think by reading his report I pinned him up against a wall or something...It's not like I was uncontrollably crying in his office, I wasn't. I was a woman in pain, that's all. (Perhaps he has poor memory recall?)

I remember once I spoke with Eric Philips when I first started having symptoms, when no one could figure out what was wrong with me. Even my Neurologist and Eric was nice enough to explain RSD to me and how to go about getting treatment etc. When I asked him what was going to happen with me he said "Anything can happen", I said "What does that mean?" he said "ANYTHING". And unfortunately he's right. It may stop or it may spread, no one knows and that uncertainty is the worst.

Well Numb,

Again it was nice to meet you. I hope this helped somewhat. I think coping skills are important, I hope you have found yours, I know for me they are what keep me somewhat hopeful...I still have some fight in me.


If there is anything I can do, please don't hesitate to ask!
:grouphug:

Melissa



Love is stronger than pain! :heartthrob:

First visit with neurologist
 

In Sept 2007 I had a lab draw that was the worst pain that I have ever felt. It hurt so bad that I could not cry out, I curled in a ball to my left side and said repeatedly that "you have hit a nerve". She kept asking if I was alright. All I could say was you hit a nerve. She continued the draw until she was finished. She then asked again if I was OK, I said no you hit a nerve. I was rubbing and rubbing my arm. I was so mad that I left real fast. Thought afterwards that I should have walked right over and talked with my doc.

2 days later, pain no better so called lab manager, my doc called me back and said that if it does not get better in 6 months call him back for an appointment. I also called the business office of the clinic to see if an incident report had been filled out or if I needed to fill something out and was told that I ndid not need to.

Well, after time had past I called and got an appointment. Told the scheduler that I did not want to pay for the visit as I was injured in their lab. Oh my, they agreed to it. At the appoimtment my doc asked me if he had told me earlier to get a lawyer. I don't rementer that he did so again he looked at me and said, get a lawyer.

I am waiting now to get scheduled with a neurologist.
Here is my questions:
What should I ask the neurologist
What should I be doing prior to lawyer visit.

Sorry for the long post, first time actually getting this all writen down. Just a little scared by all this.
Judy
Oregon

"you hit a nerve"
 

That's exactly what I told the phlebotomist repeatedly when it happened to me. Felt like a bare electric wire was put on my arm.

Prior to seeing your lawyer for the first time, you need to sit down and right out exactly what happened, to the best of your recollection. What happened. Who did you talk to and when. What did they say. What were your symptoms then, a week later, a month later, six months later, and now. How has it affected your life (work, family, hobbies, etc.). What doctors have you seen for the initial injury and since then. What did they say. Your lawyer can request your medical records.

You will be better off from a litigation standpoint if (1) you have good documentation (i.e you kept records of who you talked to and when, and what they said), (2) you sought medical treatment soon after the injury and have seen doctors multiple times since for symptoms resulting from the injury - this goes a long way toward proving causation, (3) you can document actual damages from this, and (4) you are able to prove actual negligence - i.e. your lawyer can show that the phlebotomist did not follow the standard of care for drawing blood.

Anticipate that pursuing a settlement or lawsuit from a venipuncture nerve injury is likely to take a long time. I saw my lawyer (who is also an R.N.) the first time a year after the injury, and because my symptoms were still "evolving", he said that we needed to wait another year to see where I was at after 2 years. Then it took another year to get all of the information we needed, since one of my (retired) neurologists was ill and inaccessible. Right now we have a lawsuit filed, but my lawyer is still working on negotiating a settlement with the claims adjuster. There's a delay as their physician consultant reviews my extensive medical records from this.

My lawyer tells me that I have a good case because the standard of care wasn't followed, I have clear damages, and I documented everything that happened starting right after the injury (thanks to long-ago advice from my mom, who always told me stories from when she was a r.n. and hospital administrator). My mom, who negotiated lawsuits for her hospital, has told me repeatedly that I have a very good case.

So, here I am, waiting for this part to end. It's not the money at this point. If I wasn't suing a "national blood donation organization", I'd be asking for a helluva lot more. It's not the money. Naively, I want them to change their ways. I want this settlement or lawsuit to catch their attention. I want them to train their phlebotomists better so that blood donors have less risk of "adverse donor events". As a scientist, I've really dug up a lot of information, and am pretty ****** off at what I've learned about the lack of protection for blood donors in general.

Ok, now I'm done venting.

Good luck with the lawyer. Oh, and I hate to even say this, but be prepared that they may not take your case if they don't think they will win.

Also, some hospitals have a Charitable Cap on them. It's very difficult at times to prove neglegence. Details like which vein they were going for etc., position you were sitting in...

When the needle went in my arm, I screamed bloody murder, it was just as you described, electrical shock. She withdrew it, and I told me she had hit my nerve...I had blood drawn several times, had been stuck in the wrong spots before, never had I felt anything like that. For me, I knew that was something VERY different! It sure as heck felt it...(I wouldn't recommend it to anyone):(


Charitable Caps, like the one for the hospital the blood bank my injury occured from, is only $20,000. That means I can't get anymore than that unless I prove neglegence...which is very difficult, but my lawyer took the case and seems there is a possiblity. That's not a whole heck of a lot to live on if I can never work again...that means I can not get anymore than that.
It's frightening to think that they can not be held accountable, inspite of the money they have, and inspite of what they already have caused and what may be in store for me in the future. The uncertainty of it all is very unsettling...

Good luck though!
:hug:

Greyhoundlover and Judy- your stories are exactly like mine- of what happened on the day etc.

I wasn't able to win my med. negligence case as they said I couldn't prove she'd done anything wrong- they said bad nerve injuries happen in about 1 in 4 million cases, and that's just pot luck and a risk you take when you get your blood drawn. I pointed out that at no time did I sign any consent form beforehand, so to say I knew of the risk is not exactly right. And that the chance of that nerve damage developing into rsd was even smaller. So they just argued it was a horrible thing but something that was not caused by negligence. So we settled for a small amount, which the lawyers took most of anyway. It took three years of reviews, tests, doctor visits and reports to get to that point.

But I do know of two cases in the US (I'm in Australia) that have successfully sued for RSD being caused by medical negligence (occuring during blood donation or a blood draw) since my case finished (in 2002) and I think it is easier to sue for a large amount of money in the US, whereas even if I had won, I would have got approximately $200,000 instead of the $2million+ that the American claimants received. So it might be worthwhile doing some research and finding out the details of those successful claims.

Of course we'd all much prefer to have the RSD taken away, rather than a big fat cheque, but at the same time this is such a life changing condition and we need to be able to get by for the rest of our lives, and if we're in this situation because of someone's negligence, then we have every right to pursue damages.

Good luck with it all. I hope you can get some success with this, and also enact some changes in the whole blood drawing/donating process. I know our Australian guidelines and procedures are full of holes that the other lawyers took advantage of (including not having to write down if any incidents happen during the blood draw, and the nurses only having to do a 6 week course to qualify to take blood- which I think is ridiculous), so oif something can be done to protect patients, that would be a very important change.

x Kate

Hi All,
Thanks for sharing your experience! It is nice to hear from someone to have a similar experience like me. Although in fact it is very sad to meet each other under this circumstance. I had been busing looking for attorney but unfortunately no attorney was willing to take my case in part because it is difficult to prove neglience and in part too costly to fight. In the state of California, the most you can get for pain and suffering is $250,000. One attorney told me the cost could be anywhere from $40,000 up to $100,000. She declined my case although she had experienced with RSD. She tried to help one of her clients who suffered RSD from blood donation. Unfortunately, she could not prove the care was below the standare of care for her client although they poke her client several times in order to obtain the blood. She lost that case. Now the statute of limitation is expired for me-1 year was over. I happened to speak to my neighbor about my case. She was a paralegal. She mentioned to try to find a personal injury attorney to go that route and the statue of limitation is 3 years. What is your thought on this?
Judy,
My recommendation for you regarding your next neurologist appt. Please ask your neurologist about your diagnosis, the cause, whether or not your injury is due to neglience, treatment and prognosis.
Take care!
Numb

New here, too.

I never knew a simply blood test could be so drastic.

I have a blood disorder so I am always getting stuck. When this happened it was electric shock down the arm to thumb.

I also have some questions:

1. When the shock hit was it horrific or mild, scale of 1-10?
2. How long was it before you knew it was not going away?
3. Can that arm ever be given for blood draws again? Or will another jab make it worse?

I guess I am where everyone starts out. I am pretty depressed bcause like I said I have a blood problem and I have not had blood taken since. I am terrified. If they mess up the other arm, I won't have anymore left to give for them to monitor blood levels.

I am in touch with lab and will not file a suit based on wheat I read here- seems exhausting and expensive and I am already on Diability. So I am very depressed over allthis!!

Thank you to whoever started this thread and thank you to those who are sharing.

Hi Rachel,

Welcome to the forum, although I'm sorry you've had to come here and this has happened to you. As you've probably read above, my situation is very similar to yours.

I recently did a post about how my RSD started, what happened with the blood test etc, on my blog- as Nov 3rd marked the 9 year anniversary of it all starting. Instead of me writing it all out again, you can click here to read what I wrote. Once you're on that page, you can click on the "Home" button under my title picture to get to the normal blog page with the most recent posts, or click on the "RSD/CRPS stuff" link in the "blogging categories" section on the right side of the blog to read my other RSD posts.

If you have any questions about my story, just yell out. :p

Oh, and just quickly- I can never have blood taken out of my right arm again. They used my left arm for a long time (although I had emla cream- a numbing cream they use with kids when they need blood tests put on before the blood draw as it helps numb the area) but now those veins have packed it in so I mostly have blood taken from my foot now, using a kids size iv needle.

x Kate

Hi Rachel,
I am so sorry to meet you under this circumstance but you have come to the right place for support.
My RSD was from a horrific painful IV. When the doc infused the anesthetic, i had this sharp pain passing through. The scale of pain was beyond 10. I had the RSD in both hand and arms and feet and calves. Therefore, when blood was drawn or IV was placed. I just let them did in either one of my hands or arms but requested an experienced nurse to set the IV so that she would not poke me again and be gentle. So far, i did not seem to have a problem.
Please get help right the away and seek aggressive treatment as soon as possible.
Take care,
Numb

Hi Numb-

Thank you for the reply!

Can I please ask a few questions?

1. Are you still hving RSD or have you improved?

2. If so how? And how long did it take?

3. Also- what exactly were your symptoms? Was it burning and throbbing or more like Carple Tunnel?

I am concerned on so many levels about this whole thing. First. no one tells us about the risk! We don't sign any papers! It's one of those "what the..." moments!

Also I have a blood issue going on, so it is blood all the time. I am concerned to know how they think they are going to get blood off me now. First I am scared to death to go back. Second if this arm is out, how long till the other?

I appreciate everyones' openness on here. This is very terrifying