Hi,
My wife has had rsd in her knees for about 5 years and over two years ago she injured her left index finger (blunt force injury) and that developed into rsd (classical signs, texture change in skin, finger sweating, burning pain, etc.). She cannot bend her left index finger and it is very sensitive and it prevents her from doing much with her left hand (and we are both guitar players, it is how we met, so the hand injury was especially difficult).

About a week ago she injured her right index finger. She was just getting ice cream out of a container with the spoon pushing against the right index finger and it is probably a small sprain that wouldn't have much effect on a person without any issues. However, she has had intermittent burning pain in the finger (not as serious as the pain in her left finger after the injury) and is having difficulty moving the finger. When she has asked some doctors about this they act like she is overreacting and not to worry, but that is easier said than done. Does anyone have some advice on what to do... especially to make sure this finger doesn't develop into rsd?

A final question is about sleep and water. She has a great deal of difficulty moving the rsd finger on her left hand, but she finds that when she first wakes up in the morning she can move it more easily for about 5 minutes and then that ability is gone? Does anyone know why this could happen? She is experiencing the same thing on her injured right finger, which is also part of what is worrying her that it could turn into rsd. She also finds it easier to move the finger (the right one) after it has been submerged in cold water, which was similar to how she was with her left finger for a while after the injury. Has anyone had any similar experiences? One doctor has suggested a digit block for the newly injured finger to prevent it from becoming rsd. Does this sound like a good idea? She doesn't want to do anything that could make it worse. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and my heart goes out to all of you dealing with rsd and all of you trying to help someone with this disease. Thank you for taking the time to read this!