Does anyone take plavix for rsd? I have been on it since February. It has thinned my blood enough to get color back into my foot and it isn't cold to the touch anymore. I was afraid of this med at first but now I'm not sure, maybe it is good. Anyone else take it?

I have never taken the medication. Has your pain eased since the circulation is better?
Congrats to you

There are other drugs that will also improve circulation.

Calcium Channel blockers -- These have research behind them for RSD. (Nifedipine, diltiazem are examples). These dilate blood vessels.

Nitrates will improve circulation. Example Imdur

Some people use low dose Viagra for this too. This drug was initially made for cardiovascular use. The low dose is called Revatio:
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drugs/rx/rx...&contentId=712

Some patients with severe Raynaud's which can accompany Scleroderma use it. (off label) Some insurances will not pay for this off label, however.

The pain is not better, but I don't have purple toes anymore.

Sorry to hear that the pain did not subside with the purple color disappearance via your toes.
pretty toes, once again

My toenails and fingernails grow fast and crack vertically. I have those white vertical lines in my nails,too. Do you have the same issues with your nails?

Hi there -

Yes, most of my nails have the vertical lines. And they're brittle. But unlike yours, mine only grew fast last summer. In the winter they seemed to stop growing at all. The Wall Street Journal's "Personal Journal" section had a health feature yesterday about the human body that was really interesting. They reported that vertical lines in nails can indicate that your health was problematic in the past, like a month or two ago. What's wierd for me is that not all of my nails are like that, and you can see the difference the sympathetic blocks have made on my right hand, my nails on that hand are finally growing again and a few are almost smooth. It's amazing. My left hand is in worse shape, all but one of the nails are deeply ridged and are usually cracked and broken. And my toenails don't seem to grow at all.

Sandy

My nail growth and appearance has improved dramatically this past year. I attribute it to the changes I have made with my diet. After a very scary reaction to a new medication that landed me in the hospital last fall I decided to get serious about my overall general health and added supplements. The difference was so much so that my physiotherapist, who looks at my foot more than me, commented on the fact. Yes I know I need to stay connected to my foot but I'm so tired of "Princess" and all her demands, LOL.

My podiatrist just started me trying a new combined therapy with infrared rays & magnetic biostimulation. She does not know if it will do what it claims. She just rented the machine for a month to see if it will help her patients before buying it. The claims are that it helps to improve circulation at the cellular level. I will do it for 20 minutes a day 3 times a week for the next month to see if there is any improvement. So far I've had 2 treatments and can't say that I felt anything regarding my rsd pain levels. I could not find much research about it on the Internet but here is a link to the company website for what it worth.http://magne-tec.com/magnetic_biostimulation.htm

MsL

I've been on 75 mg. of Plavix/day since a stent was put in a cardaic artery in 2005. I hadn't thought of it making any difference in the CRPS, but if stllaborette's testimonial is an indication if having some value, I wonder if it's making a difference with my RSD?

That said, I'm intrigued by Mrs. D's posting of information regarding calcium channel blockers, which may be worth looking into. But once again, the effectiveness of the treatment appears to be a function of how early it's given:

Complex regional pain syndrome (reflex sympathetic dystrophy and causalgia): management with the calcium channel blocker nifedipine and/or the alpha-sympathetic blocker phenoxybenzamine in 59 patients, Muizelaar JP, Kleyer M, Hertogs IA, DeLange DC, Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 1997 Feb;99(1):26-30.

Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, Davis, Sacramento 95817, USA.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is the new name for entities formerly known mostly as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and Causalgia. Treatment of CRPS with either the calcium channel blocker nifedipine or the alpha-sympathetic blocker phenoxybenzamine was assessed in 59 patients, 12 with early stages of CRPS, 47 with chronic stage CRPS. In the early stage CRPS patients, 3 of 5 were cured with nifedipine and 8 of 9 (2 of whom had earlier received nifedipine) with phenoxybenzamine, for a cure rate of 92% (11 out of 12). In the chronic stage CRPS patients, 10 of 30 were cured with nifedipine; phenoxybenzamine cured 7 of 17 patients when administered as a first choice and another 2 of 7 patients who received nifedipine earlier, for a total late stage success rate of 40% (19 out of 47). The most common side effects necessitating discontinuing the drug were headaches for nifedipine and orthostatic dizziness, nausea and diarrhoea for phenoxybenzamine. All male patients on phenoxybenzamine experienced impotence, but this did not lead to discontinuing this agent and immediately disappeared after stopping the drug. These results once again stress the importance of early recognition of CRPS, and treatment with either of these drugs could be considered as a first choice for early CRPS, especially because in this series this treatment was not combined with physical therapy making it very cost-effective. In the chronic stage of CRPS, treatment with these drugs was much less successful (40%), even though it was always combined with physical therapy, but it can still be considered, either as a first choice or when other types of treatment have failed. [Emphasis added,]

PMID: 9107464 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

And, as to alpha-sympathetic blocker phenoxybenzamine referred to in the last abstract, see:

Treatment of complex regional pain syndrome type I with oral phenoxybenzamine: rationale and case reports, Inchiosa MA Jr, Kizelshteyn G, Pain Pract. 2008 Mar-Apr;8(2):125-32. Epub 2008 Jan 7, free full text at http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...izelshteyn.pdf.

Department of Pharmacology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA. mario_inchiosa@nymc.edu

The nonselective alpha-adrenergic antagonist, phenoxybenzamine, has been used in the treatment of neuropathic pain syndromes, specifically, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) types I and II. This agent has also previously been used in intravenous regional peripheral blocks for treatment of CRPS I; however, an intravenous preparation of phenoxybenzamine is not currently available in the U.S.A. In this case series, systemic administration was more appropriate for three of the four patients, as their syndromes had spread beyond the initial area of surgery or trauma. We report an apparent clinical benefit in three of the four patients following oral administration. We postulate that this may be due to the noncompetitive (irreversible) blockade of alpha(1)- and alpha(2)-adrenergic receptors. We further hypothesize that this blockade could reduce stimulation of an increased population of adrenergic receptors in hyperalgesic skin, blunt the stimulation by norepinephrine of alpha(2)-adrenergic receptors on macrophages, and ultimately reduce the release of proinflammatory cytokines from cellular elements.

PMID: 18194348 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

And while we may have gone over this before, for the reasons set forth in the first abstract, guys in particular would be have to be taking phenoxybenzamine only with their full and informed consent. (Talk about a trade off . . . .)

Mike

Yes I have huge ridges horizontaly.

You are great. All of you seem so nice. I think I have found a really wonderful website. Thanks to all of you.