I just saw my Pain Mgmt Dr. at Clev Clinic. last week.

The copy of the notes from my visit say "Assessment: Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy upper limb. Pain in limb. She has severe disability related to her pain."

Will the wording above help me at all? I am waiting on my first decision. I was to get the notes from the Doc, and return them with my Symptoms Report.

The last visit notes only say RSD and muscle spasm - no note of severe disability.

I have so many different doctors and things I have tried over the years - gave them copies of all of it. Nothing has helped, I continue to get worse.

I use a mobility service dog and am wondering how that will factor in.

I have RSD, Asthma, High blood pressure, obesity, Fibro, arthritis, sclerosis, chronic headache, problems with my eyes when reading or looking at a computer monitor, depression, social phobia, limited use of my arm, etc etc... but - there are not a lot of mentions in my records of things like "can only walk 5 minutes" etc. Lots of symptom notes, but not much that directly addresses function.

My asthma specialist wrote a letter for me. It says "In my opinion, she does definitely have bronchial asthma that is exacerbated by exertion. She should avoid exposure to smoke and other irritating fumes. She should also avoid doing strenuous work that would involve lifting more than 8 pounds or any other very strenuous work that would involve prolonged walking, or other physical exertions, including repetitive lifting."

I have all the records from asthma doc, foot surgeon, rheumatologist, physiatrist, psychologist who specializes in pain, eye doctor, two neurologists, an orthopaedic surgeon, two pain management doctors... etc. that cover 10 years. In the last 6 months I have been to all of the docs that now care for me. Geesh, records are a couple inches high.

I am currently trying to find out what has gone wrong with my hands and feet. Neuro says neuropathy, but put in his notes RSD flare. Grrrr. Pain Mgmt doc is my #1 for RSD and she said the problems I have with my hands are not related to RSD. Who knows. But am trying to get that figured out.

I hope I have done everything I can. I have filled out the function report - took me a month because typing, thinking and writing are so difficult, and I had so many things wrong to cover. Now, I have been working on the symptom report for almost a month, but want to have it finished tonight.

Then, I guess the wait begins. I went in to the SS office to apply back in May. Hoping to hear something by late fall.

Just wondered about what the pain mgmt doc said "She has severe disability related to her pain"...

Thanks
Jules