It has now been just over 3 years ago that I fell. I've had right at 300 doctor and therapy appointments, and I still can't seem to get answers as what is wrong with my hand. Once a doctor says you have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS or RSD), then the doctor's see a big red label on you...DO NOT HELP! Just send her to therapy, it's all in her head.
RSD usually manifest near the site of an injury which the nerves send signals to the head that are out of proportion to the injury. In my case, I fell at work coming out of the bathroom, where the cleaning people had just mopped the floor. Not only did they not put up any signage but according to one of their employees, the person who had mopped the floor had improper equipment. I landed on my tailbone with my dominate right arm extended out to catch the fall.
My journey from there is still mind boggling to me, which is why I have developed this site. I'm including the doctor's reports, my diaries and pictures to try to give you a better perspective of what I am talking about. Not only do you have to deal with the issues and pain of RSD, the pain of the original injury, the financial strain this puts on you from not being able to work, but you must also fight to get anyone to listen to you so you can get medical help, you so desperately need. Oh yes, did I mention that stress also increases the pain.
The disease (RSD) causes swelling and stiffness in affected joints with decreased ability to move the affected body part. For this reason doctors are reluctant to perform tests. How can these doctor's send you to therapy, when no test have been run. They have to know that they can be doing additional damage to you, because it could be the injury that is causing problems that instigated the RSD.
I have already proven this to be the case in my situation. The new doctor was relucant to help at first. I asked, just because I have RSD, does that mean I am not given the opportunity to get the most use I can out of my hand. He then decided to run a MRI on my wrist. After I left the office, he decided he wanted a 3-phase bone scan first, and guess what it shows the RSD is in remissions. I will have to admit that I did keep my hand and wrist immobilized for about a month before the test because I was still seeing signs of the RSD. Great, so now he wants to do a couple of minor surgeries. I say minor because they're problems that occurred because of 3 years of swelling in my hand and not the major problem. The MRI taken a year ago suggested that there may be a problem at the base of my thumb, but the MRI was not clear because of my hand spasming. The doctor never mentioned this to us. This is where I still have the most hurt and still no new MRI has ever been done. When reviewing the post operative exercises for the surgeries the new doctor want to perform, I can't do most of them and the surgery will not help me to do them either.
