how do i know if its rsd for sure?
For the past month I have had severe pain in my right leg and foot incuding purplish colored skin, skin has also a shiny appearance in areas. I have also had ultrasound, x-rays,bonescan,and mri done including multiple blood tests without answers. They have given me cortisone but it did nothing, also stronger pain meds than I already was on, they do take the edge off but the pain is still there
I have djd, no acl, no medial meniscus, bonespurs and arthritis in my left knee so I have been living with chronic pain for sometime, Ive been told if I was older I they would give me a total knee replacement, which would give me more mobility and pain relief not even to mention the joy I would get going for walks with my wife or doing some of the things I used to be able to do. My little girl is on the verge of crawling and I can barely walk, what am I going to do when she starts walking and I cant catch her? My right leg was my strong side now the pain in it is almost at times unbearable. I have not injured it, that I know of, it just kinda came out of nowhere about a month ago and it seems to be getting worse. Two doctors that have seen me suggested that it might be rsd and that the could not help me. How can I know for sure and what do I do then ? I'm becoming very dissabled which has made it very hard on my wife who now is having to take care of her thirty year old husband and our seven month old child, not to mention I cant work because of this. How come it seems that no doctors want or are willing to help you? I'm so tired of hearing " your to young for these problems, we cant help, your just gonna have to live with it" why cant somebody help us? please help
Some doctors use bone scans to identify RSD but it seems like the more common diagnostic is a nerve block. Though it's possible that the nerve block only works if you have two limbs affected by RSD, I'm not sure.
Honestly RSD is in part a fall back. Once you rule out everything else that's even remotely possible then they feel comfortable saying it's RSD (which doctors don't like to say since it's so hard to treat and has so few real treatment options). So six of one, half dozen of the other. Keep getting blood tests sent (make sure they check for Lyme disease), get another bone scan to see if things have changed in that leg, and get a diagnostic nerve block. I was diagnosed through this method at Johns Hopkins by Dr. Raja, who seemed on the ball. No sure where you live, but Dr. Chin in DC at George Washington University also seems very good.
I'd work on rushing this as much as possible though. With RSD the sooner you catch it the better. After a year or so it becomes much much harder to treat. New ketamine infusions are also helping people in a huuuge way, so if you do get diagnosed with RSD I'd quite recommend pushing for a ketamine treatment as it seems to be the best RSD treatment we've found up to this time.
Good luck,
Meredith
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