Living with RSDThis section is a place to share stories about Living with RSD Below are entries of those who have already shared their stories. We hope that you find their experiences helpful to your own situation. You may also Help others by sharing your story. To quickly access health information from your website's browser, download RSD/CRPS The Invisible Destroyer 
Greetings all, My name is Keith. I am now 54 years old. I have spine degeneration issues that led to a spinal cord injury in my cervical area from a hard coughing spell about 11 years ago. It caused serious paralysis in my right arm and hand and in both legs. I could walk but barely. It took several months to find that the spinal cord had been compressed from a dislodged vertebra in my lower neck. My skin of my legs and arm became so sensitive to the touch. If someone would toss a magazine onto my lap it would draw tears. I had an operation to fix the neck. It went well, but little changed in the arm and legs. All of the joints in my body started to become very tender. Shaking hands was a very painful experience. I am self employed and meet people all the time so that became a problem in itself. I started to become very very weak. A few weeks after my operation this pain developed in my arm and both legs. The pain grew more intense with time and muscle endurance all but went away. Finding pain relief was difficult at best. Pain is not visible to the eye so nobody actually believes you are experiencing it. Especially Doctors. The constant pain and loss of function caused me to develope a serious psychosis. I already had clinical depression issues. It really trashed my thinking. I had to quit working because the meds caused short term memory problems. I could not remember what I was telling customers, but mainly the depression and anxiety kept me from really caring about anything. I lost interest in everything. You need to understand I was a workaholick. The constant pain was all I could focus on. My medical problem hit hard on my Wife and family. My mental state grew worse and the meds made me more stupid and that in turn caused more home issues. I did not get much sympathy from anyone then. Nobody understood the true nature of the injury and its impact on my body. Because I could stand on my two feet I looked fine. People grew tired of hearing me gripe about the constant pain. Finally I got enough morphine to cover the pain, but side effects were terrible. My family was more worried about a drug addiction problem than the pain I was in. When you hurt that bad constantly every day an addiction goes out the window. It is irrelevant. You will however, become dependent on the meds. I have tried every pain med available to man. I finally settled over the years with hydrocordone 10/325. The 5/500 simply don’t reach deep enough to help. I tried the spinal blocks. At first I was in love with this. It was like I was suddenly all better. It only lasted 24 hours for me though. The stimulator did not work at all for me. Buy the way, you can not drive a car with that turned on. If you move in the seat it changes its settings and will make you suddenly jerk or jump. After all, the implanted electrodes run up your back right on your spine. No they do not hurt. Now days I am a lot better with time. This last year 2007 brought back my muscle tone in my legs and a nice reduction in pain levels. I have better stamina but it is still pretty low. I have RLS in the legs. They jump and jerk at nite if I do not take the meds for it. My joints every where are always stiff. It hurts to get up from a chair and start to move. Muscles are always stiffish. If I do to much I become sickish feeling like a low grade nausia. I have to rest often, but am back to work with a clear head. I always have to pay attention to my activity levels. There is an invisible threshold if I pass it I will have much pain and stiffness for days after. The pain meds only last about two hours now days. I am used to them to much now. So, when they quit so do I. I time my work and life now around my med doses. I went to a work out place for a while too, but for me it just caused the pain to get way worse. Time has been my best friend with this enemy RSD I have read it tends to calm down around the 10 year mark. This is when I started to improve. Just keep on going best you can. If you have family support it would help a lot. The fact that my problem impacted some of my family in such a negative way became a huge ,and still is a big issue today. I simply do the best I can now within my spectrum of control. I expect I will always need the hydrocordone 10/325. So be it. Peace and health to you all. Keith.
September 2008
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