| Symptoms
This is my first time posting on one of these forums. I found reading others experiences very useful and I hope you find my experience useful as well. I started experiencing Raynaud's symptoms when I was 15, but I was just diagnosed at the age of 29. For me it started with my legs turning blotchy purple in my teen years. It was so embarrassing I stopped wearing shorts, skirts and dresses. My mom took me to several doctors and we always received the same responses. It's nothing serious just stay away from the cold and wear gloves in cold weather. We stopped looking for answers as it was not causing me any pain only embarrassment. The symptoms have increased with my age. The purple blotches progressed to my core and then to my arms. I usually have the purple blotches even in the summer time just not as many. My face is the only part of my body that remains unaffected. I am usually covered from neck to toes to avoid people staring or asking questions. My symptoms worsen in cold climate, buildings with A/C or the cold isles at the grocery stores. In the last 2-3 years I began experiencing numbness in my feet and hands. I also experience the pins and needles feeling in my fingers, which can last for several days. In the winter time my knees hurt so badly that kneeling or any exercise that involves the use of the knees is extremely painful. I also started getting sores on my feet. I have had three so far. I ignored the first one (didn't think much of it) and it got super infected. I had to tend to them daily to avoid an infection and speed up the healing process. They took 1-2 months to heal. The worst happened about three weeks ago. In the middle of the night while I was sleeping I felt this burning sensation on my right foot (also extremely painful). I got up to inspect the area, but didn't notice anything. I thought maybe it was just a dream, so I went back to bed. The next day I had what looked like a bruise and when I touched it it felt like a burn. It also made it painful to walk. This really worried me as my bf and co-workers advised me it could be a blood clot or even blood poising, so of course I was in a panic. I went to the ER and they took x-Rays of my foot and did blood test. No blood clot and my blood work was perfect. Apparently what happened was that I had such poor circulation that a blood vessel burst. The doctor on duty that day diagnosed me with Raynaud's. A week later I saw my PP and she also ran blood test for autoimmune diseases, but those all came back negative. She prescribed felodipine (calcium channel blocker). I can't say if it's working yet, but I hope it does. She referred me to a rheumatologist, which I haven't seen yet. I'm thinking what else can the rheumatologist do for me? Should I spend the money to go see him? At least now I know what is wrong with me and I can take preventative measures. I'm not sure if all these symptoms are due to Raynaud's, but thought it was best to share.
I know this is a long posts, but wanted to share from beginning to end and hopefully help some of you. Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or recommendations.
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