dayton

People with rsd suffer from many types of pain including:

1. Allodynia is pain that is provoked by a stmulus that doesn't usually cause pain.
2. Hyperesthesia is when the patient has an icreased sensitivity to any stimulus that causes pain especially pressure and touch. This can be so severe that the patient may become preoccupied with protecting the limb from even the slightest touch

3. Hyperpathia occurs when the threshold to pain is increased but once the pain is felt it is much more intense than it should be and will continue even when the stimulus is removed.

Tropic changes are skin changes. They may include:
color changes (red, blue, or pale skin); the appearance of tight and shiny skin; hair growth;hair may become thin and sparse or thick and coarse; nails may become rigid, coarse and often quite long because of the pain invovled in cutting them; skin may become thin and is prone to all kinds of sores.

Sudomotor changes occur when the temperature of the injured limb changes. The injured limb is either warmer and red or cooler and bluish. Early in the course of rsd the limb tends to be warm but as time goes on it will usually be colder than the healthy limb. The affected limbs become extremely sweaty even if they are cold to the touch and in later stages sweating may not occur at all at the affected sites.

Edema or swelling usually present with rsd. In the beginning of the process the edema may be quite large but in later stages the edema lessens and may actually be noted only by measuring the affectd limb and comparing it to the healty limb. Again, no symptoms are universal and some patients have gross edema even in the most advanced cases.

Movement disorders muscles become atrophied; isolated muscles may become very tense causing contractures. The range of movement may be impaired, spasms and myoclonic jerks can be seen in many patients and bones may declacify.

Emotional problems - I hate using this term because it may mislead people. These symptoms are caused by the pain & disability of rsd, not visa versa. Lack of sleep, depression, relationship problems including physial, emotional and sexual which are caused by the efects on the libido and thalmus.

These are the major symptoms of rsd. A person doesn't need to have all of these symptoms to be diagnosed with rsd. It is important to note that one sign or symptom is frequently out of proportion to the others. Such as severe pain with little vasomotor changes or the opposite. Doctors do not agree on exactly which symptoms need to be present to diagnose rsd but many agree that there needs to be at least 3 of the general categories mentioned above to confirm the presence of rsd.

Barbara Schaffer is an rsd patient and she has put together these notes on rsd. I hate to say that when I saw the pictures she has, I almost got physically ill. Please note that Barbara's case is extreme and unusual. Do not take her case as typical of rsd because it's not.