The ER doctor said the x-ray showed it was just a sprain. The first orthopedist I went to agreed, put me in a walking boot and sent me home. After a couple of weeks of excruciating pain and terrible swelling, I knew it was more than just a sprain but nobody would listen. I didn't know what to do so I went to my chiropractor, he'd fixed things other doctors couldn't fix before, maybe he could again. He took one look at it, asked where the pain was and ordered an MRI.
The chiropractor also referred me to a different orthopedist. The MRI revealed a small fracture of the talus not visible with normal x-ray and I was to be non-weight bearing for 6-weeks. I can't help but wonder if that had been discovered sooner and I had not walked on it, would things be different for me today? The second orthopedist also said it looked like I had something else, something he referred to with just initials, something I had never heard of, and he told me to go see a pain management doctor. I didn't know what a pain management doctor was and I certainly didn't know what R S D meant.
My pain management doctor with the Cleveland Clinic was great. He did 5 nerve blocks a week apart and put me on several medications. I was still in pain but the meds and treatment seemed to take the edge off. Once we'd moved to Birmingham, AL, I found another pain doc that did another nerve block but he didn't prescribe medication so I had to go to another doctor for that.
For awhile, I thought I had it under control. My orthopedist in Birmingham did another MRI and mentioned something called OCD (has nothing to do with washing your hands too many times!) osteochondritis dissecans, a joint condition where cartilidge and bone comes loose. But I was feeling pretty good and not interested in surgery.
Then I injured that foot again while riding my bicycle. It was a stupid mistake, riding in flip flops and changing gears. I went back to doctor and even though my toes were swollen and purple, nothing was broken but oh boy, was the pain back!
I was referred to a great internal medicine doctor who tried several different combinations of medications. He came up with a couple great medications that I still take today. He was a great doctor and I hated to leave him when I moved to Pensacola.
Luckily I've found a wonderful group of physicians in Gulf Breeze (near Pensacola and Destin) at The Andrews Institute. My foot had been hurting pretty bad and making a clicking sound so I went to the orthopedist and that OCD had gotten worse. So April 2012, I had surgery to clean up the loose cartilidge and bone, some of the bone had died at the time of initial injury. This surgery was necessary, but unfortunately it has set the RSD into overdrive. The pain now is worse than when I injured it and it's non-stop.
RSD affects the sympathetic nervous system which controls "fight-or-flight" response. A reaction that releases approximately 30 different hormones into the body.
"The sudden flood of epinephrine, norepinephrine and dozens of other hormones causes changes in the body that include:
- heart rate and blood pressure increase
- pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible
- veins in skin constrict to send more blood to major muscle groups (responsible for the "chill" sometimes associated with fear -- less blood in the skin to keep it warm)
- blood-glucose level increases
- muscles tense up, energized by adrenaline and glucose (responsible for goose bumps -- when tiny muscles attached to each hair on surface of skin tense up, the hairs are forced upright, pulling skin with them)
- smooth muscle relaxes in order to allow more oxygen into the lungs
- nonessential systems (like digestion and immune system) shut down to allow more energy for emergency functions
- trouble focusing on small tasks (brain is directed to focus only on big picture in order to determine where threat is coming from)"*
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