FAQ These are "Frequently Asked Questions"
- but are they your questions? To
submit a factual question click
QUESTION. To write to a member of our correspondence Team click CONTACT.
IMPORTANT
RSD Alert collates information to help you manage
your condition but we have no medically qualified personnel. You need
to keep in touch with your own medical advisor.
FAQ
Is shaking a symptom of
RSD?
Yes, tremor (shaking) is among the
symptoms identified in studies on RSD/CRPS. No two cases of this
condition are exactly alike, and some people see very few of the
so-called "characteristic" symptoms, while others get
the whole book! Tremors may be aggravated when the patient is over-stressed
or tired because the sympathetic nervous system reacts to these
conditions.
Some of the drugs commonly administered to RSD patients are classed
as anti-convulsants (see Drugs on RSD Alert)
Derrick Phillips - Editor, RSD Alert
The following helpful notes have been provided by Carol Vance...
"RSD is a condition with four major features. First, the
allodynia and hyperpathia typical with pains seen with sympathetic
dysfunction. Second, motor response to such pain in the form of
vasoconstriction, muscle spasm and tremor." Do you have bad
tremors when you are at rest? Most do-I do. When I was forced
to way over do activities, my tremors and spasms caused me to
fall and severely injure myself on more than one occasion. In
one fall, I fractured the RSD knee and recently the tremors caused
the weakened leg/knee to give way on a flight of steps and I dislocated
my RSD shoulder and have brachial plexus nerve damage. You have
to balance every part of your day. Inactivity is worse that over
activity, but you have to follow the golden rule of perpetual
motion:
"The patient should be instructed to follow the golden rule
of perpetual motion. In RSD, the condition gets worse with prolonged
inactivity or the stress of too much activity.
The same principle should apply for the physical therapy. The
patient should be instructed not to do any extensive exercise
for a long span of time, but to constantly keep changing position
and alternating exercise with rest. If sitting up causes pain,
then walk. If walking causes pain, then lie down. If lying down
causes pain, then go back to the other forms of exercise, etc.
Inactivity gives the signal to the sympathetic system to preserve
the circulation in the inactive extremity by vasoconstriction,
which aggravates the RSD. Activity does the opposite by demanding
more blood circulation to the surface of skin." Carol
Vance - USA
www.rsdalert.co.uk
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