Beth - Michigan, USA

My name is Beth and at the age of 35 I had my whole life planned out. I was a pediatric nurse of fifteen years and had a great paying job that I loved. I had a great husband and three kids. One evening while taking my daughter to a school event I was rear ended at a high rate of speed. I felt fine at the scene of the accident other than a headache and some neck pain which was to be expected. By the next morning I had unbearable burning nerve pain in my neck and back. After several trips to the ER and seeing multiple doctors I thought I was going crazy. In fact people started saying I was just trying to get attention. Eight months after the accident while shopping with my daughter the pain in ten minutes time went screaming down my arms. They were on fire. It was as if I were holding onto a live electrical wire. I went home took some pain meds and went to bed hoping I would wakeup to find it gone. Instead I woke up only a few hours later to find it was now in my entire body. My whole body covered with purple and white blotches(mottling) and my hands and feet were ice cold and clammy as if they were dead. The pain was beyond description. My husband drove me to the neurologist who sent me directly to the pain clinic. The doctor I saw there performed a ganglion nerve block which instantly relieved the pain. This was my diagnosis of RSD. Being a nurse I knew it ment it was forever. I spent the next four years nearly bedridden. I was completely unable to care for my family let alone myself. I flew from Michigan to Florida every eight to twelve week to see a doctor who specialized in the treatment of RSD. Over a three year period I received thousands of nerve blocks amongst all of the other so called treatment for RSD. I had finally had enough. None of the treatments were helping. Through our insurance company and lots of prayer I was introduced to a rehab program for patients with chronic pain. I knew in my heart this was my last chance and I was going to do everything in my power to make it work. With the help of the awesome team at the rehab center I have finally regained my life. In six months time they took me from a bedridden, depressed, shell of a human being to a energetic life loving mother,wife and woman. They got me off all of those drugs that had been holding me captive for so long. They taught me to stretch those muscles so I could walk and turn my head again. They got me on the treadmill and got my body producing its endorphines again. (your body's natural pain killers and feel good drugs) They taught me biofeedback to help me relax my body and mind.(it really does work). Most of all they stood by me and encouraged me every step of the way. They gave me back my hope and my desire to want life back. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Much harder than laying in bed in pain for four years. It has been eleven months since I started the program. I ride my bike twenty miles in eighty minutes five days a week. I have lost forty pounds and I can see the future again. I live each day as if it were my last. I want to experience new things all of the time. I'm like a kid in a candy store I just can't get enough of life. Yes I still have pain all the time. I have gotten it down to a 5-6 which is very do able for me. When you have lived for so long with your pain at a ten a 5-6 is heaven. I no longer let pain control my life. I control my life and I just happen to have RSD. I am writing a book about my experience (My Journey back to Freedom) as well as starting to do some motavational speaking. I hope to return to work soon and yes I will be working with chronic pain suffers. I have a burning desire to reach as many people as possible and let them know you can have LIFE and RSD at the same time.