Natallie

I've been diagnosed with RSD. The majority of the information I have found out from internet sites. It is because I slipped on a wet floor at work through my employers' negligence that I ended up with this freaky thing that goes on constantly in my body.

It took a year and a half to be diagnosed after the accident. I've just turned 21 and I've got to deal with the fact that if I go more than a couple of streets away, I need my wheelchair, I'll probably not manage to walk down the aisle on my wedding day, I'll never go clubbing again and I won't ever be able to play football with my nieces and nephews again. I take all sorts of different medications. I've tried all sorts of therapies.

It took over a year to straighten my knee after the accident and I'd started physio a week after the accident (my Dad had to learn to walk again 20 years previously and he had me doing his old excercises which in turn were those advised by the physiotherapist). Some days are good and I can walk from one room to the next using just one crutch, or go shopping for most of the day, but I always end up paying the price, be it later that day or later that week. Other days it's hard to get out of bed it hurts so much. I hate the fact that I'm so young and I need help getting a shower because it hurts so much. Some times my leg goes patchy, or has a weird rash. It swells most days, up to twice it's size. The majority of days I will need a nap at least once for 10 mins or up to 2 hours; I can seldom go without at least one nap as I am so drowsy and I hurt so much. The pain doesn't help with sleep so the only sleep I get is either drug induced or I wake up roughly every half hour.

Not even my periods are normal. I've not had a normal cycle, not even with oral contraceptives, since the accident. It's hard not to feel bitter. No one seems to know what the score is, no one has the answers to my questions. I don't want it, but it's something I have to deal with.