David - Henryville, Indiana

I have had RSD for almost six years. It all started on December 31st 1996 - New Year's Eve - when my celebrations never got started. I am an ironworker and fell 45 feet at work . I shattered my right femur and cracked the ankle; and I received a few more injuries for good measure. My ankle seemed like the least of my injuries so the medics pretty much ignored it for over 9 months. By the time they looked at it seriously it was to late to do anything about it. Oh they tried injections after injections and block after block with little or no result. Narcotic therapy was my only way to lead a normal life of any kind. They had me on oxycontin (80 mg. 3 time daily) then day out of the blue one day in February last year (2000) my foot just stopped hurting. I felt I had finally got my life back! Then last October the RSD started to come back and now it's spreading up my leg and is worse than ever. However, there is no way that I am going to let it pull me under again. After almost losing everything last time then being giving a chance to get it all back I am certainly not going to give in! - I hope everyone has a pain free night.

We admire your fighting spirit, David. Your life is worth the effort even though the pain has come back - and we all hope you have many pain free nights.