Hi Dawna,

 I am one of those guys whos wife left after I had RSD for 5 years, she acused me of being controling. I guess she was kind of right, I never once told her what she could or couldnt do, I often surprised her with plane tickets to fly to Washington state from Colorado to visit her best friend, she took care of the money we made and I never even looked and always asked if there was any spending money for me..lots of thing like that! But what I did do was say the pain is too bad for me to do that any more, or I having a flare up and dont feel like it! It was the RSD controling me and I guess you could call it the trickle down effect! I just think she was so shallow that she could drown in spilled water on a table!

 I have had RSD in both arms,shoulders and mid spine for going on 9 years now, it started in my left hand after a carpel tunnal surgury and spread in about 6 months to my whole upper extremities. Im not sure if it could be stopped as I was victimized by the Colorado Workmans comp system. That means that I was called a liar, a drug seeker, a hypocondriac, a wanna be professional patient for 2 1/2 years before I went outside the system and was quickly diagnosed by a local neuroligist. I will never know what the outcome would have been if I had been believed and treated promptly and agressivly at the start. Woulda ,coulda ,shoulda is all moot now! Of course the w/comp carrier had to re open my claim and pay me back for the time they closed my case and I still needed medical treatment and in the end I was not only awarded a total disability settlement for the RSD but also for bad faith! The money wasnt worth it. I think RSD just does what it want and no one can do anything with it other than to cover the pain with blocks n drugs. I can tell you that I had 7 nerve surguries on both arms, # 6 set off RSD and #7 spread it to the other nerve problems already existing...who knows! It dosent matter now, I just trudge thru every day a day at a time by my self.

Frank