A mother knows

A mother knows

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When I was 11, my health started deteriorating. I was diagnosed with lupus originally, then the doctor changed it to severe rheumatoid arthritis. He saw my mom's relief when he said it wasn't lupus, and told her it wasn't much better. He promised that we'd fight it getting worse. I started taking medicine, including a chemo-like drug to suppress my immune system. It worked well for me. Just before my 15th birthday I went in to remission. I thought I'd be able to finally just live a normal teenager's life. Of course, it wasn't so easy. I turned 15 in Mar. and in Apr. I did something stupid & ended up with a minor sprain in my thumb. I did what I was supposed to do, but the pain moved to my wrist. We wrapped my wrist believing I just had tendinitis. It was the worst mistake of my life. My arm started to turn an odd shade of blue/grey/black and the pain increased. I finally mentioned that the wind hurt it one day. Momma turned white. She did a sensitivity test on it and immediately called my doctor. When she was 23, she had a bad year being diagnosed not only with cancer, but with a disease called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy in her right knee which disabled her for a decade. I went to the doctor and she told him I had RSD. He started to reach for my hand to examine it, then realizing what RSD was, stopped himself & looked at it from across the room. He agreed it was RSD. Because of her early catch, I saw a pain specialist who did a sympathetic block & stopped the majority of the pain I was in early on in the disease. While Momma was disabled for 10 yrs. & in agonizing pain (having been a guinea pig for RSD), I was able to break the cycle right away. I did have to withdraw from school and become home-schooled b/c I couldn't hold a pen for too long though. The disease still flares up some, especially when I aggravate it being the klutz that I am, but it hasn't taken too much from me. Early detection is often reserved for cancer, but it applies to so many other diseases.

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RSD, treatment

Posted By:

Isisedenia

1 Year, 5 months, 1 Week, 5 days, 11 hours, 8 minutes ago

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