it would be for a awareness web site for cancer and r.s.d a place for information and general imformation on these topics thank you! Rand

 

everyone knows what cancer is this is r.s.d. : There is no perfect test for RSD, but diagnosis is usually confirmed if three or more of the classic symptoms are displayed. The most prominent and consistent is severe pain experienced after the cause has gone (i.e. when the fracture, surgery or other trauma is already healed). This pain is variously described, but the most common word patients use is "burning" and it covers a wider area than the original injury (the term 'glove-like pain distribution' is often used to describe the effect). Swelling frequently occurs, together with discolouration of the skin surface (bluish red). The affected area will often produce coarse black hairs - a feature almost unique to this condition. Partial paralysis is often experienced and a major part of treatment is to combat this loss of movement. The affected area will normally be hyper-sensitive - sharp pain being felt in response to light touch. There will also be irregular imbalance of temperature at the skin surface - the affected area being much warmer (or much colder) than the corresponding area of the unaffected limb. Some people have associated RSD with loss of bone density, but this seems to be the physical outcome of lack of use, rather than a direct result of the condition.

The condition tends to result from minor trauma that neither doctor nor patient expected to result in anything serious. Typically, someone injures a hand/wrist or a foot/ankle and seems to be healing well but then begins to develop pain out of all proportion to the original injury.

Another, more subtle, symptom of RSD is a change in sensitivities. Suddenly little things become irritating. There is an ill defined feeling that something is "not right". This may be:


A feeling of annoyance
A new dimension to smells, taste, sights and sounds
Watering eyes that may also hurt from the light
Reduced taste sensitivity
Irregular heart rate, blood pressure and respiration
Weakness, tremors, muscle spasms, dystonia and increased reflexes.

RSD is characterised essentially by pain, vasomotor and autonomic disturbances and atrophic changes but these subtle undertones can become very important to the patient.