Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy help?

Just found out that i have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy the pain specialist put me on something called lycrica and lydoderm patch i have know idea how to spell them but kept me on my hydrocodone 7.5 now i started taking the meds like i was told and they haven't done anything how do i go in to ask for stronger pain meds without sounding like a scumbag>???

I've read that in some cases stronger meds help while your doing all of this.. Im kinda feeling weird cause the doc told me she wants to give me a epadural before i got to PT and there is no way im doing that.... i don't do needels

First, remember that with RSD/CRPS, treatments may work for some people and not others. My suggestions to you are based on my own 12-year experience, as well as the experience of countless other people I've been in contact with over the years.

Give the Lyrica time to work. It may take a few weeks to feel an effect, if any. As for stronger pain meds, they help some people...but really, they're not usually particularly effective for this kind of pain (nerve pain). They may help some, though. And in my opinion, you shouldn't be shy about asking for them. You've been diagnosed with a very painful condition (the most painful, according to some sources)

There are other medications that have proven a bit more helpful. I personally responded well to blood pressure medications (Clonidine and nifedipine). There are many other types of medications out there that may be helpful, some of them kind of surprising. You and your doctor just have to look really hard.

As for the "epidural," it's actually fairly important. The general first step in treating RSD/CRPS is a series of sympathetic nerve blocks (lower limb: lumbar sympathetic blocks, upper limb: stellate ganglion blocks). They involve needles, and not little tiny ones either. I was 14 years old when I started getting blocks, and I had to get over my fear of needles really fast.

The truth is, the blocks aren't so bad. If the pain and disability from the RSD is incapacitating you enough, you'll do whatever you need to do to try to help. Unfortunately, invasive procedures are the norm with this condition. I eventually got used to it. I even looked forward to blocks, because they helped!

It's really hard to do the necessary physical without some serious pain relief, and I found therapy to be more effective, no matter how hard I tried, when the RSD was in check. I'm not talking about just pain, I'm talking about the side of RSD that few people acknowlege (doctors AND patients)---the vascular symptoms and movement disorder that are often a part of this disease.

I have one last piece of advice, and that is to do plenty of research. It not only gives you some more ideas of treatments that may be effective for you, it also gives you some power in a pretty difficult situation.

Shawn, With RSD you are going to feel pain no matter what meds your on. The problem with stronger meds is they tend to make you vegetate. As you know the only way to "cure RSD" is to stimulate the area until it is able to distinguish between painful stimuli and everyday stimuli. I know you hurt but hang in there you don't want to get started on the stronger meds...Trust me.