Eight months after developing RSD, I hobbled into the Pain Center. By now I walked with either a cane or crutches; my foot was swollen, blue, and ice-cold; and the hair on my legs and my toenails had nearly stopped growing. The slightest movement or touch caused extreme pain in my foot that would last for hours. I managed to drag myself to work, sit at my desk all day, hobble to a pool, limp around in the pool, then endure the drive home. The vibration of the vehicle caused excruciating pain. Depression set in, my weight dropped to 98 pounds, and my calf muscle shriveled to nothing from disuse. My mental state matched the state of my leg - a sort of withering. With much horror, I saw that the RSD began to creep into my right foot and, for a period of time, it invaded one shoulder (but subsided within a few months). I slept poorly and I had frequent crying spells. I felt like a tremendous burden to my husband of just two years. I thought he received a lot more than he had ever bargained for when he said those two words, "I do." In addition, some of my physically active friends drifted away from me in disbelief, unable to accept that a simple ankle injury had become so debilitating.

Dr. Bradley Galer was the doctor at the Pain Center who had the "special interest in RSD." Right away that first morning he performed a lidocaine infusion to see if oral lidocaine (Mexiletine) would help with pain control. The infusion mercifully reduced the pain for a brief period of several minutes, so he prescribed lidocaine as my first RSD medication. He then asked me to participate in the Pain Center's new six-month outpatient RSD program. The multi-disciplinary treatment program would consist of physical therapy four days a week, structured psychological support, and ongoing medication treatment. I wholeheartedly agreed to give it my best effort.