OPEN LETTER TO ALL MEDICAL PERSONEL

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VSPACE="0"></U></B></I></div> <div> <I>An Open Letter to Health Providers Treating RSD/CRPS – We’ve Already Met.</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Dear To Whom it may concern,</I></div> <div> <I>Please take the time to read this message from someone with RSD/CRPS.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>The road to diagnosis wasn’t easy. Between the first symptoms and diagnosis two full years elapsed. What I thought was a simple injury sustained at work turned into a fight for wellness, understanding and appropriate treatment. I had never heard of either RSD or CRPS until May of 2005.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Between summer of 02 and summer of 05, I underwent three knee surgeries, including a total knee replacement. The pain never retracted after the second arthroscopy and was only growing worse.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Along the way to diagnosis, I met many of you. Doctors, nurses, specialists, psychologists, Psychiatrist, Physical therapists, technicians, surgeons, administrators and even an ambulance driver or two passed in and out of my life.</I></div> <div> <I>Some stayed. The better ones stayed. Some disappeared or were dismissed. For this I am grateful.</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Regardless of what the medical world calls RSD/CRPS, it is painful. Regardless of its causes, the disease/disorder/syndrome changes the life of its host. Not only does the disease change our lives, but health professionals change our lives as well. Each time you deal with, come in contact with or treat a patient in severe pain, your reaction to us changes our lives. You can make us better with understanding, appropriate knowledge, and well thought out treatment plans. You can make us far worse with accusations, minimizations and innuendoes. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>We, the patients, have one simple goal. We want the pain to stop so we can start our lives again.</I></div> <div> <I>If you are ignorant and know nothing of this disease then tell us that. We won’t blame you or be critical. Most of us did not know about it either. Tell us, you are human, and you don’t know everything. Trust me, we can live with that better than being treated as if the pain wasn’t real.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>If one of us is your patient for another reason, then please, do some research and find the finest doctors to understand pain and give proper diagnosis.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Don’t start with a psychologist or psychiatrist. Don’t directly or indirectly insinuate by such a referral that there is no medical basis or reason for the pain. You see, when you do that, some of us never go to another doctor. Some of us just stay home, afraid that we are losing our minds. Some of us can’t bear the thought of losing our minds or of the burning pain. Those are the ones you hurt irrevocably, because those are the ones that leave your office and within days they leave life in absolute hopelessness. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>If you are unfamiliar with RSD/CRPS, get familiar. Regardless of your specialty, this disease can surface in the pediatrician’s office as well as in the pain clinic. When a patient complains of burning pain in a limb, be alerted. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Once alerted to this disease, shouldn’t you be moderately well versed about it? Knowing could save your patient’s life. Knowing may be the difference between saving and not saving YOUR life one day. You see, you can get this too. It doesn’t discriminate. Men get it. Women get it. This disease knows no boundaries erected by society, finance, religion or gender. It just is. For that reason alone, it is worthy of your attention.</I></div> <div> <I>Get a dictionary and a thesaurus. Try to relate to what your patients feel after hearing the words we hear from those who provide “care.” Words and phrases like “too sensitive,” “exaggerating”, “psychosomatic”, “reaction to depression” and “woman’s illness” do nothing much for the souls and bodies of those of us who were leading active productive lives on the day the pain monster moved in. We are not hysterics, nor are we socially maladjusted. We are not malingerers or out to get something for nothing. What’s to get? Pain relief? Wouldn’t any normal person want that?</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>If RSD/CRPS is code word for “we have an addicted nut case here trying to get a fix” in your mind, you know nothing about the human beings you are treating. We don’t want your drugs or your narcotics. We want the pain to stop so we can start living our lives again. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Sometimes, we need medications, even narcotics to quell the animal setting fire to our limbs. Sometimes we do. When we do, don’t play amateur counselor. Don’t decide, at that moment, to become a Psychiatrist. Believe us, we know pain well enough to identify it. Don’t make us beg for something to take the pain away when we enter an emergency room. If we are there, we know why. So should you.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>If you are a health provider and you cannot intelligently discuss Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome then you are obligated to learn. If you remain ignorant, you hurt us, destroying our bodies and our spirits. If you don’t know, find out. We need your help. We need you well informed and we need you to be educated now. We cannot wait. We cannot bear the pain while you put off learning about this awful disease one more day.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Go forth and learn.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>                                                                 <IMG SRC="2ff7e7b0.gif" border=0 width="126" height="123" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Kate Pennington</I></div> <div> <I>The author grants RSDVictims the exclusive rights to use the above stated article for purposes of education and information dissemination. August 25, 2005 Kate Pennington</I></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>