It is time for you the patient to become actively involved with the management of the medical solution to your disease. The current state of the medical industry is generally deplorable. That is - it is often difficult to find a competent doctor that even knows how to spell RSD - let alone diagnose and treat it. Yes - there are rare exceptions - one is occasionally able to find a competent and caring doctor that knows RSD and can treat it effectively.
But even so - it is in your best interest to be well informed so that you will never allow some unqualified doctor perform any irreversible procedure and botch it. So - to make the best of this poor situation by being informed - it is more likely to result in the achievment your goal - of either eradicating your disease or putting it solidly into remission. This week's article covers the steps and procedures that are necessary to realize this achievement.
The following discussion is oriented towards the Neuropathies of the Peripheral Nervous System in general - but the specific disease being addressed here is RSD, for illustrative purposes. One of the first tasks is to determine the exact mediating circumstances of your disease. This can be done only with a thorough medical history and profile.
Build a Medical Profile
Build a complete as possible medical history of all of your illnesses, diseases, and traumata - especially those that were the result of infections - both bacterial and viral. If possible - build this history with a time line so that you are able to see exactly when - and how long before the onset of RSD each of these events occurred. In this way - you can now identify the possible "precursors" that may have contributed to the onset of your RSD. Pay special attention to those traumata that occurred just prior to the onset of RSD.
Incidence of an a priori infectious disease may affect the manifestation of RSD. At times - an infectious disease is the mediating factor for RSD. Each of the infectious diseases leaves its own mark in the form of antibodies. Most infections - e.g. mononucleosis - produce IgG antibodies. Some diseases - e.g. Lyme disease - produce both IgM and IgG antibodies. Asthma produces IgA antibodies. So - complete documentation of your medical history provides the necessary overview and is more informative - and may help to identify the type of RSD that has become manifest and what the possible mediating agent is most likely to have been.
