still having shoulder pain

[sparkey]

I am curious RN what machine they use to find Vascular damage. Like I stated in many of my posts, I had 7 out of 8 symptoms of RSD and even had a report from the neurologist that preformed my EMG report that I have signs of RSD. I also had mild carpal tunnel show up again.

Is there a test for RSD? This doctor is suppose to be a expert on diagnosing RSD that said I did not have it. Is a neurologist the only type of doctor that test for RSD?

[capricorn]

I would love to know if this is a female thing or not. All the men I know who had shoulder surgery were back to doing whatever they wanted in 6-7 months. I don't know one woman including myself who had luck with it. I am approaching one year since surgery and my shoulder, arm and hand are worse than before I had the surgery. I have pain in my collarbone and bicep 24/7. I drop things, have no control sometimes of my thumb and index finger on that hand. My tricep has nothing but pain going on in it, the whole arm is weak. I only have 25% ROM in it. This comes from a Rheumatologist I saw for Fibromyalgia so he was an objective observer. My surgeon told me after 5 months that my Rotator cuff healed (that wasn't the whole surgery) and released me. I have been searching for answers for one eyar. PT after PT. PT makes it worse. Thelast time I stopped it took 3 months for some of the pain to subside. Have alot of nerve damage on my neck but my neck very rarely hurts. My treating Dr. tells me the pain I have is right at the bicep tendon. OK??? So why do I have it and how do we get rid of it??? I feel for all of you in this position. I relate totally and I have given up.

CAP

[sparkey]

Personally I think the doctors do not know ANYTHING!!! They are pretty much all a bunch of quacks. Seems if they would run the proper tests that they would get the right answers. I cannot wait till this is all over and go to see a Boston Specialist. Maybe they have the answers there of what is going on with me.

[RNvic]

Sparkey,
They did a doppler and angegram to study the blood flow as my arm was very cold and blue after surgery and when checking pulse and moving arm it would disapear. It took three different test by vascular and reconstruction specialist to figure out what was going on. It is not repairable as the nerves are damage from shoulder down, blood flow is restricted from shoulder down. I have no feeling from elbow down. can only hold 5 pounds and drop things all the time. This was my primary arm and has taken a long time to learn to do things and write with other arm. Pain is never gone.. It is worse some days and cold will make it draw up and continues to turn blue. Have had people stop me and ask was I ok as it looks dead most of the time. I wear a brace at night and some days to keep hand straight. Can no longer straighten elbow as now has contracted.
It has been very hard to get use to and still have days when I refuse to except this mess. I have a very hard time doing the things I use to do, but continue to try. Hope some day I will be able to do the things I like to do. It was very hard to except that I would never be able to return to my working as ER nurse. But have gone on and now work as Director of Nursing and teach new nurses how to be good nurses.
The worse of all this is besides the loss of income, I traveled and made good money, I can not pick up Grandbabies and have to have kids put babies in my lap. I am afraid I will drop them. It takes twice as long to do things and have to really think of other ways to do somethings or have kids do them for me.

[sparkey]

Thank you RN. I understand as I am having the same trouble with my dominant hand. I loved being a phlebotomist and worked in the ER for many years. It was a wonderful feeling being there to help people when they arrived in the ER and working with the other teams of doctors/nurses/ radioligist and the list goes on. It was never a dull moment working in the ER as you know.

My hand is purple/blue and gets cold alot. I even have swelling in my wrist. It does not turn blue all the time. Seems when I use it to much that the color in my hand turns blue and cold. I know it is a circulation problem, but wonder why the doctor has not ordered that test.

I know how difficult it is when it is your dominant hand, and also when you speak of grandkids. I have a difficult time picking them up and playing with them. Alot of times when i am reading stories to them, they have to turn the pages as it hurts to much to keep reaching to turn them. Thank you for the info.