Sister

My sister is a testament to perseverance. She was diagnosed with RSD, a neurological disorder that causes the constant feeling of pain, when she was 16. She had dropped a marble table on her foot and without breaking any bones or any ligament damage, it was still swelling and bruised and hurt as if every bone in her foot was crushed. It took about 6 months and several doctors to get diagnosed. She has gone through 3 procedures to try to fix it and has had a neurostimulator inplanted into her back to help. She has been a true soldier through it all. Even though she was in her junior year in High School and missed most of the spring semester, she graduated an A student and was accepted to several colleges. She really wanted to go to UCI or USD but because of her condition she was unable to go that far from home. It broke my heart to see her have to give that up but she is still positive and is attending the University of Redlands.

Just this past week she was taking a shower and passed out. When she fell she must have twisted her leg or something because she broke her fibula right above her ankle. The poor kid is in so much pain on top of what she already had from her condition. She was taken to the hospital, but the doctors and nurses really have no idea what RSD is to be able to treat her properly. They just told her to take the meds she already was taking and sent her home riving in pain. Now its our job to call around to all her doctors that understand her condition to see what they can do to help and to top it off, they didn't put a cast on her leg. it is a soft splint with an ace bandage which does not give the support she needs or the protection. We had to call another doctor to make an appointment to get a cast put on. However this doctor can't see her until Wednesday of next week, which is 5 days from when she broke her leg. She's supposed to somehow deal with having little support on her leg and be able to at least do what she needs around the house.

I wish doctors would 1. talk with each other or make the patients medical history available to give a summary of any existing conditions or 2. listen to the patient or family members, sometimes they know what they are talking about. They are just trying to help the doctor understand the situation, there may be more to what is being shown.