RSD Puzzle #116

H. Hooshmand, M. D.

DIPLOMATE AMERICAN BOARD OF PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGY

BOARD CERTIFIED IN ELECTROENCEPHOLOGRAPHY

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INTRACTABLE NEUROLOGY

EPILEPSY, PAIN, MS

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RSD PUZZLE # 116

Harmful Effects Of Amputation

Question:

My 16 year old son has RSD. His pain doctor says he should have his foot amputated, but the surgeons refuse to amputate. What should I do?

Sincerely,

A Desperate Mother

Answer:

You are lucky to have seen decent surgeons who knew better. Your son is young and has excellent potential of walking on both feet with proper treatment. Why would anybody trade a treatment of returning the foot back to normal for amputation?

Your son has a cold extremity which means it should respond very nicely to proper nerve blocks, but not the ones pain specialists usually do such as ganglion nerve blocks.

If he has an amputation, the RSD will spread to all four extremities. His sleep every 24 hours will drop to less than ½ to 1 hour. He will be in severe pain. He will possibly die of suicide or immune system failure and complications of high blood pressure. Amputation drastically shortens the patients life expectancy.

RSD is usually the result of minor to mild injury to the extremity with a few nerve fibers being dysfunctional. The amputation will change the condition. The amputation stump will have hundreds of nerves being impinged in the scar. Proportionately his pain will be hundreds of times worse.

If you push for amputation and some stupid doctor does it you will have to live with the feeling of guilt for the rest of your life from pushing amputation.

Your son is not even on a single proper drug or form of treatment. Morphine does not even control the kind of pain he has. He needs a stronger and more effective pain medication, anticonvulsant, and antidepressants, not to mention proper and effective nerve blocks.

Do not sacrifice the life of your son to the lunatic amputation procedure. Amputation will cause the "head of Medusa" phenomenon, meaning that when the Greek Goddess Medusa was beheaded because she was so mean, after execution every hair on her head changed to snakes.

With Many Thanks,

H. Hooshmand, M.D.

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