My name is ...Edward Hrencecin
I live in.........Vero BEach Fl
I was Born and raised in Wilkes-Barre Pa and lived there for 52 !/2 yrs.
until we moved to Vero Beach Fl in July on 1997. I am married to a wonderful
girl named Sandra, who has stuck by me through all my doctor and hospital
stays, and all my chronic depressions , pain mood swings, and prescription
drug detox periods, not to mention all the short term memory loss times where
I just about forgot where I was.
I was diagnosed with RSD after my second back surgery back in 1989. My
life has totally changed. I used to own my own business and was a floral
designer for 25 yrs. I have not been able to work since 1989.
The first thing I remember after wakeing up from my surgery was the ugly
feeling in my left foot. I complained to the doctor and he brushed me off. I
told his nurse and she told me it would go away. Well It never did... The
ugly feeling became what I now know is RSD. Within three yrs it traveled up
my left leg to my knee, and across to my right leg. Above my leg I don't get
the pain and super sensitivity but I get extreme swelling.
I had a very stormy relationship with this surgeon. I was in phycotherapy
at his request, and learned what to look for and what to ask... I remember one
day , going to the doctor with a list of pain complaints. Well.... He took
the list , handed it over to his nurse and told her to send it to the
phycologist for annalization. We fought. I had no where else to go. So I
stayed with him, he was to be the best in NE Pa. We eventualy became friends,
later to find out that that friendship was only his way of hiding the screw up
during my surgery. The friendship lasted three years, after which I could no
longer bring legal action against him. AFter this, he refered me off to a
pain clinic where I found out the diagnosis of RSD was there the whole while
and I never knew. No one ever told me.
I went into denial at this point. Depression set in and i began to
realize that I was never going to get back what I had lost. Even my family
thought I was loosing it, Now I look back and i really don't blame them. It
was suggested to me at this time that I apply for SS disability. Well this
ordeal lasted three years, with a lawyer friend that knew less than I did
about ss disability... God... i was dumb and now for the second time... first
the doctor and now the lawyer.
Eventually I was awarded disability. It helped, but I remember that day
as if it were yesterday... Everyone was congratulating me as if I won the
lottery or something. I was devistated inside. No money could ever replace
that time and emotional distress that I suffered . I just couldn't understand
why God did this to me. I rebelled.... and for the first time in my life.. I
turned away for God.
In 1994, I stumbled onto a chat session on a computer that I knew nothing
about. In that chat, I asked if anyone knew anything about RSD. A stranger
told me where I might be able to find the RSD bullitin Board... This is where
i first met what is now the RSDHope group. I've come a long way since then...
seems like a million miles.
Countless nerve blocks, epidurals, trial pumps, SCS, trigger point
injections, and pills , more pills, and more pills. At one point my
phycotherapist asked me about a certain antidepressant. This was not an
honor. I wonder how the body can stand taking all these chemicals day after
day. I've tried everything they suggested. I was a good patient, I
listened, and followed directions. Only to get into the biggest trouble I
ever knew. Pain was so bad that several shots of demeral did nothing, and the
Drs wanted to send me out of the ER because they couldn't help me. My old
friend the surgeon happened to see my wife in the hall way of the ER, and
began talking to her. He came to see me and immediately admitted me intothe
hopital. The first doctor I saw after that was what I thought at the time one
of the worst things that ever happened to me. I saw his name on the white
jacket he wore and it said "adictive medicine doctor" . From then on I wasn't
able to say a word. They wouldn't listen to me at all. They put me into
detox and almost killed me. At least at the time this is what i was thinking.
Three weeks of hell, and another 2 weeks of pulling myself together. Learning
how to live in pain without pain medication. I was so overloaded with pain
meds, on doctors instructions, that every thing I took did nothing. They
stopped working and gave me no relief.
I've learned alot through all this. My phycotherapist referred me to a
phychiatrist that specialized in phycopharmacology, meaning study of medicine.
He over saw the meds that were being prescribed to me by all the doctors I
went to at the time. I wouldn't take anything until it was oked by him.
There are many drugs that conflict with one another. One of the biggest worry
about pain meds was the possibillity of Tylenol poisoning. There is heavy
doses of tylenol in alot of meds.
I settled down with a pain manager in Allentown, Pa. He was one of the
better doctors that I saw. He managed my pain, implanted a morphine pump and
really tried to help me control pain. For the last 10 yrs i have had more
test than anyone should ever have in a lifetime only to get worse. Every day
is in God's hands.
After three years of being treated by my pain manager in Allentown, Pa. I
began coming to Vero BEach Fl to see Dr. Hooshmand on the recommandation of my
pain DR. On my first vist to Florida, I wanted to stay here. I didn't want
to return to Pennsylvania. I traveled back and forth every 5 months to see
DR. Hooshmand. Under his care, I became pretty much stable and was satisfied
with my treatment while in Florida. Everytime I would return back up north,
the doctors would have a field day with my treatment and start screwing
everything up. At one point, after Dr. Hooshmand talked to my doctor up north
and gave instructions to reactivate my morphine pump the doctor up north
miscalculated and within two days of returning from florida, I was in a coma
and near death.
The RSD has been a real hell for me, as with others. My Family has stuck by me and has
supported me through all this. Without them, i would have never made it this
far. Also, finding the RSD Forum on AOL about 5 yrs ago(?) helped me
tremendiously. I've learned through The RSDer on AOL and the internet more
than all the experts could ever try to tell me. I've learned that people need
people, and unless you let yourself open to support from friends, weather it
be friends you know or friends over the wires, you will not be worth anything
to yourself or to your family.
I try to help others here but my own health prevents me from giving all
that I really want to. I am thankful that those who call on me put up with me
and how I try to help.
This is a little bio of me....there is alot that happened inbetween all
this, and as time goes on little by little it all comes out weather it be in
little stories or in word used in trying to help. I only hope and pray that
some day RSD will be a thing of the past. I pray for all the young people out
there that have to suffer with this pain daily and are misunderstood. God
Bless you all...... ed
I am.............53 yrs old, disabled with Chronic Pain syndrone, Failed
Back Syndrome , Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), and
Chronic depression.
