My name is Kerry, and I’m 28-years-old. In 2000, when I was thirteen, I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome/Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy after twisting my ankle while running pre-season for my high school cross country team. I was on crutches for nine months, and received epidural injections, and took a lot of medications.
After nine months, my doctor told me that if I didn’t use my foot/leg, I’d never walk again. Over the next few months, I worked on re-learning how to walk, and eventually worked through the pain, and started walking again. By my junior year of high school, I was able to run and figure skate again, taking only minimal medication.
My sophomore year in college, I ran a half marathon. While training for my second half marathon the fall of my junior year, I was re-injured, and the RSD relapsed. More medications, and more injections. Within a few months, I was again in remission. However,in the summer of 2011, I once again relapsed, and have not yet been in remission again since then.
Every 8 weeks I receive ketamine infusions. It dramatically decreases my pain, and allows me to work full-time. I’m still on a lot of medications, and have other complications from RSD, but thanks to the ketamine infusions, my quality of life has improved. That is not to say that I don’t have pain, but after nearly fifteen years of living with the RSD monster, I’ve learned how to pace myself, and have learned that taking a “recovery” day is not a bad thing. I’m battling a really tough monster, but it will lose in the long-run. I am a warrior!
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