In 2000, when I was 13 years old, I was running pre-season for cross country…my FIRST year in high school!!! During a practice, I twisted my ankle, but finished the practice before finding the athletic trainer and talking with him. He told me to get an x-ray and stay off of it for a week before trying to run again. The x-ray came back negative and I began high school on crutches, just as I was told. A week later, the pain was worse, NOT better. I went through a series of MRIs, more x-rays, bone scans, etc. Nothing was coming back with any reason as to why I was in pain. I now felt as though I was on fire, my foot was swollen, and quite discolored. After about 3 months, my pediatrician ran out of ideas and sent me to a pediatric orthopedic about an hour away. After talking with me, my mom, and looking at my foot for about 5 minutes, he diagnosed me: Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. That’s quite a mouthful of jumbled words with ZERO meaning for someone so young. He explained it to … [Read more...]