Book Review: Living With RSDS

Linda Lang suffers from CRPS. Peter Moskovitz, MD, treats CRPS. Together they represent both of the disciplines that we need to understand and live with CRPS. The way we deal with the syndrome as patients is as important as the way in which medical professionals deal with it. As they gather more knowledge to help with better treatment of the sign and symptoms, we must gather the knowledge necessary to help us deal with the suffering the syndrome causes in our daily lives. In this one quote, Linda tells us what this book is about-learning to live with CRPS. "As CRPS progresses, it causes tremendous suffering for the patient. Just as the disease can affect almost every part of the body, it can also affect almost every part of the patient's life."

Some of the sections of the book are:

• What is CRPS?
• Where does it come from?
• Is there one test that will diagnose CRPS, and if there isn't, why not?
• How can a simply injury cause such diverse symptoms?
• What treatments might help?
• How can anyone cope with so much pain?
• How can I help the person that I love or my friend who is living with CRPS?
• What can we do to help children with CRPS?
• Is research being conducted and how does that affect the future of CRPS?

Those are questions that everyone who lives with CRPS has asked at one time or another and are some of the questions that this book answers. As I read this book, I found myself wondering how someone who suffers from CRPS could do all of this research, find personal stories of others who also live with CRPS, and put it all together in an easy-to-read and understandable book. Linda said, "One morning I woke up with one of those 'eureka' moments. Although I could no longer work, my job had trained me to find information from various sources and put all that information together to find the causes for different market trends. I could apply the same techniques to learning about CRPS. I studied everything I could about pain and how it impacts the body. I felt that if I could learn as much as possible about what was happening to me, I could take better control of my own life."

This is true for all of us who suffer from CRPS or any other disease. With the help of Dr. Moskovitz and the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association of America (RSDSA), Linda has put together a book that should help everybody understand the current medical knowledge about CRPS and how to live as full a life as possible.

As you read this book, remember that explaining medical information, especially concerning the nervous system and the brain, is difficult. The chapters about pain, CRPS, and the treatments for the syndrome may be difficult to understand, but you will find that the knowledge you gain is worth the effort. Dr. Moskovitz and Linda have done a wonderful job of turning very complex medical terms and issues into language anyone can understand.

The medical portion of the book is followed by practical, insightful, and thought-provoking information to help those suffering from CRPS live everyday with grace. The book is punctuated with stories of other people who live with CRPS. Those stories remind us that many people have this syndrome and they have experienced many of the same fears, medical problems, and difficulties in learning to live with CRPS as you have.

This book will help those who have CRPS, those who treat people with chronic pain, those who love somebody with CRPS, as well as anyone who wants to understand the difficulties of living with a little-known and less understood syndrome such as CRPS.

All profits from this book will be donated to RSDSA. Living With RSDS may be ordered using this form, by calling 877.662.7737, or sending a fax to (203) 882-8362.

Reviewed by Barbara Schaffer