Derrick Phillips |
A front room in
Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, has been made into a campaign office
to raise awareness of a little-known condition.
Reflex sympathetic
dystrophy or RSD is an extremely painful reaction to a bone fracture.
Nerves can be damaged with no medical explanation.
Derrick Phillips
contracted RSD when he broke his wrist in a fall on Dartmoor. Despite
the cast on his arm, the pain was excruciating.
"It felt
as if the plaster was a clamp tightening up on my arm. It was a
hot burning pain, the swelling started to come up. And this was
at a time when the x rays said the fracture was healed- and it was,"
he said.
Derrick's
RSD website has helped raise awareness. |
Fortunately
Derrick's doctor recognised the unusual condition and he received
treatment quickly, but not everyone is so lucky.
"Imagine
putting your hand in boiling water and keeping it there forever.
It took about nine months of really painful hard work on it, and
exercises, but in the end I had the full use of my hand again,"
he said.
Derrick has
now started an internet site which he runs from his front room,
to highlight the problems of RSD and make people more aware of the
condition. He has already had thousands of responses.
"The lack
of awareness of this condition means that many people don't get
diagnosed until it's too late to do an effective treatment,"
he said.
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