Coaches, trainers and school nurses should be made aware of the symptoms of CRPS / RSD so that the athlete can be referred to a sports injury doctor who knows about RSD.

CRPS/RSD is believed to result from a malfunction of part of the nervous system that develops in response to an event the body regards as traumatic, such as an injury or surgery. Nerves misfire, sending constant pain signals to the brain. In addition to moderate-to-severe pain, tell-tale symptoms include hypersensitivity to touch, abnormal swelling, abnormal skin color, changes in skin temperature, sweating, limited range of movement, and movement disorders in the affected area.

RSDSA has an excellent brochure: CRPS/RSD and Sports Injuries:  Prevention is the Name of the Game.  Print it out and give it to your coaches and school athletic departments.

Kayani Turner’s fight with the excruciating pain associated with RSD began in 2005 after acquiring a stress fracture in her left leg.  The injury healed, but during the 2006 volleyball season she began to experience severe pain in the same leg.  Everyone immediately suspected another stress fraction, but X-rays and MRI did not reveal that this was the case.

“In medicine, it’s something we call a diagnosis of exclusion,” said Dr. Jerrad Zimmerman, the team physician. “Before we could come up with a diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome, we had to rule out anything else that could cause it. It can take months to diagnose because of all the testing it takes to rule out other possible etiologies of her pain.”

As her doctor explained, with CRPS, in very basic terms, even though an injury has healed, some of the pain fibers never shut off and continue to send signals to the brain as if the injury is still present. In Turner’s case, the pain she experienced from RSD became more intense than the pain she experienced from the original stress fracture.

The RSD took playing through pain to an unimaginable level, but Kayani Turner continued to play during the 2006 campaign.  Read more about Kayani Turner’s amazing comeback.