Her parents became frantic contacting local doctors who had no answers and some who even said that her problem was all psychological so all they did was prescribe high doses of ibuprofen.

It wasn’t until three years later that doctors at the Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital diagnosed her with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).

As Lacy’s mother Vicki Walker said,”Physicians are not in tune with RSD.  That’s a huge problem.”

And this really is a huge problem that many kids with RSD are still not being diagnosed early.  Of course its difficult to diagnose RSD / CRPS because there are no easy blood tests or x-rays that can tell that a person has RSD.

The good news for Lacy was that once she was diagnosed with RSD she began months of intensive physical therapy which was necessary to “reboot” her nervous system.

Lacy’s RSD is now in remission and she has resumed a normal life of a thirteen year old.

But Lacy’s story reminds us that we should help make people aware of RSD/CRPS so that it can be diagnosed quickly so that treatments can begin immediately.

When she was 12 years old she was diagnoses with fibromyalgia by doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.  When she was 15 she noticed that the pain was becoming more frequent.

Tonya who lives in Bermuda has been able to find relief from the pain by doing physical therapy in a swimming poo where she performs a variety of stretches and exercises.

Tonya’s hope is to overcome the pain so that she can continue her studies.  She is looking for an indoor pool in her areas to continue her physical therapy.