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My Life's Journey With RSD
By Louise Plaster
 February
17, 1992 started out like any other day. I got up and got
ready for work, got my
daughter ready for school and then drove my 30 mile trip to
work. When I got there
I prepared the machines that I operated for the day's run.
The assembly area where I
worked was totally automatic and had robots. The assembly
line was in a horseshoe
shape and products, which were fuel pumps for cars, were sent
through the line by a
conveyor belt. My line came off of the main assembly line
and produced the caps of
the fuel pump. This particular morning I had some small parts
that were sticking in
the track and I had to go to the back of the machine to fix
it. After a few times of this running around to the back of
the machine I went underneath the conveyorbelt section that
connected two of my sets of machines. As I was coming up to
astanding position I struck my left knee on a metal bracket
that was located on a support leg of the conveyor belt. When
I struck it I at first saw black for a few seconds. As I gotmyself
together from that I took a step and the pain was so great
that it felt like I was going to be sick of my stomach. And
so began my journey with RSD.
I was fortunate that I didn't have to go to very many doctors
before I was diagnosed
by Dr. Robert G. Schwartz in Greenville, S.C. I was diagnosed
on Jan. 23, 1993. It wasn't long after that Dr. Schwartz suggested
that I attend the RSD Support Group. I was afraid to go at
first. I wondered what I would see when I went there because
I was a little afraid of what was happening to my body.
I had always considered myself an active person. I was never
into sports, but I enjoyed working out and taking walks as
exercise. I also had a good job making good money. The company
that I was working for at the time sent me to Japan to train.
In Japan women didn't do the work that I did so that was an
experience. On return I worked with Japanese trainers to get
the line started up and into production. Then I was to train
others for the job. But on that day, February 17th things
started changing.
Before I went to work there I had worked for another manufacturing
company for 15 years. In that job I had worked my way up the
ladder from an operator to a coordinator (assistant supervisor).
I grew up in this company and I learned a lot. My skills grew
and expanded. I went back to school and took some classes
that would help me do my job better especially when I moved
into management. In my job as a technician/coordinator I had
a lot of responsibilities and dealt with many types of people.
It was my job to motivate them to get the job done. I also
did a lot of writing in this job. I wrote evaluations of employees,
training manuals and operating instructions. This training
also was used at the other job where I was working when I
got hurt. I wrote gauge instruction manuals there. As I look
back now to that time in my life I can see I was in a type
of training for my future "job."
I did decide to go to the support group and it turned out
to be one of the best decisions that I have ever made. It
was good to be around others who knew where I was coming from.
It seems like from the beginning my RSD was a magnet for others
whohad RSD. I started meeting people just about everywhere
I went whohad RSD. I remember standing in a restaurant hearing
an employee telling her manager that she had RSD. Also there
was a time that I won a prize on the radio and when I went
to pick up my prize, the receptionist had RSD. I would invite
the people that I met to the meetings. During this time, my
time working was coming to an end. It was very devastating
to me when I was taken out of work. I felt hurt and useless.
I had always worked and had an income. Plus I valued my work.
It is my belief that how I am as a person shows through my
work. So my world as I knew it was changing again.
Dr. Schwartz suggested that I use my skills in the support
group. He wanted me to get more involved. He said that the
group needed help to move on. I thought at the time that he
must be crazy. To me, my world was crashing down. I was wondering
how could I organize a group when I wasn't doing so well with
my own life. Thankfully, Dr. Schwartz could see that getting
involved in the group would be what I needed even if at the
time I couldn't see it. So in November 1993 I became the new
director of the Greenville RSD Support Group. It was just
what I needed to do to work on living with RSD. I did find
that my skills were needed. They just needed to be re-adjusted
to do what I needed them for now. I needed to use these skills
to bring me back out of the black hole that I had fallen into.
I was viewing RSD as ruining my life because I couldn't do
the things that I use to before RSD. I would do things because
I had the mind set that if I didn't do things like I always
would have done them, then I was giving into the RSD. When
I did things on a fairly good day I would over do it and pay
for it for weeks on end. It finally dawned on me that this
was what my RSD liked. My RSD liked that mind set and seemed
to escalate with it. It also liked it when I was down. This
discovery was an important part of acceptance for me. It taught
me that it's ok to make changes if it allows me to do what
I want to in my life. I started looking at my RSD in a different
way.
My RSD has taught me some important lessons and changed the
way I do things. It taught me how to set priorities in my
life. I started making a list on what I wanted to do in a
day. I put what I wanted to accomplish the most on top. If
I could only do one thing that day it was what was at the
top of my list. I also started changing around how I did things.
I realized that it wasn't how I accomplished my goal that
matter, but it was the importance of accomplishing it that
did matter.
RSD also brought out my fighting spirit. It occurred to me
very early on that more education was needed about RSD. Everyone
I met would say, "I never heard of that." I wanted
that to change and decided to put some of my focus on changing
that even if it was educating one person at a time. This is
when it was decided that we needed to form the S.C. RSD Association
or SCRSDA. Some were hesitate at first but some believed that
we could do it. We made our mission to help educate everyone
about RSD. Our first conference was held in September 1994
and so far we have continued to have it annually.
I also discovered that there are some very dedicated people
who do their job well. I've worked with many different physical
therapists since having RSD. Each one helped me to move forward
in my journey. Along the way I have become a teacher. Each
person who has worked with me learned about RSD. They saw
it on good days and bad. They helped teach me how to deal
with it one day at a time. I appreciate all their dedication
and I feel that I am where I am today with my RSD partly because
of them and their willingness to work with me. To keep an
open mind and learn in the process. I vowed to them that when
they got me moving that I would keep it up and I have. I make
sure that I keep moving and do my physical therapy routine
at home every day. For me, having RSD and taking care of myself
is like having a full time job!
My RSD has also been used to teach others in the healthcare
profession. The spreading of my RSD was even used as a learning
tool. I am grateful for my RSD to be used in this way because
if one person is helped by my RSD being a teaching tool than
it is worth it to me.
I know that my training in my past jobs has helped me to perform
my "job" with the support group. I have always enjoyed
working with people. It's something that comes natural to
me. My journey with RSD has allowed me to be able to help
people grasp an understanding of their RSD and what it takes
to deal with it. Many tell me that I was able to help them
and for that I am truly grateful. RSD has taught me that I
end up helping myself by helping others. Running the support
group and SCRSDA has been therapy for me. It allowed me to
regain in my life what I thought that I had lost. Using this
as therapy has allowed me to grow and to re-build my self-esteem
and confidence that was so shaken at the beginning. I still
have work to do on myself and I will continue to work on myself
till the day I die.
Many people ask me "Don't you want your old life back?"
To that I have to answer "No I'm to busy living my life
now and I kind of like it." I understand now that some
of my old life didn't fade away, it was just stalled for a
while. As I have improved and continue to improve I am getting
back a lot of my old life. It's just different now. I'm back
to working out again, just in a different way. I take my walks
on the padded indoor track at the gym. I'm doing what I enjoy
when I meet and/ or talk with people who have RSD. It makes
me happy to be able to help people feel better and to understand
what is happening to them. It makes me feel good to see a
person who was scared to have a new sound of hope in their
voice or see it in their faces. So my skills from before RSD
are used now but in a more profound way. My writing skills
have come in handy too. I have some chapters written in Dr.
Schwartz's just released book "Resolving Complex Pain."
I've been able to travel some to speak at conferences and
other group meetings. I've been able to work on RSD awareness
by going to Washington DC with other RSDers. We have been
able, over the years, to get stories on RSD in the newspaper
and on TV. I have connected with other leaders to work together
in any way possible to bring more awareness to RSD.
By managing my "good " days I'm able to get more
of them. I'm able to do more with my husband Jack, family
and friends. I enjoy my 2-year old grandson, Ethan very much.
I also enjoy meeting people with RSD at Dr. Schwartz's office.
I have a strong support system of folks that helps keep me
going. I will never give up working on myself or my RSD.
So that is why I say, "I have RSD, but it Doesn't Have
Me".
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