Bob has always been one to hide his pain and his feelings.  This situation began no differently than any other ache or pain for him.  He was sore.. and sometimes his hand would fall asleep.  He attributed it to overwork as things had been really busy at work before Christmas.  It was mid-January and things were slowing down a bit.  Well, one Monday he came home and said he was in a lot more pain and he had dropped his knife (He was a meatcutter/manager) and couldn't pick it up again for a time after.  He told me about it only because he needed me to make a doctor's appointment for him.  He never wanted to worry me over minor things.  So, I made the appointment and worried.  This wasn't like Bob at all.  He was the strongest man I knew in both physical strength and also in willpower.  Little did I know that the respect I already had for his strength would be multiplied tenfold over the following months.

The appointment with the doctor wasn't to happen for two days and so he carried on as best he could.  What a tough guy!!  Our regular family doctor was on vacation at the time and so appointments were few and far between.. and I was unable to get an appointment with our doctor so another doctor that had been called into town to fill-in was who he saw.  The doctor put him off work for 8 days with a diagnosis of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) or carpal tunnel.  Things carried on that way for nearly a month.  During that time we had hassle upon hassle from Bob's employer.  They didn't want him off work so they were trying to pressure him into coming back to work before the doctor okayed it.  At the same time, the Worker's Compensation Board (WCB) was dragging their feet with Bob's claim.  It was 7 weeks before the claim was accepted and a cheque was issued.  Then it was another 7 weeks before the next cheque.  Frustration upon frustration upon frustration was what we were living with then.
 
 

Just days under a month after the original doctor's appointment Bob had been on some antibiotics so that a "flu" would clear up and then he would be getting the cortizone treatments for his carpal tunnel.  The day he was to start the cortizone injections, he woke up feeling very dizzy and generally unwell.  I took him to the hospital anyway and while there, he became very ill and collapsed.  He was admitted for 8 days with bleeding peptic ulcers and after four units of blood were given in two seperate transfusions, he began recovering to normal strength again.  When he was discharged from the hospital, they also gave him his first cortizone treatment.

Bob got 2 treatments with cortizone injections, but there really wasn't a lot of improvement in the pain afterwards like there should have been.  The doctor that had been treating Bob's condition left the clinic and our regular doctor returned.  It was suggested that this could be something more than just a carpal tunnel strain injury.  The doctor started to make recommendations for specialists to see Bob.  At that point, Worker's Compensation set up an assessment in Saskatoon for Bob for early April 1998.  The results were a month in coming, and the news wasn't good.  According to the assessment, Bob was suffering from RSD.  That is how his diagnosis came about.
 
 

We had no idea what this RSD thingy was.  We hadn't heard of it before... and no wonder!!  It's not a common condition.  We came home from the doctor's office and sat at the computer.  It took a while but we found some information about Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.  The news certainly wasn't encouraging, but it was definitely informative.  We found a website that listed RSD as a rare disease in the United States and a few pages created by people who suffer with the same thing.  There were support pages, too.  At the time we were a little overwhelmed, but we are slowly dealing with the things that are put before us.  It's just the beginning of a long road for us... but with the help of friends and family and medical professionals, we will do our best to survive and have a life as normal as possible.

We are hoping to make a move soon.. back to our home city to be closer to family and friends.. our support system.  Please feel free to read on.. the following links will take you to an information page and to Bob's explanation of how he deals with this situation.  I'll update this page as things progress, so please also check back again.