Hi Sophie,

A percentage of CRPS patients have been found to have SFN. The research on this was done by Dr. Louise Oaklander from U Mass who purported that even CRPS 1 patients have nerve damage that wasn't showing on large fiber conduction tests. You won't be a freak case if you do indeed have both.

I am glad that you've found such a thorough neurologist. It is worth looking at autoimmune components as some CRPS is autoimmune driven and recent research on the use of IVIG was encouraging in the treatment of these cases. In the mean time you might consider oral steroids which are a frontline treatment for CRPS and would dampen down your immune system if it is driving this. standard dosing per studies is 10mg 3x daily for ten days. I had some improvement with this early on though I had to do two rounds of it to keep things calm.

I am a fan of ketamine infusions, having had a positive response to this myself. Not everyone responds to them but many people do. It is possible that infusions could be a real game changer for you as far as knocking the pain down and unwinding some of the cascade that happens in response to ongoing pain input. Ketamine is a powerful treatment for various causes of pain so I'd hope that even if it is autoimmune you could benefit from breaking the pain cycle some.

There are different protocols for ketamine, not all are 10 days. My own were done very differently, 2x a week at first then titrating down. I now just go for quarterly boosters. This served to make it more affordable, spreading them out and allowed us to monitor my response before committing to them. I pay $300 per infusion and I am in a major and expensive city to live in. You can call around to see if anyone is cheaper. I had to cold call clinics, as not all them have infusions listed as a treatment.

I hope you find what you need soon. Don't give up hope. My journey has been long but I am doing well. Early on I had mirror pain but that has resolved. I also had a lot of weird buzzing in other areas when my nerves were the most overloaded. I am praying for you and hoping thing settle for you soon.

Sending hugs and healing love,

Thank you Little Paw for responding to my post(and all my other posts). These past 2.5 months have been hard especially since prior to October when all this started I was healthy(healthy diet and working out regularly)working FT in a job I loved and loving my family and friends. I should have stayed far away from the podiatrist that i used because all this started with the cortisone shots. The website for this doctor states stop foot pain fast..when I saw that I should have walked away! I don't know if I have crps or SFN? I hope somehow somebody figures out what is going on. I am going to pursue the ketamine infusions as I learned that they are covered by my insurance. What have I got to lose? The treatment protocol is 10 days and I believe a two day booster is done 2 weeks after the initial treatment. Thanks again!! I really do appreciate it!!