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Originally Posted by vividDC
This is the exact brace I use: ** - it's not very stiff and I don't wear it tight, but it does help keep my ankle from rolling over on uneven surfaces. I will talk to my doctor about it.
I've tried stim at PT a few times and it didn't bring noticeable relief. I'll ask about ultrasound today. They have been doing desensitization with hot then cold, hot for 3 min, cold for 1 min, like super cold. From what I gather you are saying this is not a good idea? It hurts really bad when the cold is put on. I will ask him about this today as I have an appointment in 3 hours.
I mentioned this in the original post, I have this vein-like purple line going up the front of my right lower-leg toward my knee that has only shown up in the past few months. I don't have it on the other leg. It doesn't look like a normal vein and it's pretty much the same color as the CRPS area. The hair on and around it is gone. It doesn't have the same hyper-sensitivity of the ankle area. Any idea what this is? Is it spreading? I will try to upload some pictures later.
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Yes...if it were me I would stop the hot and cold contrast therapy IMMEDIATELY.
Desensitization therapy can help tremendously...but it can't be done with cold things. You need to normalize the sensation which can be very painful but does not cause the long term harm that ice/cold can. Proper desensitization is about exposing you to different textures and stuff like that until it normalizes the sensation (or at least makes it more bearable). It took a few months of it to get me wearing more normal clothes (and on bad days I can't stand anything touching me)...but that was worth the pain for the normalcy. Not everyone will agree on that.
But the ice/cold water thing...stop doing it.
My first visit to my outpatient physical therapist (shortly after I was finally diagnosed) she used stim and ICE after the first appointment which was horrifying. I did some research and when I went back next time we did stim with HEAT and that was very helpful in lowering my pain levels.