Quote:
Originally Posted by vividDC
Friday (8/23) I had my last "authorized" (by WC) PT appointment. It was a terrible appointment. He had students there and he asked me to talk to them about my condition even though I felt like crap. Then he demonstrated the hot-cold therapy, even though we had previously discussed that I don't want to do that anymore. I felt helpless at the time with all those people watching over me, so I just took it. The cold hurt sooooo bad. I argued with him a bit over the logic behind this treatment, then he told me it was my last authorized appointment, and that he has to report I've made no progress yet. Well as of today I still haven't been authorized for more PT, everything moves so slow with Worker's comp... really delays treatment. I still have primary insurance from my employer while I am on medical leave, and I might have to start using it more, even though money is tight.
Anyway, I've had one of the most horrible weeks of pain of my life the past week, capped off by yesterday, which was like torture, writhing around in bed, almost went to the hospital. Now today I'm even more concerned, because I feel uncomfortable electricity/tingling up the front of my leg on that purple line I talked about in the original post. It's not painful yet, just annoying, but it's how the now very painful area started. It is happening right now as I write this, nonstop, sitting or standing (laying down is a bit better). Is the CRPS spreading? What should I do? I have another appointment with my pain doc on 9/12 and I think I'll go for the lumbar sympathetic blocks even though I am afraid of them based on what happened after my last nerve block. I'm getting scared I feel like I have no control over this at all. I've been so diligent with everything and it just keeps getting worse.
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DC - Sorry for being so late on catching up on this thread. I think good P.T.'s should be on a pedestal for what they do for their patients. It makes me mad that they would turn on you just to show off to students!
My CRPS is my left arm and hand so my nerve blocks are through the neck area. I remember being just so TERRIFIED to have that done, especially since the first Dr. did not know what he was doing & hit my arteries, caused too much bleeding and botched the whole thing!
I UNDERSTAND YOUR FEAR!
I researched and found another Dr. who uses Ultrasound guidance in addition to just the flouroscopy (X-ray) and she has been successful. i have 13 of them now about every 2 weeks. The first 3 were the most dramatic. I don't know if that was because since that was before I hit the 6 month mark of having CRPS or what. Maybe the subsequent ones act as more of a booster?
Maybe if the block goes into the spinal nerves you'll have better success than directly into the area that's so painful! I know it's so scary that ANY proceedure can cause this to spread. Oh, for what it's worth I'm told to take lots of Vitamin C before proceedure for prevention.
