Don't worry, I'm not seeking any treatment or looking for any further medical input as I am in the fortunate position of having accepted that I will have to simply cope with the with day to day management of my pain and other symptoms. There is nothing else that the medical profession in the UK can offer me to help manage my CRPS.

I have literally read through the biography of every single private consultant who could have any relevance to CRPS treatment in both Scotland and England regardless of specialty. I have been through the available information about every single Scottish or English NHS consultant too. For the whole of the UK, I know which ones have any real expertise and you can count them on one hand. Its not a matter of finding a different one in my Trust or health board area, I have actually worked systematically through all of the CRPS expertise that exists in the whole of the UK! That's why I went to the Netherlands a few years ago.

I am in the fortunate position that I accepted very early on that there is only management with this condition, not treatment. I have already tried every relevant intervention or "treatment" option available to me in the UK so in the first few years, I managed to get to the position of knowing it was as managed as it was possible to be. I fall into a particularly rare end of the symptom profile which makes my prognosis especially bleak. It has been far more positive for me to have tried everything that might work and then simply to have moved on with accepting that I will be in constant pain and will have to live with significant disability.

Fortunately, there is no point in me remaining under the "care" of any consultants in any discipline because they have nothing more to offer. It is pointless turning up once a year for an appointment for me to give the consultant a CPD update on the latest research into CRPS! I regularly go to the medical conferences where the latest information and research on CRPS is presented to the same consultants as potentially would be treating me! My GP is great at organising any new referrals I need and is happy to prescribe most things I have wanted to try. I have a cocktail of medication that takes the edge off my pain levels but it is present in both lower legs, both hands, arms and shoulders and also my back and down through both buttocks. My movement disorders have not responded to any of the limited medication options there are.

I think the pain management programme offered in Bath is probably very helpful for many CRPS patients who are still at the stage of struggling with their pain management or are at an earlier stage in their acceptance process than I am. The particular interventions offered there were hopeless for me because the severity of my movement disorders means I am unable to do any of the therapies they offer.

It is actually a relief to now largely bypass the medical profession and just move on with my limited life, coping by myself.