Hi Doo glad you decided to take the plunge!

Welcome to the forum, but sorry you are dealing with so much. Spread is frightening, and must be even more so when there was no reason for it to develop the condition in the first place... Are bodies are strange things at times.

I'm 42, and developed CRPS after a left knee arthroscopy. In the 2 years and 3 months since, it's spread to my right foot and whole left side. My feet are particularly bad with the burning type of pain, my left leg and arm it's more that horrible icy cold bone pain fun experience

Yep, get some Epsom salts (unperfumed) and put a few tablespoons in a nice warm bath and try to relax, or wrap some in a damp cloth and placket on the skin for the burning pain. Epsoms are a good source of magnesium (which we all need, and tend not to have enough of!) and work to reduce pain by blocking calcium channel receptors. Well worth a regular soak!

Keep moving, and try to keep at a fairly continuous temperature. I find if I get cold, my pain ramps up, and then I find it very hard to warm up again. Then when I do finally warm up, the pendulum swings and I start to burn up. Oh the joys of this thing! Also watch your diet and try to eat healthy, as diets high in sugar, saturated (hard) fats and sugar put a lot of stress on our bodies. Take a multivitamin if you can, and vitamin C daily with meals (helps prevent spread).

Sorry about the meds dance of doom with your docs....it's very unfair. You haven't mentioned one, so ask to be referred immediately. If your doc won't do it urgently, refer her to the code of practice for CRPS patients - it states on there that you should see Spain specialist urgently. A pain doc should be able to do much more for you in terms of pain relief - many primary docs are reluctant to hand out anything much unless they have made you jump through the lower level med hoops first.

- Meditation is very good (I was a huge skeptic about this!). You don't realise how tense your whole body is from the pain until you consciously try to relax. The stress is very bad for us in all sorts of ways, so regular deliberate calming sessions are fab, and do more for me in terms of pain relief than my meds to be honest... You can download tracks from iTunes, or look for the Mindfulness course, which is very good. A few scented candles or oils help with the mood.
- Qi Gong exercises are also good, they are very gentle and designed for those with pain and mobility problems. They a calming too, and help keep your wholea body moving. Remember that inactivity makes your CRPS worse (oh the irony), and leads to weaker muscles and tendons, which then can make you more prone to illness and injury.
-I would also recommend massage if you can afford it (or have a knowledgable friend!). It needs to be very gentle and light to start with, and make sure they use plenty of natural (and warm) oil so that it doesn't irritate your sensitive skin. You can massage yourself, but it's difficult if your arms are involved. I found massage really helped with the de-stress thing, helped loosen my tight muscles, and just reduced the pain. I miss it - cant afford it at the moment, and my husband, bless him, is a hopeless clumsy bear at massage!!

Hope something helps, and that your pain is better today. Take good care of yourself, and keep posting

Bram