Hey... haven't posted here for a few months... time for an update. Unfortunately, I have no good news to report. In fact, things have got much worse. When I last posted, I was concerned about noticeable spreading starting to occur and whether to continue PT. Well the spreading continued and my whole shin and top of my foot turned red and blotchy over a few weeks, and has stayed this way, with color and skin changes, to this day. PT treatment was terminated shortly after my last post, due to the doctor's and PTs (mostly the compassionate PTs) thinking that forcing this activity was doing more harm than good, as I had no improvement for 3 months of going 3 times per week. I haven't been there for a while.

My last office doctor's appointment at the pain clinic was a downer, and it's been this way since... he told me that we have exhausted all medication options except for opiates, which I have been trying to avoid, but have been consistently taking as low a dose as possible for a month straight now. He said at that appointment that it's procedural from here on out. I had a hell of a time getting the sympathetic nerve block injections processed by the hospital and approved by WC. A cancelled appointment delayed the procedure for another 3 weeks, during which the spreading and increased pain continued to grow. It was all for a disappointment. The procedure itself was textbook, they got an 8 degree response in my foot, the best they ever saw, so they said. I hardly got a hint of relief from the damn thing, and had a spike so bad in the hallway on the way out that they had to wheel me to the car. The side effects of this injection sucked, but they mostly passed... except for one, agonizing thing. I have had pain in new places, my thigh, stronger in my inner-knee, and especially in my back right near the injection site... this pain has dramatically increased in intensity, and now this whole line, from lower back to original area in ankle, is just a raging pain factory, day in and day out it seems like. It was so bad that the doc cancelled the second injection and told me my pain is largely sympathetically independent at this point, and that nerve blocks will not work.

I am awaiting approval for a spinal cord stimulator test on January 3rd. I am really nervous about it, and frankly, not very hopeful from what I am researching, although there are some promising success stories. I always seem to get worse after procedural intervention, much worse. I struggle with understanding if the intervention is being perceived as trauma, or if it's just the natural progression of this monstrous condition. I am really in a bind of what to do for this test. The pain in my back is killer and it feels like this has spread far beyond my lower right leg, so how will a stimulator help all the areas at once? My wife does not want me to do it after what has happened with my other procedures, and I can see her point, but it's like, my last "non-experimental" chance (using my doctor's words), and this is so brutal I can hardly take it anymore. At the same time, I don't want more trauma to be perceived in my back, near my organs...

My saving grace has been my wife and dogs, my spirituality and a god-send of a therapist who has really helped me keep myself together mentally through all this pain and confusion. I also just found a family doctor who really wants to help me and be there for me and try to make things easier. But as I write this post, my ankle is aching and burning, and stabbing electrical pains run from my lower right back to my right ankle several times per minute. I can barely sit up in this desk chair anymore, let alone walk or exercise.

I had such a long, intense and agonizing flare up yesterday (Wednesday) that the pain caused me to vomit and black out in the early afternoon, and my wife had to take me to the ER, where they treated my pain and ran some tests to rule out any other possibility for passing out besides pain, which they did. It was very scary, and I'm not doing a whole lot better today and tonight. That was my first trip to the ER, and there is really not much they can do for a CRPS patient there except for pump some drugs and wait until the flare up passes, but the chronic pain is still there, an unwanted guest infesting your body, signaling a neuronal disaster.

"Pain is absurd because it exists." - Charles Bukowski

Please offer me your advice about my situation with the upcoming spinal cord stimulator test...