Quote:
Originally Posted by toepain2013
Hey Gang,
So, I recently had another appointment with my pain management doctor and ultimately realized I ended up a bit confused (sometimes it's so hard, as they're in and out before you have time to ask the questions you need to). Anyway, I'm hoping some of you here can clarify things for me a bit.
The doc thinks that they've identified a nerve that is injured in my foot, which may have triggered the original CRPS and might be the cause for continued symptoms. Basically, he thinks I have a "traction" injury to my superficial peroneal nerve. As a result, the nerve is firing non-stop pain signals, which in turn has caused the slow evolution of CRPS (coldness, sweating, pain elsewhere in the foot unrelated to the nerve, pain in the other foot, etc).
He's going to do some diagnostic blocks on the peroneal nerve to see if it eliminates the pain. What I'm unsure of is what happens if that's successful. Does identifying the broken nerve mean they can operate on it, or burn it away, or silence it somehow and thus eliminate the CRPS? I'll totally take a little numbness or loss of sensation over the pain!
Anyway, here's hoping it's a good thing and that this might be a solution!
Also -- on another note -- I had the *best* day yesterday I've had in a long time. Feet felt really good all day. Then, of course, I get home to make dinner and after cooking a great meal for myself and sitting down to eat the pain comes on with a vengeance! Is it always this random, where you can gave good times and then bam, out of no where you're struggling to endure?
|
Hi,
Your situation all depends on the accuracy of the CRPS diagnosis. What I mean is if you were accurately diagnosed them surgery or any other attempt that would disrupt the nerve could cause much worse pain and symptoms. Once CRPS is in motion the general consensus among experts is not to do anything that could further cause trauma to that same nerve(s). I can personally attest to that horrible scenario because in my case CRPS caused by nerve damage during surgery was originally thought to be a nicked/trapped nerve. The recommendation prior to a thorough and proper evaluation by a neurosurgeon was to re-operate and sever the nerve completely unless it could easily be freed up from the scar tissue. I went ahead with surgery not knowing anything about CRPS and woke up to even more pain and in a much larger area than I had prior to surgery. Since then, it has gotten much worse very rapidly. On the other hand if you do truly have a 'traction injury' to the nerve then steroid injections with anesthetic could very well alleviate pain while the nerve regenerates. This process of regeneration could take quite some time but most studies do indicate that nerve traction injuries do heal. Have you been thoroughly and properly diagnosed by at least 2 well neurosurgeons who are well versed in CRPS II /Causalgia? Did they show you the nerve by ultrasound or MRN? Or did they diagnose the traction injury through diagnostic injections?
When did your symptoms start and for how long have you been suffering? This is all helpful information for the others who might chime in.
Glad you had a good day, those are rare with CRPS!
My advice... tread cautiously with regard to repeat surgery unless you are willing to take the risk knowing that if CRPS is present, that things could get much worse. If I could turn the clock back I would have pushed harder for a neurological consult and MRN prior to the surgery performed after the initial nerve damage occurred. All of my current doctors agree that the rapid/severe progression is a direct result of the second surgery. Please don't take one doctors opinion - My doctor was/is an expert in the field of hip trauma and I respect him for that 100% but he is not a nerve specialist and that was a detriment to me.
Wishing you the best,
Tessa