Hi Hanna.

I'm sorry this has happened to you again. Are you left or right handed?

I developed CRPS in December 2012 following surgery on my right wrist. Unfortunately I am right handed. I returned to work full-time at the beginning of February 2013. At that time, my hand was like a boxing glove; it was so swollen you couldn't even see my knuckles at all. I could barely move my fingers. I mean, they moved so little that you had to be looking closely to see the movement. And the pain was just amazing. It was so horribly painful and everything made it worse - wind, slight touch, air conditioning, moving at all, etc. I work in an office and as you can imagine I was not productive when I returned.

However, I had spoken with my employer. They new the condition I was in and that I wouldn't be able to do much. It was agreed that in the long term it would be better for me to return to work even if I couldn't do anything. I felt that being there would help me recover. My employer provided me with voice recognition software and all the hardware that goes along with that. I can use the headset for the telephone too. They also provided me with an ergonomic keyboard and a vertical mouse. I keep a microwaveable heat pack in my desk and use it when I need it.

Initially, I spent a good deal of time coaching more junior staff. Then we had a few new people join and I spent several months training them. This involved far less typing than my normal role but was a very productive use of my time. In that time, I went to physio every week and kept up with my exercises during the day.

My hand is far from normal but it is much better now than it was in February 2013. I still cannot use a normal keyboard and mouse and even the ergonomic keyboard and vertical mouse are painful to use.

I now have CRPS in my entire right arm, fingertips to shoulder. Sometimes I get burning on the right side of my neck and in my right ear. As you would expect with CPRS, I am always in pain. Pain never leaves my consciousness and sometimes it is a struggle to think of anything at all apart from the pain. Sometimes I just have to wait that out.

Working full-time with CRPS is not easy but so far I have been able to do it. For me, it has been really important to continue to communicate clearly with my employer. That way they know what my situation is and I know that they are comfortable with it. That was difficult for me because I am a very private person and I don't like to talk about my pain. I'm not sure how you feel about that or how your employer would react but it has been really helpful for me.

When you say you work with your hands, I'm not sure what you mean. I need to use my hands at work for typing, using the mouse, going through files and other office-type things. But I do not think I could do work that required more intensive use of my hands. Using hobbies as examples, I wouldn't be able to knit or paint or build models.

I'm not sure if any of that will be helpful. I hope that you will have some improvement.

Hang in there.

KimA