You are so inspiring! Thank you so very much for taking the time to detail your therapy protocol. It is very helpful as I have done a lot of the same work, but have had some difficulty figuring out how much time to spend on different modalities and when to try to progress to new things. You've given me some motivation to retry some things in different ways.

You are the 3rd adult I know (of) who has cured themselves from CRPS. One person was bedridden for a year with disabling pain, so it can be done. I have had it for more than 2.5 years following a foot/ankle injury. About a year ago, I was back to sleeping with my left foot dangling uncovered off my bed and using a wheelchair to navigate the grocery store after the trauma of losing my leisure time activities, my job, my career and then my disability income.

I am now to the point where I can exercise standing for 45 minutes (it hurts, but I can deal with it), grocery shop without assistance and go for short walks with resting. I still have a long way to go because I want to go back to something closer to my old life. I still have a lot of areas where I get stuck, particularly with the anger with myself for letting this happen to me and not being able to pull myself out of it. I am still a work in progress...

Anyway, here are some other **programs that I have found most helpful that I have not seen highlighted so much-**

NOI Group: They have published a couple of books that are useful in explaining the brain's rewiring in chronic pain, neuroplasticity and graded motor imagery. ** They also describe mirror therapy as well.


Neuroplastix: Drs. Moskowitz and Golden believe they can cure all chronic pain and eventually taper people off all medications. ** They talk about flooding the brain with other sensations/experiences as it has been overtaken by the pain. They give courses for practitioners (I went this year) that are open to patients, but they don't occur that often. Their workbook of the same title seems overpriced and doesn't have as much practical information as the book I'll mention below. It is pretty new, however, and I suspect it will improve with further revisions. Reasonable purchase if you have unlimited resources.


The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook by McKay, Wood and Brantley. My understanding is that it was initially developed for people with borderline personality disorder, however, the program has many other applications. It is inexpensive and has many exercises/examples of how to cope with and distract from 'overwhelming experiences' (substitute pain here).

Safety of "pain exposure physical therapy" in CRPS Type I, PAIN 152 (2011) 1431–1438. Demonstrates the safety and improvement in pain that people can have with PT, although some people did flare early on. Personally, I did not taper off my meds while increasing my PT (I never stopped my PT after my injury), and would certainly use a good PT to help develop your program.**