Thanks LIT LOVE that was awesome and bluntly truthful. All of your comments mirror what I experienced over the years.

Just want to emphasize another relative opinion here. Especially because of the issues pointed out so succinctly above, we are ultimately our own experts. We have to be. It's our pain and our body - no one else's. No one can tell us how and what we feel.

Now, this is an absolutely frightening and lonely conclusion, but these experts are there for guidance while we make our own decisions about the actions we take. About who we are and who we want to be. They don't have all the answers. Not even close. Our family and friends, if we are lucky enough to have either, can and do also help us with our decisions. But it's still our choice no matter what - we're either choosing to go along with what experts say on faith, or doing our own work and deciding to to follow our own path, while fully considering everything the current experts have to offer. Some of us luck out and are able to find a great doctor/advocate early on. Many do not. Honestly, the current system is stacked against it. And the decision to do nothing is still a decision. The only real test subject that matters is you.

Everyone is here for any combination of these three reasons:

1) Support others emotionally.
2) Be supported by others emotionally.
3) Share and utilize the valuable information from our own individual experiences.

All are important but #3 is the key. Specialists and medical journals and CRPS informational sites and cutting edge research and double blind studies are also all great resources, but all of that information isn't what matters. It's how that information is filtered and applied by us that counts.

In my experience the typical CRPS "expert" is an expert in nerve blocks and other surgical procedures, and in the distribution of different types of pain/depression medication. Some have experience in ketamine and other more advanced protocols. You also may be referred out to other experts in counseling, psychiatry, and occupational/physical therapy. All of these modalities do have their place; I'm not saying the medical field is worthless. But the fundamental bottom line fact is that western medicine is primarily based on a model set up to address specific symptoms rather than the underlying health issues causing them. Pain is the symptom, and by far the most prevalent one of CRPS/RSD, but it is not the condition itself.

My advice: Keep an open mind, but trust nothing you haven't checked for yourself. I'm here for the 3 reasons above and want nothing more than all of this suffering to go back to the frickin' void it came from.

Sorry for the soapbox/rant, guys. Just want to help.