Hi Swimtime,

I think it's great the new PM is being thorough and ruling out the obvious. That so often gets overlooked.

The Budapest criteria allows for temperature or color difference "at one time" in the past in allowance for symptom/sign changes. There is so much variation case by case. Not everyone has allodynia. The TREND consortium that does a lot of the Euorpean research even states a certain percentage of CRPS patients have autonomic symptoms in a limb without pain (lucky them!)

I wouldn't worry too much about the diagnosis. It's great that he's not florid enough for this doc to consider it a no brainer. The treatment for CRPS and neuropathic pain are going to be quite similar. Even ketamine infusions are given for neuropathic pain.

The improvement in temp is tangible progress. It is not delusional to see this as hopeful. Getting in the pool and starting more exercise is going to help a LOT. Purple to me says stagnant blood sitting around not doing its job. If light compression is tolerable give it a try again. The more oxygen that gets to the tissue the better.

Thanks for checking in. I understand it can get disheartening reading the stories here. Just remember that this is the place where people come when symptoms are severe, when they are just diagnosed or are the percentage of patients who don't have improvement. The majority are going to improve over time. It just always take more time than anybody wants. Hang in there, this rodeo ain't over yet. Of course you two can do this!

Loads of hugs are coming your way. Tell the boy he still rocks and my bet is on him.