Hello and Welcome Joe,

I am so sorry you had to come join us and for what you are going through with your foot. It is very difficult in the beginning dealing with the pain, losses and questions. We all understand and give each other tips and support for getting through.

There is a lot of doom and gloom on the web about this disease. Try not to focus on that and hold on to hope. 80% of people improve over time according to CRPS bigwig Dr. Michael Stanton-Hicks of Cleveland Clinic. Outcomes are variable and there's no reason to start believing yours will be the worst. A positive outlook and keeping your stress down as much as possible WILL help you.

I am no stranger to foot surgery, having had 3 of them in a year's time before getting CRPS. I spent 9 months on crutches, a year on a scooter and used walkers and canes as well. I had to re-learn how to walk in the pool. It'd been so long my gait was a mess. The upside is that I walk two miles a day routinely now and am pretty comfortable while doing so. It took a lot of gradual, gentle work to get there and quite a few attempts at different treatments. Ketamine infusions and numerous injections of steroid to my surgical field to reduce scarring helped. For the record, my pain is much better than a year ago.
Don't give up on treatments, it can take a while to find what works for you.

If you haven't already, one of the most important things is ruling out nerve injury, neuroma or entrapment from your surgery. Nerve entrapment acts a lot like CRPS and is excruciating. It can be difficult to find and doesn't show up well on MRI or even necessarily show on nerve conduction studies. A peripheral nerve, plastic surgeon can do a "Scratch Collapse Test" to rule this out. Also a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation doctor who does a lot of ultrasound guided injections can look at the nerves of your foot and see if there is scar tethering and potentially treat it without surgery. I personally had tons of relief this way.

Keep up the PT/OT even if it feels you aren't getting anywhere. You are staving off more loss. Gains often come very slowly with this illness but they do come. Get therapy for depression and pain if you need to. Many of us have found this invaluable. Get in a pool to work your legs as much as possible. Try to find the balance of working things regularly without causing flare. Give yourself time, you had a lot of surgery and probably still have swelling. Nerves don't take well to any pressure. You may get more relief as you get further out from your procedure.

If you are going to need to apply for disability go ahead and start that soon. It takes a while to do and often requires appeal and whatnot.

Here are some links you may find helpful.

Nerve injuries....
http://nerve.wustl.edu

loads of information from caring non-doomsday CRPS specialist...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3LKhOZ8mAM

Hang in there and come tells us how you are doing. I hope you find relief soon.

Sending hugs and prayers for healing,