Ajivliscat, Hello and Welcome to Neurotalk.

Your English is excellent!

I am so sorry for your injury and pain. You have found a great place for sharing and support here. We all know how scary it is getting this diagnosis but you are not alone. We are here for you.

There is hope, do not let go of it even when you are discouraged. The good news is that 80% of people with CRPS improve over time according to a highly regarded researcher and specialist from Cleveland Clinic. I believe you will have access to good treatment there in Germany. Two big researchers, Dr. F Blaes and Dr. A Goebel are there and you have access to things like ketamine, neridronate and LDN. It can take some time to find out what works best for YOU.

Of course we cannot say if you have CRPS or not but what you describe does sound a lot like it. I never had constant pain either and because of that it took longer for me to get diagnosed. Even pain doctors got confused because my color change and stinging/burning pain would go away when I elevated my leg. CRPS is a spectrum and has a variety of presentations. I would take the fact that your pain is not constant as possibly giving you a better outcome. Managing the pain is important for holding off potential brain changes in pain interpretation. So not having it all the time is really good.

Improving your strength and flexibility are very important but you must be careful and approach rehab gently. You want to keep using your leg but without causing your pain to be worse. You want to quiet down your pain and inflammation. You will make improvements, they just often come slowly. So you need to be stubborn about your recovery and just keep working at it little by little.

I agree with Bio on the swimming pool. It is a great place to do rehab. It will help many things and address some imbalances you may be getting from favoring your injured leg. Your back pain may be coming from an imbalance in the way you use your leg. A lot of us get sore from that. If I could easily get to Bad Kreuznach I would go there myself and get some physio and relax.

Please come let us know how you are doing. It does get easier and there is much in life to enjoy even with CRPS. It will help when your condition is managed. And as you can see, we even have a member who had a baby girl not too long ago.

Sending thoughts of healing and comfort,


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