Originally Posted by catra121

So...flare up generally means an increase in pain. Like...my pain level baseline is 8/10 but when the weather gets cold, someone bumps me, or anything else that triggers an increase in my pain beyond the baseline normal for me...that would be a flare up. For me in particular...i have 3 kinds of pain generally in my CRPS areas. The first is the intense 24/7 burning pain from within that feels like it's radiating out. The second is the hyper sensitivity where when things touch me it feels like a hot poker or blow torch is being dragged across my skin from the top. The third I only experience in flare ups and it is a severe bone crushing pain that feels like someone is grinding my bones down to dust. Everyone who has CRPS can have different sensations of pain and may describe them differently so a flare up for me might look or feel different than a flare up for someone else. A few other things are different like I used to have extreme coldness in my CRPS areas all the time but now that extreme temp change only happens in flare ups (there's always a slight difference in temp that Drs have noted but that extreme difference is just during flare ups). So after the tDCS treatment I experienced fewer flares and they were shorter in duration.

If you look onto SCS...definitely ask about the DRG. It's newer and so far shows to be much more effective in treating CRPS especially over time with most patients getting 50-80% relief. Would be worth looking into and asking about. I personally was not interested in a traditional SCS but when the DRG cane out I was much happier with the results I was hearing from people. But I really stress doing the research and deciding for yourself what treatments are worth the risk...because there is always risk with any treatment...particularly invasive ones like SCS and you should go in with eyes open about the good and the bad. Most Drs will just talk about the good and try to minimize risks...but we are the ones who have to live with them.

I was also hurt on the job...so I understand the whole WC circus though the laws are different in each state. Good luck with everything and let me know if you have any other questions.