Quote:
Originally Posted by vivs001
Hi, I am new and have learned a lot already from reading through old posts. I wanted to introduce myself and also maybe get some opinions whether I even belong here... ?
I was recently diagnosed with possible CRPS by a podiatrist and referred to a pain management doc to confirm the diagnosis. I have to wait 2 weeks for the appointment and I am going nuts researching this condition in the meantime...
It started after a foot sprain in October. It seemed to get better for about a month but never fully recovered. Xray and MRI were normal. An orthopedist put me in a cam boot in November, and that made my pain worse. Shoes that I had previously been able to wear now felt uncomfortably tight and painful. The pain was mostly when weight-bearing, annoying but not unbearable pain, still able to walk with careful choice of footwear, and not a burning pain. Aching or sometimes sharp pain if I put weight on just the wrong part of my foot.
Then I noticed the color and temperature changes in mid-December. My affected foot gets cold to the touch and purple/blue-ish in the evenings. It is bright pink when I wake up the next morning. The temperature never feels warm or hot. It varies from normal temperature to cold, and it will ache and feel stiff when it gets cold. The podiatrist saw the color change and felt the cold when he saw me, and that's why he diagnosed possbile CRPS. He also gave me a cortisone injection, and that has helped with the pain but not the color/temperature weirdness.
It is about 3 months from the initial injury. If this is CRPS, shouldn't it be warm/hot at this stage? Am I already in the chronic (cold) phase? Are there other conditions to rule out? I made a neurology appointment as well, but the wait time is a whole month for that! I know people can't diagnose me on a message board, but maybe you will have some thoughts that would lead me in the right direction. It's very hard to sit here and wait for appointments when I read about how treatment works best within 3 months. I may already have missed that window  |
I, too, was diagnosed three months ago. In addition to the x-ray and MRI, I had a bone scan which seemed to confirm the diagnosis. I have already had two spinal injections and am awaiting the third. Sometimes my foot is cold, other times warm. In the morning it almost looks like the other but quite quickly it swells and turns pink but no longer gets bluish-purple. I have purchased a pair of New Balance shoes that are two sizes longer and four sizes wider to accommodate the swelling. I have approximately 4-6 hours a day where I can function reasonably normally, then I have to sit an elevate. More often than not it is stiff at night.
According to the NINDS, CRPS affects women more than men and tends to peak out at age 40; lucky me, I'm a 67-year old male! Go figure. Although the CRPS is affecting my left foot, it was either the spine surgery I had or the two infections I developed a week after surgery. Take your pick.
I was told by the hospital itself that, despite being a university hospital complete with a medical school, they have no one who regularly treats CRPS. I am under the care of my neurosurgeon who admitted that, in 30-odd years of practice, I am the only patient he has had to get CRPS, and the pain specialist. I am on Lyrica, which is an anti-convulsant but is also prescribed for neuropathy. You didn't mention anything other than a cortisone shot. Of the two shots I've had, one was anesthetic while the second was anesthetic and cortisone.
So perhaps those are the differences that perhaps you might investigate; a) a bone scan, b) a prescription for the neuropathy, c) the composition of future injections.
Wish you the best!