Hi Nikki,
I am glad our paths cross on a significant positive. Many more good days to you.

Not everyone sits & cogitates their own theories, (sorry Vicc) but even if you are right there will be a time factor like the timeliness of RSD treatments if there is such a beast. I read to see if I can support or help you folks as well as myself _ I have a really strong personal motivation to find ways around this rotten thing.

Nikki, It is just wonderful that you have found a doctor with such an attitude - that is a big part of the battle. It really does help. I am so happy for you & hope like crazy that you make significant gains.

Amber is right - I had a long trip & a long appointment today - it is now 1.16 am and I am still awake from the pain but I collapsed for the afternoon.

Relief from some symptoms is possible in a team environment & let's face it, every plus helps make your quality of life better & that is what I hope for you.

The researchers are taking us seriously. I have pulled several articles from Science Direct/Elsevier & have been applying it in the field for 20+ years. Regrettably I can't relay them - they are quite bogged down in the microbiology and biochemistry of the nervous system & they are exclusive for the bod who buys them.

Nikki, just be wary of the fact that a doc is not a god but they are a paid consultant working for you and as Vicc said no-one has the answer YET but it is getting closer & your personal outlook can be improved with the right doctor & team working together.
Mate, don't lose hope & assume its lost......I believe snippetts of the real picture are around the corner - perhaps closer than many might think.

I apologise for this statement but make it with sound reason.
I continue to read the full articles (consider it on behalf of everyone here) & have learned the systems approach to the mammalian system through formal training which has been applied for many years. I am not new to finding meaningful data & processes to apply in technical fields that has been conducted using legit experimental method.

Nikki, I so wish you a better outlook - working in a team in a close environment like this might get you somewhere & you always have the guys here to run it by. There are some pretty clever bods here with a tremendous understanding of anatomy, physiology & biochemistry and as a rule we are on your side.....hoping, praying (if that is how you work) and researching the genuine science to find some relief.

Ignore the negative comments, they are simply just NOT what any of us need.

I have recently found & purchased some very encouraging articles on the role of Mast cells, T cells & inflammatory responses as well as "Psychoneuroendochrine stress response may impair neutrophil function in CRPS" Kaufman et al, "Evidence of small-fiber axonal degeneration in complex regional pain syndrome - 1" Oaklander et al; "Increased seroprevalence of parvovirus B 19 IgG in Complex regional pain syndrome with antiendothelial autoimmunity" Oliver et al. "Peripherally -triggered CRPS and dystonia" G.D. Schott.

Seriously, these guys are trying to help us, its just that nerves in-vivo are so hard to study. It is only in the last 20 years that we have had the technology to contrast each kind like afferent and efferent neurones in living tissue & study them with adequate contrasting electron-microscopy without killing them off & this is still limited. Even tho' Silas Weir Mitchell identifieid it so long ago the technology just has not been available to study nerves - the best nerves we could study were those of deceased giant squid - great relationship the the human autonomic system in its higher order of operation. They are gradually focusing in on the whys' now the how to's will start to trickle through. That is how reductionist science works & it is the only way it can with our current level of technology.

It is just possible that each kind of nerve is attacking or neatralising its own signal & physically, with the aid of killer T cells knocking one another off - a team of heavies coming to you OH WOW!!!! How would we all feel if they arrested that?

Guys, unfortunately I cannot publish these articles in a public forum - I buy them under the condition that I am a guest to the site & if I replicate them I will blow my access to these simply wonderful assetts and then none of us get to use these wonderful works. Don't think I have money - I go without other things to learn about this hideous disease we have - my life is worth it.
I, too live on what we call in Australia, the Statutory Rate which is below the poverty line in this country so I too sit & wait for Insurance Co approval before I can get anything done.

Vicc - I am NOT having a go at you....that is how I research & we must accept that we use different methods. Through employment until this RSD thing grabbed me I researched and applied hypotheses and was very adept at applying data in real ways - my jobs were to make them work if they had the merit to get up and go.

Nikki, I hope I haven't stolen your thread but I fealt I had to qualify some of the things I said given some of the things that have been said here in response to your post and here in the past.

I just hope you make some wonderfully quality of life giving gains - the bigger the better from a coordinated team of medical heavy-weights pulling together.
Sorry about the spelling it has been a REALLY big day out.

Genuine hugs and success to you Nikki
Auberon