After being at the hospital on Wednesday and seeing a really good GP the burning pains in my back, legs, butt, shoulders, stomache,etc. all seemed to be getting less and less painful. My PT GRABBED my bad ankle and it HURT but not like I couldn't handle it. I don't know if I was just learning to manage really well or just that out of it, because I was out of it. So, yesterday and I was doing pretty good for most of the day. My original injury foot hurt but I was walking quite well and only my left wrist and back of hand was ultra sensitive and bad with burning. Today, however, everything seems to be slowly coming back to life - my back, shoulders, neck (which I forgot about until today), arms, wrists, hands, legs, etc. I have had a couple of incidents with nerve shocks in my face and top of my head. I think my nerves are just out of wack and it may not be RSD outside of my lower left leg. I am not committing myself to that diagnosis until I can see a doctor that says something. I did see a really great doctor at the hospital on Wednesday and he said that what I am experiencing in the rest of my body is definately related to my original injury but simply said he doesn't know why the rest of my nerves had gone haywire and are misfiring. Neurologist appointment is Nov 20th. Looking forward to that.

I do have a question though. What is the typical structure/pattern for someone with CRPS/RSD for treatment? I am curious because I am expected to do PT, just the same as someone with an ankle injury (I know because there are other people there that have the exact same program as me) and even more because I don't appear 'that bad off' as others they have treated. Plus I am having a struggle with them to acknowledge working with the other areas of my body that are in pain, namely my arms/wrists/shoulders/back. I have to do exercises that require me to grab and hold my ankles, which hurts both my wrists and ankles. Also lay down on a matt, which bothers my back. I feel FUBARED! They just say that the only way I am going to get rid of RSD is to grab those areas and make them uncomfortable, make them do what they don't want to do, or give them the pain they don't want to feel. She said "the only way to deal with CRPS is to give it what it doesn't want and that is touch and pressure and cold and whatever it takes to make your brain understand that what you are feeling is not actually pain". I am FREAKED OUT by this woman. Okay, I agree to some extent but being brutal at unexpected times, like when checking my knee to see if there is any swelling or movement issues, GRABBING my ankle. Oh, and telling me that she is really impressed with my ability to manage this pain, I was TOTALLY out of it because of the drugs from the hospital combined with my meds, that I am progressing so well in such a short period of time ------Okay, First. I never had the pain like I have had since I started here, I never had my entire body flairup like that before PT. Second, I was totally drugged up. Third, my sensitivity is strange because in the various areas of my body it comes and goes, plus it has mostly been with pressure to my nerve lines. URGH! She doesn't know what she is talking about because she hasn't actually taken the time to LISTEN to what I have told her. She has spent more time telling me that the symptoms I have are not normal to CRPS and that maybe I didn't really have an ankle sprain because I didn't start to swell until 2 weeks later and it was mild. I only actually started to get sporatic swelling in the last week or two. Oh, and she said CRPS Can't spread. It is REGIONAL only! UGH! I really hope I can get into this other place. I don't want to have to stay at this place. The only meds I have taken for treatment are those listed in my previous posting.

Anyway, back to the original question. What is the normal or experienced treatment plan for those with CRPS in its milder form or early stages?

PS. Thanks for listening and I am really sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. To better days. J