Hi everyone - it's Alison's mom here,
Thought I'd let you know how we went on with the new Pain Doctor
We were really lucky yesterday - the person in front of us was a no-show so we had nearly 2 hours with the staff
They ran through the whole of Ali's history to date and treatments so far and explained a little more about what CRPS is and why certain treatments can be useful.
They basically reitterated that Ali's best chance of recovery lies with an intensive PT course but took on board our concerns with the way in which physio has been handled so far and also the lack of input from Psycholgists with regard to "Coping" skills.
Dr Howard (Alison's new PM doctor) will be making an appointment for Ali to undergo a full assessment by the hospitals physiotherapy (PT) team who specialise in CRPS - just as soon as she has recovered from the toenail removal (Dr Howard has warned us that this will quite likely cause an increase in pain for a number of days, given the reaction of Alisons leg to the nerve block)
Following on from that Ali will more than likely be invited to take part in one of their (minimum) two week PT courses or alernatively a course will be tailored for us at our local hospital (though this is unlikely as they do not have the facilities to provide 14 days of intensive treatment)
Although no-one can promise this will be a cure, Dr Howard is confident that it may prove to be a turning point in seeing some improvement in mobility etc
We both came away feeling much more positive about the future
Love
Andrea