Hello all. Thank God I found this site. My husband of 24 years developed CRPS II (causalgia) after a total left hip replacement in 2006. Immediately after the surgery, while still in the recovery room, he was complaining of his left foot hurting and asking me to be careful walking near his foot (he was afraid I was going to bump into it). I was totally confused because he had surgery on his hip, not his foot, and he was still numb from the spinal. It was like his brain knew what his body didn't yet know. As soon as the spinal wore off he was in agony!!!! He was screaming for me to help him he was in so much pain IN HIS FOOT. I never imagined that after a hip replacement his pain would be in his foot. He couldn't move his foot and had a foot drop. At first we thought he couldn't move his foot because of the lack of mobility in the new hip. We were just clueless, scared and so confused. The day after his surgery, I was getting off the elevator on his floor and could hear him screaming all the way from elevator. I was terrified for him. He kept complaining of his foot burning.

They did minimal physical therapy on the hip, with him dragging his foot, and sent him home 4 days later. The surgeon came in one day and told my husband that he probably had a stretch injury to his nerve and that 90% of people recover. My husband said "what about the other 10%" and he said "they never recover." He basically blew us off and was like you'll be up and about in no time.

When I got him home I swear he suffered a mental breakdown from the pain. He started hallucinating I think from the combination of oxycodone, oxycotton, backlifen, and whatever else they had him on and the constant pain. He couldn't get comfortable. The bedsheet touching his heel and wrinkles in the sheet drove him crazy because it caused such intense pain. I couldn't put any bed covers over him because he couldn't stand the touch and a breeze coming in the window was terrible. I could only stand him up out of a hospital bed once a day to wash him and get him straight back in bed.

Finally we got him to a neurologist who sent him to a Pain Clinic. The doc told us he thought it was RSD/causalgia and did two sympathetic blocks on him but they offered him no relief. The doc said it couldn't be RSD because he didn't respond to the blocks. But when I took him back a year later he again referred to my husband's condition as causalgia. This doctor then recommended a spinal stimulator to help reduce his pain but my husband is so afraid of another doctor performing a surgery on him that he's not yet willing to do this. Every month he has to go to his primary care physician for a refill on his pain meds (recommended by the Pain Clinic) and they act like he's a drug addict. He takes oramorph, lyrica, vicodin, celexa daily. He has a lot of trouble sleeping at night. He continues to try and do things around the house but what used to take him a short time now takes him days. He said he has not been pain free in 2 years -- it's been completely constant. The burning is not so bad now but it is more dull, searing and stabbing pain. Before he was diagnosed they put him through an EMG which about put him through the ceiling and they documented they couldn't continue with the procedure but it showed that he does have nerve damage. I had to quit my 25 year job to cash in my pension because he had no disability and work elsewhere. It has just about ruined our lives. We no longer sleep together because of the pain he's in, the intimate part of our marriage is nearly gone. I feel so bad for my husband.

Interestingly enough, my daughter also had to have a lymph node removed this past week in her armpit and while in the hospital the lady in the next bed told us she also had causalgia and she recommended her neurosurgeon to my husband. She just had the spinal stimulator implanted. Can anyone tell me if they are effective? What is the recovery time for an implant?