I don't have swelling and only have redness occasionally when I'm cold. However, I have all of the other characteristic symptoms. I've had CRPS II for three years, and knew after 1 year that I had it. However, my first 3 neurologists (older, and not experienced with many CRPS patients) wouldn't diagnose me with CRPS because they had never seen patients without swelling. The second one didn't believe that it had spread from my right arm to the rest of my upper right body, because he had not seen that before. He retired, and #3 had seen neuropathy patients with upper arm, neck, and facial symptoms, but was skeptical when it spread to my right leg after 2 years because he had never seen that before. They all just said I had a generic peripheral neuropathy, with other symptoms that they weren't sure were related. It's SOOOO frustrating when you know your docs are skeptical about your symptoms. I'm very fortunate that my nerve conduction studies early on clearly showed that the venipuncture injury had resulted in damage to my radial nerve. They did give me appropriate drugs, however, which helped until about 8 months ago when the symptoms worsened.

THEN, I finally paid out of pocket (outside my HMO) to see a CRPS guy at a university pain clinic. Best money I ever spent!! He said that I have characteristic CRPS II symptoms (from venipuncture injury to sensory branch of my radial nerver). He added another med, which has helped significantly, and I started seeing my psychologist again. He handles a lot of pain patients, and gave me additional ideas for meditation stuff and other coping strategies, which help. He's also a great listener.

So, I finally have the correct diagnosis. One journal article says that CRPS on average see 4.8 physicians before they get a correct diagnosis. In my experience, docs are skeptical of things they personally haven't seen before.

There's a good journal article out there published by a guy who is proposing that there is a large subset of CRPS patients without significant swelling or redness. It's Bruehl et al, 2005, Pain 95:119-124. Unfortunately the PDF is on my computer at work.

So hang in there and ignore your OT (actually, get a different one if you can).

Good luck!