Hi Ada,

I am so sorry that you are having such a rough time. What really helps me is flipping frames when I start to feel the quality of my life is not worth it. The first thing I consider is my 42 year old neighbor who is dying of cancer and has two children under the age of eight years old. She would gladly change places with me.

The next thing I do is to stop negative thoughts from winding up negative feelings. For instance, sometimes I feel anger and sadness because at age 57 I was teaching classical dance five days a week, could do thirty pirouettes in a row and not be the least bit dizzy, and could physically do what most 25 year old women could not do. Now at age 59 I am lucky to be able to walk a block, have falling attacks, limited range of motion, lack coordination, have memory and word finding problems, have severe cognitive problems and have pain 24/7. I immediately replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. I list things I am grateful for. I find something to give me immediate pleasure, even something as small as gazing out at the spring daffodils in full bloom.

Instead of thinking how many more birthdays I will have to live like this I think of those who are much worse off than I am. I think about how my dying neighbor will be gone by next spring. Then I do something for someone else instead of focusing on me. Even though I can't sit at a sewing machine for more than 10 minutes I make stylish chemo caps for women with breast cancer.

Another strategy I use is to limit the amount of time I spend speaking about my pain and problems in a negative way and replacing that with action. For example, instead of ruminating about how I can't go out in public because I fear falling or someone bumping into me causing an extreme pain flare I decided to get a service dog. When the wait was at least three years and the cost was prohibitive I decided to train my own service dog with the help of a trainer.

Yesterday I found myself dissolving into tears and immediately yelled out "STOP". The tears stopped and I immediately turned the corner and put myself in a better place.

We really have no control over what is happening to our bodies with CRPS. The only thing we do have some control over is our reaction to it.

When someone comments that I am looking well I thank them because given this illness I could very easily not only look unwell but be in bed.

I would love to know what things make you feel grateful. It might give me a few more things to add to my list!

Hope this helps!!

Wishing you a positive day and manageable pain levels!

Teri