Hi there! I'm writing to you today as the boyfriend of someone that has a diagnosis of RSD. Her diagnosis was given when she was 15. That was 12 years ago. Her pain is centralized to her right ankle/instep of her foot. She's had a few surgeries over the years...mostly exploratory and they didn't help. For the past 10 years or so, she has been forced to walk on crutches and uses a walking cast/boot to cushion her foot. Needless to say, she's sick of the crutches, not to mention the other damage that is being done to her body by not having full weight on that leg for 10 years. She now has arthritic pain in her hands and wrists due the crutches. She's been on about every pain killer and neuro drug that is usually thrown at RSD patients. Nothing helps. We live in NC, and she's been to the pain clinics at Duke and UNC, as well as a pain clinic in Asheville and Charlotte. For most of that time, she's been seeing a guy at UNC who pretty much isn't doing anything for her except filling her presciptions for pain killers and boots.

So that's the brief history. I've been dating her for about a year now and I see what she goes through day to day. After 10 years of this crap, I'm fairly confident that she is resigned to having this condition for the rest of her life. From what I've heard her tell me and from my own reading, it sounds like that's about all she can do. My question for this forum is...is there something else, something new that she can try? Anything that could get her off the crutches at least? She's going to have so many other complications from the crutches later in life due to bone loss and muscle issues. She's told me that if somebody would just cut off her foot she'd be happy to have a prosthetic. But, no doctor will do that. She has had an epidural to see if that electronic pain blocking thingy would work for her, but alas the test came back negative. Any other advice you guys can share would be great! Also, if anybody want to have a ton of right only shoes, I've got a great source for you. She wears size 7 1/2 to 8