Hi, everyone!

I am new to this forum, so hope I don't mess up trying to send my message...

I am 66, married with 3 children and 5 granddaughters. I now live in Ocala, FL, after growing up and living in the Washington, D. C. area for most of my life.

I am new to CRPS. Let me say right away that I feel very fortunate that I have a very, very mild case after reading some of your postings.

I had thumb joint replacement surgery 7/31/12 on my left hand. I started with hand therapy 2 days after surgery. After a month, both of the hand therapists I had seen suspected I had CRPS and started me doing the exercises that would help treat it. One of them called my surgeon and moved my appointment with him up a whole week so he could see my hand and confirm their suspicions of CRPS.

My surgeon started me on Gabapentin (Neurontin) and increased the dose very slowly to 300 mg 3xday, which I understand is pretty much a normal dose. I had a very shiney hand that would sweat with any exercise, even my individual fingers, which was really weird. The pain and swelling I was having were more than I should have been having from this surgery, which I had just had 7 months earlier on my right hand. My hand was usually very hot and a mottled red. I had sensitivity around the scar and on my forearm near my wrist. Those were pretty much all the symptoms I had. Oh, yes. I did have some weird hair growth on both forearms with dark hair growing wildly. It isn't that noticeable, so short of shaving my forearms and hoping the hair grows in normally, I don't know what to do about that. I also had 3-4 hairs on the outside part of my left eyebrow that grew straight up towards my hairline and were very coarse. I yanked those suckers out as soon as I noticed them!

Now, 7 1/2 months later, the only symptoms that are left of the CRPS are a shiney and waxey looking left hand with minor sensitivity around my wrist, and sometimes my hand will get very hot or very cold. Also, those same symptoms have now spread to my right hand. My surgeon told me the best treatment is to use my hands as much as possible, which I am doing.

I also notice that since my last surgery, my face will suddenly get very hot (it feels like a high fever coming on) and my cheeks turn bright red. Looks like I've been out in the hot Florida sun, but I haven't. This will last for a few hours and then goes away. Does anyone else experience anything like this?

I'm hoping my surgeon will transfer me to another doctor closer to my home at my next visit to him. My pain management doctor would probably be best.

I learned here that you never really ever get rid of CRPS once you have it. I'm wondering if any of you have had it spread to another part of your body? I have severe arthritis in my left knee which I've been successfully getting shots for, and a really bad back which I have had 3 epidurals and 2 shots in the facet joints over the last 10 months. I'm going to have Radiofrequency Lesioning in my back in 6 weeks, so I just have to get through that time the best I can using what coping skills I have learned. I do wonder, and I have asked my pain management doc, if the nerve pain I'm experiencing caused by my back could be from CRPS. He says no, but I know that not a whole lot is known about CRPS, so while I do trust my doctor, I just keep wondering.

I also have something called Interstitial Cystitis, which is a bladder disorder where the nerves between my bladder and my brain are not communicating correctly. I started taking Gabapentin just in time to keep me from having to have an Interstim device (like a pacemaker for your bladder) surgically implanted in my back.

Sorry this was so long! It's just so nice to have a place where I can kind of unload some of my worries and pick your brains about how to handle some of my problems/worries.

Thanks for listening.

Janet