As with everyone else, I think we are all experimenting in little ways with our CRPS and what we can and can't do. I find that if I stop moving about, flexing, stretching, twitching my muscles etc, then the pain and redness and burning increase. On the other hand, some days the slightest movement causes such pain that I can't bear to do it again....so I rest and wait and try again later lol...

Once past the worst of the pre-diagnosis hell, and the why me pit of doom, I decided to take up the cello again. My CRPS spread from my knee to my whole left leg, and has started affecting my left arm, but I don't believe it has anything to do with the cello, and I continue to play. If I stop, I think things would get worse much quicker than if I play every day even just for five minutes I also play the piano and have done since I was a small child - it would be terrible to not be able to play, so I do some every day no matter how I feel, and it always soothes me a bit - my heart if not my body!

Besides which, music is fantastic for your state of mind, and doing something musical occupies your whole brain in a way which distracts it from a lot of the pain. I love it and I'm not going to let the CRPS steal it from me like it has my tennis and long walks and dancing and climbing and........

ANything is better than nothing, and we all know the pain will be there anyway. Keeping it under some kind of control is the tricky bit. I do think that pushing activity until your pain worsens is not a good thing - it must heighten your pain response systems and awaken the CRPS over-reaction to sensation. It's a vicious cycle.

I've been sitting for too long typing this and I can feel my knee is cold and my foot buzzy. Time to move and stretch again!!

Bram.