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Full Cast with CRPS
My wife has had CRPS in her leg for 8 years now and has learned to balance her lifestyle to match her abilities however she has a bad knee from a unique shape to her knee cap grove can make her knee cap dislocate easily and when her leg spasms it pulls the knee cap over to the side, but a knee brace has always for the most part kept it in place until a month ago. it dislocated once badly and now it has dislocated up to 13 times a day with only one day with out a dislocation. Every brace we have tried hasn't held in the patella back from dislocating and last night the hospital put her leg in a full leg cast toes to hip, at full extension, something i didn't know her leg could do without a lot of pt. it keeps the leg from dislocating but the burning is so bad, does anyone know of any tricks to help with cast?
Thanks Jon |
I am SO sorry she is going through this. I do not know of anything to help as immobilization is one of the worst things for CRPS. Sometimes it is unavoidable though. Did they give a timeline on how long she needs to have this on? Do they think the dislocating problem will be FIXED by the cast or is it just intended to be a bandaid for the problem until some other treatment is offered?
I would definitely see the doctor who treats her for the CRPS and make sure they are kept in the loop on anything that is being done for her knee. The doctors will need to work together to make sure they are giving your wife the care and support she needs through this. |
Jon,
I agree with Catra. A cast on someone who has CRPS is a major difficulty. I had a couple surgeries last year where the surgeon wanted to cast me. After considering my CRPS, we were able to convince him not to put the casts on. Well ... I take it back; I did have casts for 3 days each. I was on bed rest for a few days too. We used braces and wraps as much as possible. With my skin being so sensitive it was a godsend to be able to remove the wrappings/braces when resting. It took 6-8 weeks for my bones and ligaments/tendons/muscles to heal enough to be able to keep from bracing. I realize your wife's case is different than mine. She needs the cast to hold her knee cap in place. I just wonder if there might be some other option that could hold it in place due to her CRPS. Sending healing vibes her way ... |
Well shes been in the cast for a week now. The doctor is hoping that without the dislocating her knee can heal enough to stop dislocating. So that potentially focused physical therapy or knee surgery can fix it. Now we are just waiting for the doctor office visit to know more. Thanks everyone.
Jon |
Casting is always uncomfortable anyway, I can't imagine having one with CRPS in that limb... I hope your wife is beginning to feel better, and well done you for caring so much that you joined this forum and asked the question :) she is a lucky woman!
This has probably been tried or mentioned, but have her doctors or physios tried external taping to hold the kneecap more securely? I appreciate the tape itself might aggravate the CRPS skin sensitivity where it is placed, but it is definitely covers less skin than a full leg cast! I have arthritis under my kneecap, and I know physios use taping techniques to position the kneecap so that it sits in a better position in the femoral groove. I don't know if it can help the dislocation, but you never know. Good luck to you both. Bram. |
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