Hello everyone!

I'm a 22-year-old third-year student at UC Merced, recently diagnosed with RSD. My pain started about four years ago in my right wrist from overuse syndrome. After enough time had passed for me to get decent at writing with my left hand, it spread to that wrist too. In both arms, I have overuse syndrome, tendinitis, de Quervain's syndrome, carpal tunnel, and cubital tunnel. I saw an orthopedist today and got a cortisone injection in my right wrist's tendon sheath, and was referred to an orthopedic therapist.

Nucynta and Lidoderm are my current pain medications, with Mobic to help with inflammation.

I'm here to learn anything I can in the realm of coping skills!

My names is Sarah and I'm 37 yo and live in Boise, Idaho. I have been Dx'd with CRPS as of July 2014.

I've had numerous issues with my right shoulder (frozen shoulder, bursitis, labral partial tear, osteoarthritis, and tendinitis) and my right hip (bursitis and osteoarthritis) throughout my life.

It started with a right shoulder injury in August of 2013. The injury was my fault and happened at home. I tried to pick up an old school TV off the ground a few inches and I felt something tear, then was in extreme pain. Over the course of four months, I saw 4 orthopedic doc's, had 4 MRI's, 2 CT's, 1 arthroscopy, PT 3 days a week, 4 injections and a partridge in a pear tree. None of the docs I saw knew what they were dealing with, except for the fact that it was getting worse (spread to my neck, all of right arm, left upper arm, and upper right hip) and they couldn't stop it. I was referred to a PM doc in December 2013 and she did am EMG (showed normal) and put me on narcotic pain killers. I went another 6 months of just seeing her instead of any further orthos, and had trigger point injections and FDM treatment done. FDM=Fascial Distortion Model includes manipulating bones and joints using pressure and ultrasound guided injections. The most time I had any kind of relief was a month, and even then, it wasn't complete pain relief. In July of 2014, my doc suggested I see an ortho surgeon for exploratory surgery to find out what was going on. I found Dr. Waters' name online and saw him within a week. Within 5 minutes of talking with him over what had happened he said "I am 99% sure I know what you have. I believe you have RSD. We're going to get a bone scan to see how your density looks, but your symptoms are pretty clear that it's RSD." Once I got home, I researched RSD and got myself familiar on what to expect. My bone scan showed osteoarthritis in my right shoulder, right hip, ribs, sternum, and left and right fingers. Wow! I'm 37! I also finally had the diagnosis I was looking for over the past 11 months. Told my pain doc and she started me out on Gaba. To make a longer story short I've been on countless meds, am now in pool therapy, and am trying to find a new pain doc. I'm at the point that I realize I'll have to move to a better area to find one and I'm okay with that. I'm also on Medicaid, which doesn't help me, and I'm limited to doctors and treatments.

I've worked a lot of construction, customer service, medical admin, collections and now I chose to spend 20k to go to school for medical assisting.

I was in my last month of school (14 mo program) and about 2 weeks into my externship when all this came around. Due to my CRPS, I couldn't finish my extern and was immediately kicked out of school.

I can't work, let alone barely get out of bed. My mom had to move from 400 miles away to help take care of me and my ex-husband (he's actually my best friend) is helping me with our 12 year old son.

I've applied, myself, for SSI and was denied, then got a lawyer for the appeal. The appeal was denied, much to my lawyer's surprise, and now I'm waiting to schedule with a judge (which they told me was at least a year out).

My current list of meds include:

Lyrica 300mgs daily
Fentanyl 50mcgm patches every 3 days
OxyContin 15mgs 3-4 daily
Amitriptyline 10mgs 1-2 nightly
Effexor 150mgs every other day
Flexiril 10mgs 1-2 daily
Prilosec 40mgs daily

On top of my CRPS, I also have gastroparesis, esophageal motility disorder, and anxiety so 2 of my meds are for those issues.

I've been in the pool therapy for a week so it's too early to tell if it's working. And I'm in the market for a new pain doc, because mine is not helping me much anymore and we've had a falling out. My bf and I were considering a move to the Portland area in the summer but had opted not to when this had come up. Now I'm thinking it would be a better option because no one (except for that ortho surgeon) knows about CPRS around here or how to treat it.

I'm almost full body now, both arms-shoulder to fingertips, right leg-hip to toes, and left leg-knee to toes.

Sorry for the long post, but hoping to talk with others like me. **

Hi
I've been browsing this forum for a few weeks, and finally decided to post.

I was a runner (always have been an athlete--competitive swimming in high school, college, etc., but after having three kids, it's easier to find time to run) and injured my left hip. I tore my labrum (MRI three years ago) but the orthopedic encouraged me to try PT and resting it instead of surgery. Fast forward to this past summer, and the hip pain got bad enough to make me stop running and start riding my bike (indoor trainer) instead. I had another MRI and it showed a bigger tear in the labrum, tendonitis, and bursitis. The ortho said it was time to surgically repair everything. He's the only board certified arthroscopic hip surgeon for about a 200 mile area.

On november 13th (this year) I had hip surgery. The surgeon repaired the labrum, shaved a bunch of bone, and cut my hip flexor (iliopsoas). Everything went very well and I did everything I was told to do in the recovery. About 7 days after the hip surgery, I touched my left foot to the ground and was met with pins and needles sensation. The next day I called my doctor who said it was probably from the traction machine and he'd see me in two more days. Over those next two days, my foot started getting cold to the touch and it turned purple. When I saw the doctor, he immediately sent me to the ER for vascular studies to rule out blood clot (everything was normal). He then referred me to a neurosurgery group and I saw a pain management specialist five days later. The pain dr diagnosed me with CRPS right away. He said I met every single symptom. The pain was constant by this time and it felt like electrical shocks to my foot all the time. I can't tolerate pain medication, but was able to take valium to sleep for about 4 hours. It was awful!

Since I was (and am) still recovering from the hip surgery, crutches were the only way to get around.

The pain dr put me on a 7 day course of methylprednisolone, gabapentin, and told me to continue the naproxen (from hip surgery) and valium at bedtime. He tried two nerve blocks, but they didn't help. I'm still taking gabapentin and sometimes the naproxen. The gabapentin has helped calm down the electrical shock type of shooting pain.

I've been doing Physical Therapy for both the hip and the foot, but one random thing that has allowed me to put some pressure on my foot so I can get a break from the crutches, is taking a hot bath at night before I go to sleep. My foot feels okay in the bath, but when I get out, it starts swelling and doing the stabbing pains. When I wake up, I'm able to put enough pressure on it in order to hobble around without crutches. That's a huge relief! The crutches are driving me crazy. I have a walker and a roll about knee scooter thing, but both of those are really hard in my tiny house. At least I can maneuver more easily with crutches.

On top of all this, we have three very medically involved kids and a small farm. It's been incredibly hard adjusting to a sedentary day. I'm used to being up and moving, lifting heavy things, running every single day, lifting weights at the gym, homeschooling the kids, taking care of all the house stuff, etc. My kids are young, but they've been very helpful.

Looking forward to being part of this site
Mariah

Welcome Mlhps.