[hope4thebest]

My feet and lower legs started to burn tonight as I remembered a difficult time:
My sister was very ill in November of 2007 just before my foot surgery was scheduled 2 years after my injury. I postponed the surgery and traveled by train to Colorado to be with her..she had been in intensive care for weeks...She was my beloved sister and best friend..she was on life support and very, very ill, in and out of a coma. I broke down emotionally several times while I was there..

(There were other emotionally painful circumstances and conflict around her illness which were very upsetting...)

I had to leave, which was devastating to me, and come back to my job. Two weeks later I got the phone call that she had passed away. I grieved painfully and for a long time.

I had my foot surgery at the end of February of 2008 which resulted in the RSD.

I've had low pain days for several days in my feet/lower legs, but tonight when I was looking through some lines I had written while in Colorado during that very difficult time, and some some little papers, etc, I had kept from Colorado, and some old photos of my sister and me, my feet and lower legs started to burn and ache, which they haven't done in two or three weeks. It was instantaneous right at the same time as all the memories flooded back to me.

Was this my sympathetic nervous system kicking in and causing this flare of burn? I felt the burn feeling creep over my feet and lower legs as I remembered this difficult time....

I am trying to understand the correlation and the physiology of this reaction...it is amazing..

As i write this at almost 2:00 am in the morning, I am still in a burn flare...

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this very obvious connection between difficult memories and pain/burn flare...
Thanks for being there to listen...who else would understand
Many hugs from Hope4thebest xoxo

[daniella]

I am sorry about the difficult memories. I have been thinking a lot lately about how I deal with pain and my life vs other people. I do feel for me that when my stress level or anxiety goes up I tend to deal less well with my pain. I guess it takes all my strength to focus on getting through the pain everyday. I feel also that when my anxiety goes up I am more tense,my sleep is worse and that all in turn impacts my pain. Have you seen this on a regular basis? Sometimes I know it is hard to know what causes flare up. A therapy I did and pre rsd I therapy for many years but with rsd I did biofeedback and it really helped me deal with anxiety and feelings. Sometimes writing too about my feelings helps and talking to others.Also I tend to like to numb out my cares and feelings rather then face them. I am not saying this is you but I am realizing now how important is to deal with things rather then distract or try to forget. I hope your flare settles down.

[dreambeliever128]

I do think stress makes matters worse with the pain, we tense up from it.

My Dr. ask me last week if I was stressed. He was thinking it might be causing my breathing problems. He knows I'm a worry wart and always stressed. I told him no more then usual but that's no less for me he said.

I was just wondering if a person could be stressed to and not be aware of it. Sounds wierd but it was just me thinking.

I am always worried about my family even if everything is going ok. Inherited that from Dad.

I have been taught the meditation but I believe if you are extremely stressed out then it's harder to make some of that work until your stress level comes down some on it's own.

I am sorry about your sister. I have lost 2 to cancer and a brother to cancer and have a brother dealing with colon cancer now. I always think when my sister calls me she's going to tell me what I know I will here soon. We just can't help worrying we we have relatives that are sick.

Hope you start feeling better soon.
Ada

[edever34]

The Sympathetic nervous system Definetly has controll of our emotions,and this CAN cause a flare. Just "google" Sympathetic nervous system and you will be amazed at all it controlls. Hope this helps. Fondly-Carol

[Wilbyfree]

Hi Hope4tbest, Yes, I totally empathise with emotional stress and the onset of pain and/or flare. Although, much better managed now, I too use to have horrible "flash backs", and could actually feel the impact, smell the airbags and hear the sounds of the sirens and would go into a complete panic attack, which then induced my pain. Sirens will still set me off and occasionally I wake up in the middle of the night for no reason and smell that awful smell. Stress has a major role in my pain. Even when one of the kids have a problem or call me upset I can go from a 2 to a 10 in seconds. Some of it I can control and some I can't. It does amaze me though that memories of stressful times actually creates physical pain. The mind is truly a powerful thing. I have learned many techniques on how to calm the mind and then the pain. But I do still have moments when my adrenalin is so obnoxious even those tools that I have learned don't work, I just have to ride it out. Best wishes to you, it must have been wonderful to have such an awesome sister. It sounds as though you did not have time to process the situation, time will heal some of that and hopefully the pain will turn into a smile and laughter. God Bless

Jeanie

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by hope4thebest

My feet and lower legs started to burn tonight as I remembered a difficult time:
My sister was very ill in November of 2007 just before my foot surgery was scheduled 2 years after my injury. I postponed the surgery and traveled by train to Colorado to be with her..she had been in intensive care for weeks...She was my beloved sister and best friend..she was on life support and very, very ill, in and out of a coma. I broke down emotionally several times while I was there..

(There were other emotionally painful circumstances and conflict around her illness which were very upsetting...)

I had to leave, which was devastating to me, and come back to my job. Two weeks later I got the phone call that she had passed away. I grieved painfully and for a long time.

I had my foot surgery at the end of February of 2008 which resulted in the RSD.

I've had low pain days for several days in my feet/lower legs, but tonight when I was looking through some lines I had written while in Colorado during that very difficult time, and some some little papers, etc, I had kept from Colorado, and some old photos of my sister and me, my feet and lower legs started to burn and ache, which they haven't done in two or three weeks. It was instantaneous right at the same time as all the memories flooded back to me.

Was this my sympathetic nervous system kicking in and causing this flare of burn? I felt the burn feeling creep over my feet and lower legs as I remembered this difficult time....

I am trying to understand the correlation and the physiology of this reaction...it is amazing..

As i write this at almost 2:00 am in the morning, I am still in a burn flare...

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this very obvious connection between difficult memories and pain/burn flare...
Thanks for being there to listen...who else would understand
Many hugs from Hope4thebest xoxo

Absolutely stress aggravates my CRPS pain! Occasionally I have to do some work things that are very stressfull and I simply must take an extra lorazepam or two to counteract the certain increase in pain, numbness and swelling of my arm. At the end of the day, if I do too much physically or emotionally, it will force a more timely SGB!

[fmichael]

Hi there H4tH -

Don't have it at hand right now, but these's good evidence that being under particular emotional stress at the time of your injury, is a strong predisposing factor for CRPS. Sure know that was true in my case.

Mike

[daniella]

Originally Posted by fmichael

Hi there H4tH -

Don't have it at hand right now, but these's good evidence that being under particular emotional stress at the time of your injury, is a strong predisposing factor for CRPS. Sure know that was true in my case.

Mike

Interesting cause someone brought this up to me about being more predisposed.
Dream for me I believe you can be stressed at times or depressed and not always know. Sometimes a person is used to living a certain way that it is their normal though in reality it is not. I hope I am making sense. I am a worry wort too. I always joke I should have a gray hair

[Lisa in Ohio]

Ironically enough that this post came up after I spent the day with my mother and some other women helping serve a funeral dinner for a church member. On the way home, after my mom had been riding my case all day with her lists of what i should do and how, she ask me if stress causes my RSD to flare. Funny how she does not realize that she is one of my biggest stressors!! Oh well, I love her a bunch anyhow. Just thought that this was maybe worth a giggle. Lisa

[bobinjeffmo]

During the exact time you were in intensive care with your beloved sister, our daughter (my wife's daughter and my step daughter of 25 years) at 39 years of age was in ICU after a blood clot hit her brain. One week later I took her off life support. My wife has never been the same since, and her health has spiraled downhill both physically and emotionally ever since to the point where she's just not the same person I married 27+ years ago. The two (damage to the mind and body) are totally interlinked there's no doubt about it.

I wish I could tell you that time heals all, but after watching my wife continue to erode, I just can't force myself to make this erroneous statement, but I can say it's only you who can decide how your situation will turn out in the end, because there will be no greater challenge in your whole life.

Two years earlier our daughter had placed me in charge on her medical durable (much to my surprise, but she knew the damage it would do to her mother so it showed her insight into her mother hence she didn't want her mother to live with the consequences of making that final decision that I was forced into making) and even now I assure you, the resulting emotional and physical consequences simply can't be fully quantified because of its magnitude.

First, don't face this alone. Get all the help you can at each and every level because there's damage going on in both the heart and body. Each require different types and level of care. Without the professional care of those who really know what they're doing, I'm worried you're only looking at more sadness. So long as you don't try and face it alone and you're willing to make the changes in your life so you can learn how to live with the loss, you can still learn in time how to make a bit better future for yourself, but I assure you, things will never be the same. Hence my cliché, "I stop competing with yesterday but instead just work with what I have today because that's about as good as it's going to get."

With my most sincere sympathy, Bob.

Originally Posted by hope4thebest

My feet and lower legs started to burn tonight as I remembered a difficult time:
My sister was very ill in November of 2007 just before my foot surgery was scheduled 2 years after my injury. I postponed the surgery and traveled by train to Colorado to be with her..she had been in intensive care for weeks...She was my beloved sister and best friend..she was on life support and very, very ill, in and out of a coma. I broke down emotionally several times while I was there..

(There were other emotionally painful circumstances and conflict around her illness which were very upsetting...)

I had to leave, which was devastating to me, and come back to my job. Two weeks later I got the phone call that she had passed away. I grieved painfully and for a long time.

I had my foot surgery at the end of February of 2008 which resulted in the RSD.

I've had low pain days for several days in my feet/lower legs, but tonight when I was looking through some lines I had written while in Colorado during that very difficult time, and some some little papers, etc, I had kept from Colorado, and some old photos of my sister and me, my feet and lower legs started to burn and ache, which they haven't done in two or three weeks. It was instantaneous right at the same time as all the memories flooded back to me.

Was this my sympathetic nervous system kicking in and causing this flare of burn? I felt the burn feeling creep over my feet and lower legs as I remembered this difficult time....

I am trying to understand the correlation and the physiology of this reaction...it is amazing..

As i write this at almost 2:00 am in the morning, I am still in a burn flare...

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this very obvious connection between difficult memories and pain/burn flare...
Thanks for being there to listen...who else would understand
Many hugs from Hope4thebest xoxo