"Good news"...oh my. I've read some of your posts and I can see you've been through so much. You are an inspiration and a good role model.

I had a contusion on my shin after having a varicose vein removed from my right calf just over 2 mos. ago. I was put under general anesthesia for the surgery so I wonder what happened. Surgeon says "I have no idea..you were placed on your back, just like the 700 other procedures like this I've done, and your shin was never touched." I'll never know I guess. Something "touched" it to say the least. The surgical areas healed nicely but the shin/leg pain persists and is getting more severe and spreading up and down my leg (knee is now stiff).

I was referred to a pain management practice that's literally in the same building and under the same company as the surgeon's practice. 1st visit there I was told by a physician's assistant that I likely had rsd/crps just going off of the symptoms and answering her questions. So, the next week I had 3 lumbar sympathetic blocks. With all 3 of them, I experienced warmth and pain relief for several hours. They had me see a pain specialist physician who then informed me that since the blocks were "unsuccessful", I don't have rsd/crps. I don't want to have it...who does? But I read that unsuccessful LSBs don't mean that one doesn't have rsd/crps. My diagnosis is now simply "pain". Seriously. I have most of the common rsd/crps symptoms unfortunately. The pain is so bad and this pain specialist is taking me off of low dose narcotics all together. Neurontin and Lyrica both left me with horrid side effects and I can't take them. I'm just wondering if blocks that reveal that pain is sympathetically independent vs. sympathetically mediated are an automatic reason to rule out rsd/crps?

Thanks fmichael and to all of you.

My 2 sympathetic blocks were not successful either. 2 lsb's, 2 weeks apart. The first one did not give me any warmth. The 2nd gave me warmth but my pain actually increased. My initial PM felt I didn't have crps because of this but he referred me to his partner for a SCS. Sometimes I think it is best to change groups and get a broader picture. I had 3 specialists tell me I have crps and 1 (my initial PM) doubted it. Mine was finally confirmed with biopsy done by a much more experienced PM. My initial PM didn't have the breadth of experience to know that one can have sympathetic independent pain (SIP) AND crps. From what I understand SIP crps is a bit more difficult to get into remission. Good luck.

Thanks to all who are sharing their experiences. The more I read, the more scared I get. I also see there is no definitive test and have read (other places) that these blocks can actually make things worse. I don't know what we will do, as I don't want to put my daughter through unnecessary procedures. And the EMG? That sounds awful!

I did not go through the emg. didn't want to put myself through that. A neuro didn't say I had to either. I would not want to subject my child to that particuar test if I could help it. Sometimes I think a dx can be made without that test as it was for me. I wish your daughter all the best. ginnie

after 4yrs of this crap my epilepsy nuero made the dx. after going over all my sympthomes and saw my arms and touched them.

The EMG was by far the most painful test I had done. All the others were just eh...not that bad, especially not compared to actually HAVING CRPS.

First my orthopedic Dr. mentioned something like this, then my neurologist said to remember the name.they then got me a nuclear bone scan.. then 1.5 yrs later a tri. phase bone scan. they used both tests to compare . and they found that my lower right leg was virtually non existent on the triphase test where as a year and a half earlier the found bone bruising, tumors, and multiple pockets of liquid..I cant remember the names of it. that along with numerouse mri,s ct scans, and color changes my orthopedic, neurologist, vascular surgeon, spine specialist gave me a positive dx of RSD/CRPS. the I went to a Pain management Dr. and he did a temperature test of some sort..using a laser machine .. it measured temperature differences in each limb. and he confirmed DX.. now just a couple of months ago. a physical exam done by the Insurance medical examiner re-confirmed a severe case of RSD/CRPS.. you can be sure that the insurance company was not happy with that ..