Its been almost 10 years that I have had severe pain in my left knee. My right knee hurts too but not as bad. I have been to several doctors, ortho surgeons (3 surgeries later and still no relief in sight), pain management, PC, and almost every other one out there that might have helped. I haven't gotten a single answer.

The first pain management dr I went to seemed to think I wanted only drugs and told me flat out he didnt write prescriptions. Thats fine I dont want to have to take meds. Also if I wanted drugs I could easily go to my PC and get them lol. He wanted to do injections, synvisc, epidural (which is a great thing while giving birth), and things like that. I have a fear of needles. If I can get by without a shot I will. No one has been able to tell me WHY my knees hurt so much. Finally 1 doctor told me to go home and look up RSD.

I did and here I am. I went to my PC and talked with him about it. He prescribed a taper of Pred, Norco, and Amatriptyline. I now have an appt for a Rheumatologist that has had success in dealing with CRPS. He also wants me to go back to the pain management that kind of hinted that I was a druggie, and to start aquatherapy to see if it will help. I have been on these meds for almost 2 wks now and I still hurt.

Nothing helps, I use a hinged brace when I'm not in my house, and half the time when I am in the house. I try to be very careful when I'm doing anything. I also have a 19 month old son that this makes really hard taking care of. I have been reading some of the posts on here, and they break my heart thinking that is and could be me. I dont know if whats wrong with me is CRPS, or something else. I just want to try and find some answers. If I had some answers then I could deal a lot better with whats going on. Could some one please just give me some answers.

If you do have RSD/CRPS, immobilization is one of the worst things for you. The brace should probably be taken off until you receive a diagnosis one way or the other.

The key is to find a doctor who has actual EXPERIENCE treating CRPS. Hopefully the Rheumatologist you are going to be seeing will be helpful. This condition is widely misunderstood, even among professionals.

Aquatherapy, if it can be tolerated, is a very good idea. It gets the body moving in a gentle manner without impact. I'd certainly recommend it. My mantra is "use, but don't over-use".

You mentioned that it has been 10 years since the knee pain started. Did you injure it or have surgery on it just before the pain started? Or did the pain just start mysteriously? The answer to that question is pretty important. Exactly what type of knee surgeries did you have?? What is your diagnosis from the orthopedic surgeon? There are a lot of variables in play when trying to make a CRPS diagnosis.

I use the brace to keep that leg from slipping out from under me. I try to keep from wearing it but it doesnt work at times. I was stationed in Iraq and the sirens started to going off so I ran to my tent to get my gear and my left knee started hurting a bit. Thought I just strained it a bit cause Im not a runner. I went to the Drs there and they said I have hypersensitivity to that knee. I wrapped an ace bandage took a couple Aleve and went about my business. From then till now its hurt like nothing I have ever felt. The best way to describe it is take a big rig truck and tip it on 1 corner of the bumper then place that on your knee and start pressing. Burning tingling slight discoloration of that knee. I push through it as best I can. I am also refusing to go back to any orthopedic sergions because they cant or wont help me. I have decided to give the rheumetologist, pain management, and aquatherapy a try. I just want to know what is wrong with me. I want to know WHY I hurt so much. If I know why then I can deal with it. Im tired of not knowing what is going on with my body. This thing doesnt just effect me. It effects my son and husband. I cant get out and take him to the park or the zoo or anything like that unless I can sit down and put that leg up. Thats not a lot of fun for a young child when mommy cant go play on the slides or swing them, or walk around the zoo like other mommies. I dont want this to control me.

It sounds like it COULD be RSD. Hypersensitivity, burning pain, discoloration, pain not helped by many common meds...these are typical RSD symptoms. If orthopedic doctors won't help you this tells me there could be a couple of things going on. One is that they cannot find anything orthopedically wrong with you (which would be the case if it was RSD). The other is that if they suspect RSD then they would not want to do anything invasive as that would be VERY bad for RSD (which means they wouldn't want to do anything exploratory either to see if there was more to the pain than they could see on an xray, mri, etc).

I'm not saying you HAVE RSD...but it's definitely a possibility. Hopefully the rheumatologist can help rule out other possibilities and get you on the right track. A Neurologist would be another person to see for a diagnosis.

Things you will want to avoid until you know more are: immobilization, ice, and any sort of surgery or invasive procedure. These will make your pain worse and could potentially cause spread IF you have RSD. Definitely continue to try to get to the bottom of this. Physical therapy was HUGE for me in getting the function back.

As far as the brace...bottom line is that you need to be safe. I would discuss physical therapy with your doctors and possibly look into OTHER options besides immobilization to help you be safe when you walk (cane, walker, wheelchair, etc)...obviously discuss these options with a doctor before trying them as well as their advice regarding the brace. Depending on what IS wrong with you (RSD or something else)...the brace could be hurting or helping you. But the most important thing is to stay safe of course...as a fall won't help your situation no matter what is causing your pain.

Take care and keep us posted. If you do have RSD then this site can be an invaluable source. I cannot tell you how much better my life is for having found it.

The brace is hinged, and set at 70 degrees. I can move my leg in and out. It just keeps me from loosing that footing. Which is not uncommon for me todo. I can trip standing still. I have had a lat release revision and a patellar femoral resurfacing and nothing has helped. Now they dont want to touch the knee because they can cause for harm than good with it.

I walk with a really bad limp with out it and a not as bad but still bad limp with the brace on. I have asked my PCM for a cane already. Just waiting to see what he says. I am going to call the Rheumatologist tomorrow and the PT to see when I can get on to see them. Hoping that its not in like 2 months. I just want to know whats wrong with me. I am definitely reapplying for VA disability. Well time for me to go get my couple hours sleep before this wakes me up again. Thank you for the info.

So went back to the PM dr and he wants to do a sympathetic block to see if I respond to it. If I do then he will diagnose me with CRPS. I have an appt for the aquatherapy next wednesday and the rheumatologist for the end of April. Hopefully someone with be able to answer my questions soon. I also finally got a call back from my PCM. He has my cane referal ready for me. Now just gotta wait for my son to get up and eat for us to go get it.

I do not believe that the results of your sympathetic block will diagnose you with crps. Some crps pts. do not respond to a sympathetic block yet still have crps. I was one of these pts. It's call sympathetic independent pain. Before my first lsb (lumbar sympathetic block) my foot did not even register a temperature change (before or after the block). I had questionable pain relief. My second lsb done 2 wks. later resulted in my foot's temperature rising but my pain actually increased. My first PM then referred me to a neurologist (I guess because he didn't believe I had crps). The neurologist said I did have crps. I went to a new PM who was more experienced with crps and he said that I did have crps. Be sure your PM does NOT believe that a response is needed to a sympathetic block for you to have crps.

Thats what I think he is going to do. I'm very discouraged by this PM. My PCM says yes I do have it. I dont know what to think anymore. These meds arent working. Its 2 am and Immmm awake hurting. From what Ive read the meds dont work on some people and work great on others. Now going to use the cane, brace set at 70 degree flexion, and hope for the best with all of this. I just really want to know what is wrong with me. If I know then I will feel better. I am going to start refiling for VA disability also. Just hope my son doesnt take off with the cane to shepherd my dog around. He doesnt understand mommy needs that to walk better. Ugh Im stressin over stupid stuff like this diagnosis.