[alt1268]

Hi
Welcome, your story like many others sounds familiar while portions may be better and portions may be worse then mine. I do recogniE myself in your story. I to work in healthcare and it is extremely depressing to loose your job, your friends and your life as you know it.
I don't know if your religious at all? But god as helped me get through this. To understand that my life is not my plan but his. And his plan is not to let us suffer. So with that said, I believe we met here for a reason just as we meet others on the street for a reason.
Look around the room, use the search feature, ask questions, rant rave we are all friends and for most of us this group is the only safe place where understanding of our disease comes from.
Gentle hugs!

[Brambledog]

Hi Deb

Sounds like you're doing a pretty good job of dealing with the monster....as good as we can anyway... It's a horrible disease, no argument, and all you can do is what you are doing - finding ways to cope, both mentally and physically, with the things it throws at you.

I try to do a patch of time each day when I do gentle exercise like Qi Gong, meditation (Mindfulness) and self-massage to some nice soothing music. Those three things have done more for my pain than anything! I'm glad you have such a range of things you use already, it helps to have a CRPS toolkit to have a go at it with!

There's other things too, like unperfumed epsom salts, a couple of tablespoons in a damp cloth placed on the burning skin really helps me, or some in a warm bath. Epsoms are rich in magnesium, and that is an absolute essential for your body, and something we often don't get enough of. Your skin absorbs the magnesium really well and you can get it as a cream as well. If you haven't tried them already they're definitely worth a go.

Sorry if you know these things already lol, but.... No ice anywhere on your skin, no BP cuffs or blood draws on your affected areas, and steer clear of extremes of temperature on your skin - either high or low - no matter what any physio might say! And keep reading and learning about it from good sites, knowledge is protection from poor healthcare folk who think they know best, but don't know CRPS at all... I'm sure you know that already.

As for the frustration and mental issues that come with this marvellous parcel of goodies you are doing a fab job there already. Keep busy, find things to laugh at, people to talk to, stuff to think about. I'm writing a book, I make jewellery sometimes, I like a jigsaw when my body lets me, and I play too much Minecraft!! Anything to distract. I'm still learning, as I'm a tutor, so I'm studying too. There are so many free courses out there on the web - I've just done one on planetary moons through OpenLearn, and it was free and excellent quality. There are loads of subjects so you can just try something and then stop if it fails to grab your interest!

You're not alone, you're not just your pain or the illnesses you deal with. Never ever forget that. From your texts you are a bright and intelligent woman, with humour and kindness. That's worth a whole lot Hang onto it.

Take good care of yourself, and welcome to a very supportive little group that's seen me through some rough times and been there when sometimes no one else understands

Bram

[eevo61]

I'm sorry your here for the wrong reason,I know we all wish to be on different kind of forum but our reality is live this way.
I know feels bad when there is not support of any kind. I see you know how to work around this beast,I'm glad ,but emotional support sometimes is hard to find ,only rsd suffers understand for real others pain.
I wish you soon get well and don't ever stop fighting,keep the faith,soon we will see a real cure ,we all hope that,blessings from Jesika .
Ps you might already know this site for more rsd info,I will post it just in case,hope helps you,we will help you in the emotional part and sharing our experiences and sure learn from each other.

http://www.rsds.org/index2.html