Greetings,

I wanted to ask the community if they had any new advice, based on my symptoms at this point in time (8 months after injury) my symptoms (which can be found in full in other threads or my extended bio) haven't changed much sense my last post but i'll briefly summarize here:

I dropped a weight on my foot on 5/5/2014, pain was as expected. Around 4 months on I still had discomfort walking and wearing shoes (I wore sandles). Bone Scan showed evidence of CRPS. An ortho diagnosed me with CRPS and did a nerve block (steroid kenalog -10 hcl percent), which allowed me to walk without (as much/nearly any) discomfort.

An anaesthesiologist and crps specialists did another superficial personal nerve block on 10/6/2014, which effects aren't significant.

Recently the same anaesthesiologist informed me to contact him if things but worse but otherwise wasn't going to do anything else unless things changed.

The worse my pain ever was a 5/10 while wearing shoes in the first month, not really a burning more of a throbbing. The worse it gets now is also when i'm wearing shoes and walking but is about a 1.5/10 as an aching. Most of the day i'm pain free, though my Right foot usually feels 'odd', but i can ignore it by soaking it in warm water, other then that i get an aching which seems to be in the outer arch of my foot . The redness comes from exercising the foot, eating food and in the just randomly in the evening. Stress and Spicy food seems to aggravate my foot but not drastically increase the pain. No sensitivity to touch, heat, cold, no drastic change in symptoms as winter came (barometer switches).

I have tried to ignore it and move forward with my life but feel that it's occasional a good idea to consolidate my thought, history, symptoms, etc... and see if there is anything more I should do.

I'm open to suggesting, comments, etc. I'm always hoping someone will argue me out of the crps diagnosis by offering some other explanation or suggest a treatment. However, I would equally welcome someone explaining how my condition can be CRPS despite my lack of pain and sensitivity, though i suppose i do have some discomfort walking.

Thanks to everyone here who takes the time to read this. I hope from the bottom of my heart that anyone in pain finds some sort of resolution soon.

*removed per copyright law*

Thanks Kevscar, i'm familure with the Budapest Criteria. When I examined myself (check my post history if you care to know more) against the criteria I found that it was plausable that I met 2 or 3 out of 4 of the signs (same as symptoms). The two symptoms that (to me) seem to point to CRPS are redness and aching that pursists long after the injury. However, as you point out, the pain has never been extreme (above 6). At this point, I get by telling myself that "i have some kind of neuralgia, but it's not going to get worse or spread". It would be nice to know if that were true or if i'm fooling myself.

It is very rare for someone to have it with so low a pain level. I started researching CRPS on 18th Nov 2009 stopped counting at 3000hrs Jan 2013 and I've only come across 2 cases where the pain level was non-existent. There is a big difference between aching and CRPS pain
It does spread in 77% of patients

I don't really have much advice to offer. When you get to a point where the pain seems pretty stable and all the obvious things don't work or make things better...that's the time to really look at what you're doing and what causes the pain...and then try doing things differently. Stuff like: try different kinds of shoes (this can take a long time but if you find a pair that don't put pressure on the spots that hurt then it's worth it for years and years to come), change your diet, try to rest more when it hurts the worst and exercise when it's best (experiment with different routines), etc. It's taken me a long time to find a lot of little things that make a difference for me. My pain levels are much higher than yours...but I would think the principle would be the same. Now...in your case with the pain levels being so low...you may not feel it's worth all the effort for a "slight" decrease in pain...and that's up to you. Sometimes...even if I know something will hurt...I do it anyway because I want to and that's my choice. Sometimes I get so sick of doing all the right things for my RSD and want to wear a normal pair of shoes for goodness sakes or drink caffeine because it's my right darn it, etc...but then I know the consequences of that will be increased pain and possibly a flare up. If my pain were much lower...I have no doubt that my stubborn self would resist ANY changes to my normal life because that's just who I am...but you may be different so I thought it all worth mentioning. At this point...I think those are the main things to focus on if you're looking for more relief than what they have gotten you to.

Hello Harry,

I'm with Kevscar on this. The having so little pain does cause question. In my humble opinion there are things that look kind of like CRPS but are not CRPS. Doctors as we know are not infallible and not always up on diagnoses outside their specialty. Maybe you had a traumatized foot with a lot of nerve symptoms. Obviously you had something. Who can say what? There are post-traumatic neuropathies that can present with CRPS-y sysmtoms but are much less complicated. I fall in the "is it CRPS or not" category myself and lack consensus from my doctors. For this reason I have read your threads and noticed some similarities - hot,red foot after eating, exercise, spicy or allergenic food for example, worsening at the end of the day...What we don't share is the occasional and debilitating experience of me feeling my foot is filled with nettles or fire ants. God knows what I might do to walk with almost no pain.

After 3 foot/ankle surgeries and radiation I can tell you this. Feet act strangely after trauma. There are loads of sympathetic fibers in them that are easily damaged, even from simple swelling. Those nerves are at the most distal point from their origin and take the longest to heal. Feet act as radiators for the body and are reactive from a circulatory/temperature standpoint. Feet feel weird as they re-wire. Do traumatized, autonomic, nervy feet get better over time after surgery, nerve insult, injury? For most people, yes. It sounds like you are on the mend. Perhaps in another 8-12 months your foot will feel more normal. Keep taking care of it! Do not traumatize it through over-aggressive sport! Watch your diet, supplements, Vit D, alcohol and caffeine! Don't go breaking something or needing surgery if you can avoid it! Desensitize your foot, massage it, love on it, keep giving it baths.

I know what it is to obsess and worry over a foot all day, every day. I understand. But Be Happy, Be Well, Be grateful...you may have dodged a mighty bullet my friend.

Littlepaw

Thanks for the insight Littlepaw,

Admittley an education through the lens of CRPS is left me a bit paranoid and possible narrow minded about the range of possiblities out there.

Avoding injury is always my goal. So far weight lifting hasn't aggervated my symptoms so I assume its safe to continue.