Hi All
I've never posted before but my experiences may provide some insight as I am a RSD/CRPS sufferer who is now in remission. I also attended Dr Rhodes clinic and used his vecttor treatment.
Firstly, the vecttor machine did not cure or have much effect on my CRPS.
By the time I saw Dr Rhodes in 2012 I had had CRPS for 3 years. Despite the many doctors I saw it went undiagnosed a long time and progressed rapidly following an injury to my arms. I had aggressive full body CRPS (wheelchair bound) by the time I attended Dr Rhodes clinic. He seemed a knowledgeable and compassionate clinician however the treatment had little effect on my pain and I believe my CRPS was just too severe and widespread for the treatment to be significant. I did however see other patients in the clinic who were having positive effects. Most of them seemed to have CRPS which was localised to a small area (ie limb).
Prior to Dr Rhodes I had tried everything. Pain meds, neuropathic pain meds, magnesium infusions, physio, graded motor imagery, acupuncture, meditation...the list goes on. In retrospect, any attempt to do physio & push through the pain only exacerbated the CRPS.
My situation deteriorated until I was in 9/10 level pain and could not move or feed myself & now had severe depression. I knew a radical treatment was required. With the help of family I researched and came across an article - 'Treatment of CRPS with ECT' by Wolanin & Schwartzman. It sounded very similar to my case and I found many research papers detailing cases where electro convulsive therapy had rapidly reversed neuropathic pain.
Due to the severity of my CRPS and given I had no other options, I made the choice to undergo bilateral ECT. My doctor and specialist were reluctant given the controversial nature of the treatment but eventually consented due to my physical deterioration (severe muscle wasting by this stage).
I initially had 9 ECT sessions over 3 weeks. The effect was dramatic. By the second treatment my pain dissipated dramatically. Level 9 pain down to level 2. I could feel the pain disappearing from my limbs immediately after treatment. Over the next year I had maintenance ECT every 4-6 weeks. My last ECT treatment was in 2013 and the CRPS has been in complete remission since then. It seems as though the ECT has completely rewired the way my brain processes pain signals - back to normal.
I am now mobile and I no longer get those terrible burning flare ups any more. I still have some wasted muscles though and this is gradually improving with physio.

I should say that although this treatment worked miraculously for me and I had the full support of my doctors, I am not advocating that this is the right solution for all CRPS sufferers. The progression of my CRPS bore a striking resemblance to that of the patient in the Wolanin article, and subsequently the treatment had a similar effect. Also, ECT is a radical treatment and there are side effects involved. Fortunately I had no pre exisiting medical conditions and only had some minor memory loss from the treatment which has now rectified. The treatment itself is painless and is still an effective and frequently performed treatment for depression. Interestingly, when I spoke to the ECT nurses, they told me that many of their patients who had ECT for depression also noticed a decrease in chronic pain levels. They also mentioned ECT was used frequently in geriatric patients due to its reversal of Parkinson's symptoms.
I really believe that effective treatment of CRPS/RSD involves changing the way the brain processes pain. I have heard that there are some positive results for neuropathic pain being seen during trials of trans-cranial magnetic stimulation. Similar principal to ECT but far less invasive and more localised treatment. Hopefully there will be some advances in this area
I will try to check the forums on a regular basis and if anyone has any questions for me feel free to ask.

P

I had tears of joy for you reading this, followed by tears of utter anguish. My husband was diagnosed with CRPS in December of 2013 after a botched surgery to repair a ligament following a workplace injury. To say that his treatment has been slow and ineffective would be the understatement of the century. In November of 2014 he had a QME with an impartial doctor who said he had many ideas for his treatment- none of which he could carry out. He mentioned a "cranial massage" which at the time sounded totally absurd to me. I hadn't given it a second thought until reading your post. He even included that in his report to the IC and nothing was done. Reading that nearly a year ago we may have been given a solution to lessen his pain and possibly even improve or cause a complete relapse of his situation is utterly devastating. And yet, I have so, so much hope after reading your post. THANK YOU and congratulations on your success!

. Did you suffer from extreme fatigue that kept you bed. Riddin on top of all your other ailments.im very happy for you,also are you full body rsd? Did you use dr schwartzmann from Delaware? Thank you and enjoy your life

hi peg. i'm happy you say you got results but since rsd affects more then the brain i am not sure about whether you may have been diagnosed with rsd when in fact you may have something else. i am not a dr but all i have read and lived about rsd has taught me that it is a defect in the sympathetic nervous system which i believe is located in the spine that not only sends constant pain signals to the brain, but also affects the eyes, heart, organs, skin, tissue and bones. there are more things it affects but my point is rsd is not that simple. it affects more then just the brain. it is a physical illness which can affect just about every part of the body. and though there are ways to help manage the pain and help bring it into remission for a few people, there is no cure. if what you're saying really helped you and you really have rsd then may i suggest you let the American Medical Association, NINDS, NORD and other institutes that treat disease (especially rare ones) know about this new procedure so that they can check to see along with the FDA if it may be able to help others suffering from this illness. Thanks for your post and best wishes to you.

Thanks for sharing this.
It's fascinating and I am glad you were helped!

I would do ECT if convinced it might help my case of chronic pain.
I'd think the trade-off would be worth it.

Again, thank you for sharing your experience.

To Our Healing,
DejaVu