Hi Purplefoot,

I am hoping one day that will just be a strange nickname.

I looked at your photos and my first thought was "gosh that foot needs oxygen!". To me, purple discoloration is a sign of oxygen depleted stagnant blood and O2 starved tissues. My own foot had deep purple at one point. The things that made it look better were elevation, exercise (when I would ride the stationary bike the color would go normal for the time it was moving), swimming or even just doing scissor legs in cool water, very light compression and massage. Granted it went back purple quickly but I always felt the overall picture benefited from blood moving. It brings healing to the area and removes toxins and over expressed inflammatory factors. I know not all of these things may be tolerable right now but wondered if there is any time that the color looks better? If so pursue those things as much as you can. Oh I also found if I used kiniseotape the skin underneath looked normal when I pulled it off. It lifts the skin just slightly which can help with lymphatic drainage.

You might also consider using a jacuzzi tub if you have one or know someone who does that would let you use it. You could try a foot bath that moves the water. I actually saw a study that was specifically on the use of jacuzzi for acute CRPS and people had improvement. You could play around with temperature and find what is helpful.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I hope you have a restful night.