The wait times for MRIs in Canada are at the very least a year, where I live its almost a two year wait. So the MRI would be useless, because lord knows how much damage a do before I get it =S I recently had a physical, before this pain started, so I was alright before the pain, now my reflexes in my knees are hyper reactive, and well, the rest is history.

I have a therapist for some serious abuse that happened in the past, but she knows my condition and has heard of it, so she was looking it up for me.

I can't hoist myself up backwards because it requires some use of your feet, and that's totally a no go =(

Its 225 in the morning where I am, I was awake around 130....from the pain, I'm staring at this screen trying to breathe through it. Like every night, I'll be up for a few hours before I can manage to lower the pain enough to go back to bed.

I'm trying to be positive, but yesterday was a very very bad pain day. Not to mention people were in and out doing repairs, so my house was cold which just made everything so much more worse.

I've also ran out of some of my pain killers, which isn't fun at all. Hopefully Wednesday will be awesome, don't see my doctor until the 17th =\

Anyways, sleep well everyone.

Lessa,

For months when I had my worst CRPS pain no one helped me, I think they thought I was exaggerating my pain. Every doctor suggested NSAIDs. I was NSAID naive, I never took them, but desperation motivated me and even though I took the most minimal amounts of these OTCs I damaged my stomach.

Prior to taking LDN what helped me somewhat was malic acid and magnesium. I read about this healing combo on an MS site.

Are you able to have pool therapy? I lost considerable bone during the months I could not put any weight on my right foot. Getting into a pool enabled me to put some weight on my foot, ankle, leg. At first it was through the roof painful, but it became less and less agonizing after each session.

Please forgive me for mentioning LDN again, but you didn't respond about it and I worry that you may have missed that part of my post.

Sorry about that Bio, no I haven't tried LDN my doctors have only prescibed what I mentioned a post or two (maybe 3?) back. I haven't tried pool PT, as my PT wants to wait until my pain is better managed. Not necessarily less pain, but at least able to manage it with something so I'm not completely suffering. She is a military PT and was the first one to suggest it was CRPS, she knows a lot about CRPS. Once I have better management tools, I'm going to approach her about strengthening again.

I don't take much OTC's, when it first happened I took ibuprofen 2 times a day, but my doctor suggested not to, since this was a long term thing, and he didn't want to have to repair my stomach AND my foot. Naproxen doesn't help much either, and is so much stronger so I don't take it unless I'm particularly inflamed. I haven't even heard of LDN, and I worked at a rehab centre and aw oh so many medications, prescription and 'non prescription/legal'.

Sorry to hear about the trouble getting imaging and getting up the stairs. The back up the stairs routine does require a bit of foot pressure but I found I could get up mostly with my arms. It is a challenge though.

I am glad to hear you have a therapist on board, that is great. If you get stuck you might consider adding a short time with one who treats pain specifically and who uses the hypnosis or EMDR, it is a very different approach from most therapy. What I really liked about those modalities was that they worked around the conscious brain right to the heart of things so we moved through issues pretty quickly. A real boon when one is bogged down!

I hope you rest better tonight.

Lessa,

Please look into LDN, I believe I would be in a wheelchair if not for it. My pain lessened dramatically once I took it. I went from crawling to being able to climb the stairs. A curb was a mountain and my hallway stairs Mount Everest before LDN.

I agree with your PT about the pain, mine wanted me in the pool ASAP, but I could not do it, until after a month plus of LDN. I was terrified of the cold water, because I spent most of my time on the couch shaking under an electric blanket with a heating pad, while my sister was sitting sweating across from me with a fan directed on her.

Once I noticed the LDN was helping I started to gradually lower the temp of my shower and bath tub water to prepare me for my friend's condo pool water. It worked. Unfortunately, once the weather turned colder I found my local indoor pool is not quite warm enough for me. Also, I haven't regained enough strength to manage all that is involved in this seasonal pool exercise-wet hair, wet clothing, lockers, changing, carrying towels etc with crutches. It is horrible. When I finished using my friend's pool I sat in the sun until my swimsuit dried, wrapped a sarong around me and then my husband drove us home-it was so easy.

I'm going to be talking to an OT who can get me in touch with a Social worker, if I should need something for the pain I will be making sure to let them know. I'll keep the hypnosis and EMDR in mind =) Never tried other but it can't hurt to try!

Thank you, may you rest well tonight too.

I'm going to talk to about it either at my Pain Clinic appointment (if they do it) or at my Dr's appointment. Either way we'll talk it out, I'm going to do research, and we'll see if its right for me. Thank you so much for being so resourceful! Its a breath of fresh air.

Lessa,

I just wanted to let you know, if LDN is something that looks like something you do want to try, you will have to get all of the percocet and tramadol out of your system first. I would highly recommend trying it. I have not only because my pain management doctor knows nothing about it. It has helped quite a few people with CRPS and is also mentioned in Dr Chopra's video. If you have not seen it yet, it is very informative. I am surprised that no one has mentioned it yet in this thread. Here is the link if you would like to watch it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3LKhOZ8mAM

Lessa,

Welcome to the board, I'm so sorry you have to be here. This monster that invades our bodies causes so many of us to struggle to do even the simplest of tasks. I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much and I hope you find some relief through the pain clinic, and I hope you can find better accommodations for your needs. I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much and I hope you find some relief through the pain clinic, and I hope you can find better accommodations for your condition. It's amazing how fast RSD can change our lives in an instant, going from enjoyable and active to immobile and pained.

I agree with finding a good therapist or psychologist who specializes in CBT or chronic pain disorders to add to your team of specialists. I've been seeing mine for four years now, and it has made such a positive impact on my life on my physical condition, and has really helped my emotional, spiritual well-being, and mental health. My RSD causes severe anxiety so it's important for me to keep stressors out of my life that heighten my anxiety, and to be aware of my triggers. You will find a lot of very useful information here and a lot of resources. Just remember you're not alone we are all in this together!

Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I went to the pain centre here in town, apparently its not like the pain clinic in the city nearest to us. The one here are just meant to be a support in conjucture with the pain clinic in the city. But I got sorted out on how to get the clinic (there's a free van I can take huzzah!), and I'm eager to go there, hopefully they give me some hope and something to help. Its all trained specialists in both places, for physical therapy, nurses, doctors (but they can't do injections and such), and therapies. They offer lots of pain courses, and a support group for chronic pain sufferers.

So there's good. Then there's bad, waiting for the pain clinic to make an appointment. And waiting to see my doctor because I'm almost out of meds! Ack!

Thank you all for your supportive replies, its helped SO much!