I have had bad cases of indigestion come and go, which at times has caused me to throw up a few times. All my doctors and I have simply brushed it off on to the prescriptions that I am on. Same thing goes for the lightheaded feelings I had while on methadone. Since being off of the methadone, I have not had any more serious lightheadedness, only an occasional minor case, so I think that that was related to the medication. I have had my blood pressure go all over the place over the past year. I have had readings anywhere from 112/(60 something), to as high as 158/104, all within a weeks time. All measurement were taken after 5 minutes of rest, but my blood pressure has always been a little odd like that. It runs in the family. Doctors have told us it is "white coat syndrome".

There is always a good explanation for most of the problems that I have that are being discussed here. The only thing out of the ordinary I would say is the problems that are known to be related to the CRPS. I am sure that there is a good explanation for your symptoms as well. I do hope that they are able to figure it out soon for you.

Just a small side note for Catra First time I have seen a picture of your daughter. She is adorable.

My belief is that all these seemingly unrelated issues stem from an auto-immune disorder that is at the heart of CRPS. I was in apparent good health until I had a very minor accident to both of my feet. Immediately after this my body went haywire. I had dysphasia so bad and so often the food stuck in my esophagus would be violently propelled out. My feet burned as if a blow torch was held against them. Walking was like having socks full of broken bones, mixed with stones. Standing bothered me, sitting bothered me. I had episodes of sweating-both hot and cold. Going up and down stairs would make me swoon. I hated stooping down at work, because I could barely drag myself up. Then the headaches and vomiting started.

It is not coincidental that so many issues arose after the accident.

I am also of the mind that CRPS is autoimmune, but I'm thinking that doesn't necessarily mean the symptoms are from CRPS. Autoimmune conditions are often not lone wolves. The struggle is getting my doctors to have any sense of urgency and understanding about testing properly for other conditions. I'm concerned about Sjogren's Syndrome, some form of lupus, or any other condition that needs its own treatment outside of pain management. I feel like I am constantly doing my doctors' jobs for them though. It's so frustrating.

In the first few months I struggled with questions about other conditions too. Largely because I had so many vasculitic type symptoms. I asked about rheumatology consult but the rheum office basically said I needed to stick with my neuro. No one was interested but me and yet the doubts still nagged me.

So I ordered my own blood tests. You can do this through companies like HealthCheck USA and Private MD Labs as well as others. I ordered a C Reactive protein and ESR (sed-rate) You could also order ANA to look at antibodies for lupus, etc. but that one was expensive and I thought to wait. If the other values came back high I could always run ANA later.

My inflammatory markers were just about non-existent, which is consistent with CRPS. Of course if they were high it could still be CRPS but other conditions would definitely need to be explored at that point. If my numbers had been high I would've taken the results to my doctors and changed treatment plan.

If you'll feel better going this route look into it. I had to pay out of pocket for the tests but the cash price was reasonable and I got additional peace of mind. You aren't self treating or diagnosing, just getting information....

@BioBased

"Since this RSD nightmare began more than a year ago I have had new health problems. I got headaches in the past, but none like these that wake me up and cause me to vomit and last for days."

Are you aware that you are describing the absolutely classic symptoms of migraines?

The headache that comes with migraine is typically excruciating and the nausea and vomiting can often leave sufferers (me included) having to lie still and not move for hours. I am often woken up by the headache and I often find I can't sleep when I do have them. A single migraine can last for days on end and its not unusual to have post-migraine symptoms such as severe fatigue and feeling terrible for anything up to a few days after the headache goes.

Please don't assume that this is anything to do with CRPS and get is checked out because you should be able to get the headaches and nausea properly controlled with specific migraine medication. There is a variety of very effective drugs for treating migraines either as soon as the headache starts or on a daily preventative basis and the pain and nausea can also be treated with anti-emetics and painkillers.

Neuro,

The doctors have recently told me these are classic migraines, but it concerns me that they only started after the accident. I have always had headaches, but none that sent me to the ER, like these have.

My blood work looks great. My sister ran the blood lab at a local hospital, so she checks my tests for me. My ferritin level is low, otherwise I am in range in everything else.

After I get through brain surgery next week I am going to going back on LDN and visit a doctor of functional medicine.

BioBased that is so interesting that you say that! Just a few hours ago when I was doing research I came across functional medicine and found a clinic not too far from me. I sent them an email asking if they have experience treating CRPS but I am so excited to try it. I'll be sure to post if I go! Best of luck in your surgery!