Over the past few months I have developed several symptoms outside of my CRPS that my doctors can't yet explain.

-Random hives on my face. They don't seem to connect with anything.
-Random nausea/vomiting. I literally ate the same meal on two different days with proper food storage and one day I was fine and the next day I threw up. A week before that I had 2 glasses of wine with plenty of food and water, which normally wouldn't be an issue. The next day I threw up 6 times. I will be fine for days at a time and then all of the sudden I'm puking.
-Skin rashes with materials that I used to be perfectly fine with.
-Intolerance of beans, which I used to eat ALL. THE. TIME.
-Feeling like I'm falling down while I'm sitting perfectly still. Not exactly vertigo/dizziness. It's like the feeling you get when you accidentally lean too far back in a chair.
-Extremely dry sinuses to the point of bloody mucus (never been a nosebleed person before).

The doctors ran a bunch of tests (blood panel, thyroid, lime disease, RA factor) and they all came back negative. Am I the only one who has experienced this? Could it be connected with CRPS? Anybody have any hints in the right direction?

Any advice would be such a relief.

Whiteaa,
Tky for posting your list! Unfortunately, I have no advice.

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.

I used to be able to get up and down from a squat multiple times without using my arms or hands, now I need help to get up if I stoop down. I can fall over if I step on a crumb or a slightly uneven surface. I have to lean against something to put on my gloves or I will tumble.

My skin, which was very soft and not crepey, is now both crepey, dry and sticky. My fingertips are so wrinkled it hurts to touch my face with them.

I have to run humidifiers constantly or my nasal passages crust over and bleed. I keep a bottle of Xlear nasal spray next to my bed to inhale several times a day.

My digestion is a mess. My stomach bothers me. I am constantly hungry, but no longer enjoy eating.

Now my eyes are giving me misery. Swollen, red, crusty, burning.

I sometimes have a sensation that there is movement when there is none.

My left hand has a slight tremor.

Some of this is very familiar to me...though the cause for mine may be different than yours...but here goes.

Hives/Rashes - caused by inflammation which is all over the place with CRPS. Comes and goes for me but usually only during the worst flares.

Nausea/Vomitting - Drs attribute this to my high pain levels...again only happens for me during bad flares.

Dizziness - Due to sudden spikes and drops in blood pressure which is out of whack with CRPS as the sympathetic nervous system controls this. Clonidine patches helped me with this as they kept my blood pressure steady.

Nose bleeds - Also related to blood pressure issues as there are lots of blood vessels in the nose that can easily pop and cause bleeding. The clonidine patches help but also using a qtip and some Vaseline can help too.

All of mine were related to the CRPS...but I was checked out thoroughly to make sure there wasn't another cause before any was attributed to the CRPS.

Have you tried taking a daily anithistamine like loratidine? I wonder if you are flooded with histamine and/or mast cells overacting. There is a correlation between CRPS and allergies and asthma symptoms.

The hives and nausea/vomiting can come up after allergy or intolerance to food. You may be either allergic or reacting to the histamine that is normally found in some foods and in wine.

I get flushing in my face, hands and feet as well as hives if I eat certain things or drink any more than two sips of wine. These are actually early signs of anaphylaxis! I had these issues before CRPs but I would say they are quite a bit worse now.

Try cutting the offenders out and see what happens. No need to get overloaded with more inflammation than necessary.

I hope you feel better soon,

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.