Ajivliscat, Hello and Welcome to Neurotalk.

Your English is excellent!

I am so sorry for your injury and pain. You have found a great place for sharing and support here. We all know how scary it is getting this diagnosis but you are not alone. We are here for you.

There is hope, do not let go of it even when you are discouraged. The good news is that 80% of people with CRPS improve over time according to a highly regarded researcher and specialist from Cleveland Clinic. I believe you will have access to good treatment there in Germany. Two big researchers, Dr. F Blaes and Dr. A Goebel are there and you have access to things like ketamine, neridronate and LDN. It can take some time to find out what works best for YOU.

Of course we cannot say if you have CRPS or not but what you describe does sound a lot like it. I never had constant pain either and because of that it took longer for me to get diagnosed. Even pain doctors got confused because my color change and stinging/burning pain would go away when I elevated my leg. CRPS is a spectrum and has a variety of presentations. I would take the fact that your pain is not constant as possibly giving you a better outcome. Managing the pain is important for holding off potential brain changes in pain interpretation. So not having it all the time is really good.

Improving your strength and flexibility are very important but you must be careful and approach rehab gently. You want to keep using your leg but without causing your pain to be worse. You want to quiet down your pain and inflammation. You will make improvements, they just often come slowly. So you need to be stubborn about your recovery and just keep working at it little by little.

I agree with Bio on the swimming pool. It is a great place to do rehab. It will help many things and address some imbalances you may be getting from favoring your injured leg. Your back pain may be coming from an imbalance in the way you use your leg. A lot of us get sore from that. If I could easily get to Bad Kreuznach I would go there myself and get some physio and relax.

Please come let us know how you are doing. It does get easier and there is much in life to enjoy even with CRPS. It will help when your condition is managed. And as you can see, we even have a member who had a baby girl not too long ago.

Sending thoughts of healing and comfort,


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Guten Abend ajivlscat! Deine Engish ist sehr gut. Verzeih mir, meine Deutsch ist niecht sehr gut. Zu viel vergessen aber Ich wollte um Ihnen ein warmes Hallo.

In case anyone else is wondering what that says, - Good evening ajivlscat! Your English is very good. Forgive me, my German is not so good. Too much forgotten, but I wanted to give you a warm hello.

No two people are the same. CRPS can present itself differently at different times, as well as differently with different people. It is one of the reasons that make it so difficult to diagnose. As Littlepaw mentioned, you do have access to some great care in Germany. Some of which is either not available, or is not easily accessed here in the States. By treating it early, aggressively, and by keeping things moving, there is a very good chance of sending this into remission. Try to find a pool like BioBase mentioned. It can take the weight off making a little physical therapy easier and keep the swelling to a minimum. She did it along with LDN, but aqua therapy is good even without it.

Don't believe a lot of what you read on the internet. There are a lot of bad stories out there, that are out there because they are a little unusual and not what typically happens. They are out there because they are some of the more extreme cases.

As Catra mentioned. Having a baby with this is very possible. It is all a personal choice of being able to decide if you feel capable of of being able to take on the responsibility of a child. I don't think I could, but Catra feels that she could. It is all up to you if and when you think you are able to have a baby.

Having CRPS does not mean that your life needs to revolve around CRPS. It just means that you need to take a few extra precautions and be careful. There is plenty out there to still enjoy once it is under control.

I hope the rest of your evening goes well. I would recommend reading through some of the sticky threads at the top of the RSD/CRPS forum page if you would like to. I would normally recommend watching the Dr. Chopra video, but I have no idea how well it would translate. I have tried using CC translation on Youtube before and it can be hilarious at times.

We are a very friendly and welcoming group here and are here for you to support you along the way.

This is just an extra thanks to Purplefoot for an especially nice welcome.

You're amazing!

Welcome! I am sorry you have to be here but hope we can help. I agree with what has been already posted and I don't think I could say it any better.

One of the things I love most about this site is that even though we all have CRPS we are still very different. There are different genders, ages, locations, professions but we are all bonded by this condition.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions. You may find these members to know more about CRPS than some doctors!