Originally Posted by Mslday

Dear IT,

Thanks very much for sharing your experiences and information. It is very informative. I went to Dr. K's site and he has done quite a bit since I last visited it a few years ago.

My pain is primarily in my left foot where I still have one screw left after a failed bunion surgery. I had 2 of the screws removed last year but this 3rd one had so much new bone growth around it and was so deeply embedded that they didn't want to monkey around with it. I get deep sharp shooting nerve pain directly from that area and a recent bonce scan showed inflammation in my foot directly under the area where the screw resides. The swelling of my foot increases with activity and stress. I think something has changed inside structurally very slightly and the metal is literally getting on my nerves.

I have burning and deep bone pain that moves around the left side of my body, primarily my joint areas and it comes and goes. My bones turn ice cold. If I don't stay on top of my RSD pain in my foot these other areas become overly sensitized, that completely exhausts me and I crash. You are probably right that it is like referred pain.

What is strange is that the bone scan also revealed more degenerative changes in my right foot, more so than the left side. While I do experience occasional pain in the right foot too it was never the nerve pain of RSD. Since I realized that my doctors were all concerned about my right foot too I became a bit anxious about potential spread but no one thinks I have spread there. I think the mild burning I'm feeling in that area is simply a psychosomatic response to reading the report. I keep telling myself that and it seems to calm down.

I've always believed that the 3 metal screws were the real source of my pain and I was so deeply disappointed when I was informed that they couldn't take out the 3rd. The surgeon is a very well respected head of the department for trauma surgery at that hospital and I think he did what was best at that time. There is no doubt that I benefited from the removal of the other screws as they were working their way out on their own with each step I took. I'm working toward a plan to see what else can be done.

I'm so happy to hear you are doing better following your infusions. Do you plan to have any more in the future?

You are right, there is always hope. Thanks for the inspiration.

MsL