Living Beyond Your Illness- Getting By With CRPS

By Guest Blogger Suzanne Stewart. Originally Featured on her Tears of Truth blog. Hello Luvs, IF you haven’t read any of my blog before, you won’t know that I always start out my blog with “Hello Luvs”.  I had meant to write this long ago, but time gets away from all of us, so today the phone was on mute and the kitty was lying in her spot with me in the same room and it seemed a good time to write about this.  We can all get down and sad sometimes, even depressed.  I mean, having a chronic illness, or a list of chronic pain illnesses can get pretty monotonous to say the least! If you let yourself get…continue reading

Early Predictors of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

By Randall Kaye, MD., Chief Medical Officer of Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. What could help identify patients with CRPS earlier? While increasing one's index of suspicion is likely the best way to promote early detection, please consider the strong predictors described below.   CRPS is often triggered by minor or major trauma, such as needle stick, wrist fracture, surgery, but it can also occur spontaneously. In the general population, CRPS seems to occur most often after fracture (40%-60% of CRPS cases) and surgery is the next most common precipitating event. Sprains, contusions, and crush injuries are also known triggers. Retrospective population-based studies founds that CRPS is 3 to 4 times more frequent in women than in men, more commonly affects the…continue reading

Think Twice About Eating That- CRPS and Diet

By Patricia Calderon, Guest Blogger for RSDSA   Who would have ever thought that what we eat while having CRPS/RSD would cause us more pain then we already experience? I found out the hard way when my symptoms were getting worst and worst each day, then some days not so much. "There has to be a reason for this," I said to myself. So, I kept a diary of all the foods I ate and my pain scale throughout the day. Low and behold, I found out that I was making my pain increase each day with the foods I was eating. Consuming a lot of processed foods was one of them. Because I am always in pain and can’t…continue reading

RSDSA Spotlight: How CRPS Taught Me to Live In the Moment

By Anna Evenosky, Guest Blogger Rewind to that time that is so vague in my head that I can barely remember it. The time of my life when I was as free as a bird spreading its wings for the first time. The time of my life when I didn’t know CRPS existed. I can’t recall what being pain free feels like. Although, I can recall the happy times I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss. Going from a life where my biggest worries were passing a class, or getting something done on time, to a life of chronic illness, was an adjustment to say the least. Something I wasn’t exactly ready to take on. Although, I’m…continue reading

So You Want to Dance- A New Way to Help CRPS

By Ryan Ferrell Do you sometimes struggle to get Enrique out of your head? Yo quiero estar contigo, vivir contigo Bailar contigo, tener contigo So does Lucrecia Martinez, a physical therapist from the Silicon Valley. She wrote about wrestling with her chronic pain after an injury in last summer’s Community Update (page six): Until then, my passion in life had been dancing. My husband and I met dancing. We loved to escape on date nights to dance salsa, cumbia, merengue, and any other Latin-infused music. At first, I denied that pain could rob me of my passion. I would grit and push myself through the pain. I feared that, if my husband and I could no longer dance, he would…continue reading

Crazy Sock Walk Raises Awareness for CRPS/RSD and More

By Samantha Barrett, Special Events Coordinator For the past few years, I have participated in Crazy Sock Day. I am a lover of crazy socks and have quite an inventory of them, so every day is Crazy Sock Day for me, but on January 24 it is embraced by the invisible illness community. I had heard it was for a young girl named Melanie who had several of the invisible illnesses that I did. As the years went by, I learned more about this young lady’s story. January 24 is her “painiversary.” To raise awareness and bring a little bit of sunshine to this girl’s life, Crazy Sock Day was started. It quickly took the CRPS Community by storm through…continue reading

Crazy Sock Day for CRPS Awareness

Interview by Sammie Barrett, RSDSA Special Events Coordinator. For the past six years, there has been a day in which people wore crazy socks to raise awareness for CRPS/RSD awareness. I heard about it in its second year and encouraged my friends and family to participate. We would post pictures of our crazy socks online to our personal Facebook pages and to a page dedicated to this Crazy Sock Day. Last year, the first Crazy Sock Walk happened in Melbourne, Florida. It is happening again this year. The masterminds behind this: the Dickens family. Melanie is teenager living with CRPS/RSD among other invisible illnesses. Her mother, Laurie, is one of her biggest advocates. I was able to interview them this…continue reading

RSDSA Spotlight: Dear Body

Written by Melissa Lovitz, Guest Blogger for RSDSA Dear Body, I’m sorry for wishing you were different and calling you flawed. Living with chronic pain for twelve years taught me to question a lot and dislike much about you. In the chronic pain world we’re encouraged to constantly ask ourselves, “are you hurt or does it just hurt?” We live in a world where “find a distraction” is our first line of defense because “find a reason” and “find a solution” aren’t always possible. The absence of an explanation from you about why it hurts makes me crave reason and logic that much more; that directly conflicts with my experience of pain for which there is little semblance of such…continue reading

RSDSA Spotlight: When to Listen- A Day In The Life With CRPS

By Autumn Strand, Guest Blogger for RSDSA I, like many, had never heard of RSD/CRPS until it actually happened to me. I remember on the ride home googling it after the 3rd doctor I had been to said it is what I more than likely had. After many tests and even more treatments, I was diagnosed with this mysterious disease but I still wasn't sure what was happening to me. I have done a lot of research, and I am still learning new things every day. In my experience, most doctors do not know very much about RSD/CRPS so how can other people know? In the world of invisible illnesses it is almost impossible for people without them to know…continue reading

Twelve Things People with CRPS Want You To Know About Them During the Holiday Season

  By Samantha Barrett, Special Events Coordinator Tis the season to be jolly! Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard. I love the holiday season. There are beautiful lights and decorations everywhere, there are people singing cheery songs, there are fun, mindless movie marathons on TV, there is delicious food- all of my favorite things wrapped into one season. Maybe that’s why I am so exhausted this year! In my years with CRPS, I’ve noticed that things are a little different than what they used to be. But, I am finding a way to be a little less “bah-humbug” and a little more “holly jolly.” While some people may not understand why I’m Scrooge one moment and good ol’ Saint…continue reading