Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Education: a personal perspective
Introduction Many individuals with CRPS experience significant fatigue, a symptom that is often overlooked and under-reported in CRPS literature. However, research has shown that 85% of CRPS patients experience fatigue, with the majority of that being severe (67%) or moderate (15%) fatigue. Particularly for the subset of patients with severe fatigue, pain at rest and … Read More “Post Exertional Malaise: Chronic Fatigue, Cognitive Effort, and Exertion” »
As expounded on in the previous article on Centralized Pain, we discussed how prolonged pain system activation can lead to hyper-responsiveness and lowered thresholds so nerves fire more easily, a dual phenomenon called wind-up and sensitization. Sensitization is when pain loses its protective properties and becomes maladaptive and pathological; but the protective purpose of pain … Read More “Desensitization and CRPS: Exposure-Based Approaches” »
Many with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome experience disproportionate pain that is no longer being sustained by an injury or noxious event (even if an injury may have been the initial trigger) that remains contained to a single body area or they may develop widespread, disparate pain and dysfunction that can affect multiple body areas over … Read More “Centralized Pain and CRPS” »
Ballooned, enlarged, puffy, unbalanced, or disproportionate-looking CRPS-affected areas are a regular occurrence in the experience of those with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome—whether that is to mild or extreme degrees and whether it is come-and-go, was highly visible close to onset and became less visible over time, or is a 24/7-round-the-clock symptom. Let’s discuss what’s going … Read More “Swelling and Manual Lymphatic Drainage” »
As the wet, cold winter weather sets in, many people with CRPS notice a sharp increase in their pain and dysfunction. Let’s discuss why some of this happens and a few practical actions that may help mitigate it. This pain increase is primarily due to our vasomotor dysfunction, which as a result exacerbates nociceptive small … Read More “CRPS and Cold Weather: Increased Pain Due to Dropping Temperatures” »