Ever Heard of CRPS?
What is it?
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is an umbrella term describing short and long-term chronic pain, usually after an injury or due to other conditions. It tends to crop up around the time of middle age and is generally more common in females – but it’s still pretty rare. I haven’t met many people who know what it is, let alone how severe it can be! A client has described this to me as short-term fibromyalgia, as CRPS can actually disappear on its own once the physical cause, if by injury or mechanical issue, has been rectified. Whilst that might be true, the initial cause for the CRPS is usually always complicated and could cause other long-term issues.
One thing in common with most CRPS triggers however, is some form of nerve damage or affliction. If nerves, and the sheathes around them, are damaged, this can radically interfere with the many transmissions to the muscles and surrounding areas. This interference is what can lead to the immense pain that CRPS is known for. These defective nerve transmissions are also what leading research is looking into with Fibromyalgia too.
What does it do to you?
I thought about doing a symptom list for this condition but honestly, I think we’ve all had enough of those. CRPS can cause lots of different sensations alongside that pain, some visible and some invisible.
Starting with the pain, it can be spontaneous, unprovoked, or prolonged and any physical activity (depending on the location of the pain) can make it worse. Being in that sort of pain will bring with it a consistent feeling of fatigue, both physically and mentally. The pain can also spread from the central site, or even exhibit a symptom called ‘mirror pain’, meaning an area on the opposite side will hurt or tingle too. Areas might feel heavy, immobile or extremely sensitive to touch (allodynia), and honestly, it can be quite unpredictable.
In the visible spectrum, your skin can certainly change in a variety of ways. With pain often comes inflammation. With inflammation, there can be swelling, blistering, redness on the skin, itchiness, and just general skin abnormalities where it may be thinner and more sensitive. Other colorations can happen too, but it will essentially look like something is happening there, and it’s not comfortable.
In the invisible side of things, the list can be even longer. The area of the pain can be impaired, and stiffer, and potentially much less mobile. You might feel much more tired than usual, and much less physically stable on your feet. Various joints near the area could also show signs of stiffness too, depending on where the central site is. CRPS issues with the spine usually always cause knock-on effects down the legs and up the back and can lead to a whole host of negative full-body sensations. Your skin might feel hotter in on the central site too, whilst other areas are seemingly colder – a sign of nerve damage or impingement. In serious cases, CRPS can adversely affect the bones in terms of deformation, or excessive growth, and muscles can also atrophy whilst general strength decreases. It really is a dreadful condition.
What can be done about it?
CRPS is exhaustingly hard to diagnose, and with good reason. Don’t expect this diagnosis to come quickly due to the complex scans, isolation, and cross-referencing it takes. Assuming you make it through that, however, there are a bunch of things you can do to help yourself when suffering from CRPS in most cases. Pain treatment like this usually doesn’t look all that different across different conditions.
Physical rehabilitation is number one when it comes to CRPS recovery. Whether this be in the form of physiotherapy or hydrotherapy, and everything else in between, movement of the painful area improves blood flow, which maintains functionality. It stops it from getting worse in the least and improves it in the best. It’s just hard work when in constant pain. Keeping the strength in the area will help the muscle, the joints, and the general bone health and those are fundamental for recovery.
Cognitive therapies to help manage the psychological trouble of being in immense pain are also available. The mental aspect of any pain-related condition is vastly under-exposed, and most of the time it is just as hellish as the physical experience. Depression comes in waves, guilt due to lack of productivity, the regret of overdoing it, and so on, are all in there with the general negativity surrounding such a painful condition, amongst others. Graded Motor Therapy is also something that can be involved to teach individuals how to negate the phantom pain signals of an area that wasn’t the site of CRPS in the first place but was collateral damage during the ordeal.
Following these, there’s always medication if it’s available to you. NSAIDs are usually good to take the edge off pain and inflammation. Anesthetic creams, heating lotions, and Epsom salts are all in there too even if they aren’t classed as medication. Your doctor can prescribe heavier pain-related medication but the first route would always be to look at the things that can be done without medication, but depends on how serious the situation is.
As a coach, I’ve had precisely 4 people with CRPS in just over ten years, and all were at a similar level of pain. My leading advice is always to look at the basics first, and then discern what the CRPS is affecting amongst those basics. The key fall guy is usually sleep, and once sleep gets disrupted you can guarantee the pain will get worse. Preserving sleep is often the first battle, and if good (ish) sleep can be maintained, the body can at least be fairly efficient when managing such dreadful symptoms. Then an assessment of the CRPS sites follows, alongside basic physical rehabilitation, and go from there. CRPS is so often a trial-and-error experience, but one thing to always remember is consistency. Any recovery methods need to be done regularly for them to work. Invest time into them, and you will see results.
Easier said than done, and I will be writing a more detailed account of CRPS on the Spoonie Support membership area (coming soon).
Stay tuned,
Mark