Treatment options for CRPS / RSD patients...

There are many treatments available depending on whether you are being treating with Traditional Medicine, or Integrated Medicine also called Complementary Medicine.

Most patients that are diagnosed with CRPS or RSD do start out with Traditional Medicine as that is the normal routine that they are accustom to.  Depending on how long it took you to get your diagnosis, how far along your CRPS / RSD is, and to what degree it had already started to attack your body / nervous system… This will set the tone for how aggressive your doctor is to start with. 

Most Pain Management doctors understand this condition and understand how important it is to get ahead of it before it has a chance to move, mirror to other limbs or cause further damage to the affected area(s).

Some of the Traditional Treatment may include the following:

·         Physical and/or Occupational Therapy

·         Medications to help calm down the nerves and assist with sleep

·         Local Blocks

·         Regional Blocks

·         Lumbar Sympathetic Blocks (Ganglion Blocks)

·         Spinal Cord Stimulator

·         Intrathecal Pumps / Drug Delivery system for Chronic Pain patients

For some patients these treatments work and for a larger majority of the patients the above list of treatment options still leaves them with living with the unrelenting pain of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome!  More and more patients, family members, spouses and loved ones are asking the same questions… Isn’t there anything else out there that can help break the pain cycle or help relieve the pain?

The answer is yes.  If you are willing to look outside of the box to Integrated Medicine or Complementary Medicine then you will find more options that are available to you!  At this time there is very little research going on for CRPS or RSD in the United States.   Yet, if you look at Germany and parts of Europe, and they are doing more and more research into these diseases / syndromes.

Going outside of the United States, I have found the following treatment option available for CRPS / RSD.  Unfortunately, the FDA will now allow the majority of these treatments in the United States.  Thus, I had to fly to Frankfurt, Germany on three occasions for treatments and most recently have gone to one of their sister facilities in Mexico for further treatment.

·         Neural Therapy (utilizing Procaine and Ozone in the affected areas)

·         Blood Ozone Therapy (Having Ozone mixed in with your own blood and then put back into your body)

·         Alpha Lipoic IV’s  (This helps the nerves)

·         Lymphatic Massages

·         Ozone tent around the affect limb

·         GcMAF (an injectable drug to increase to immune system)

·         Stem Cell Therapy (utilizing my own blood/stem cells)

·         Thymus Cell Extract

·         Rife

·         Acuscope

·         Biotron

·         Hyperthermia (I was the first CRPS / RSD patient is the world to receive Regional Hyperthermia)

·         Procaine IVs

·         Ozone & Procaine IVs

·         HBOT

·         Homeopathic Medicine

·         Meditation

·         Hypnosis

 

I have to encourage anyone that has CRPS or RSD not to give up.  I know there are days that can be absolutely unbearable, but there is an old adage out there – where there is a will there is a way.  I know it is easier said than done one some days… 

Don’t be afraid to question your doctors, ask for their help and if they say they have nothing else to offer you than to keep you comfortable on medications then it is time to start looking outside the box!

If you have any questions regard any of these treatments or just have general questions regarding CRPS please feel free to post on here or send me an email to: rsd.crpsforum@gmail.com.