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11/25/2012 05:00 AM

Healthy Living: CRPS

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Have you ever injured yourself and even though the injury has healed, the pain persists? Some patients think they are going crazy and they can't find an obvious cause, but they are in severe pain.

It was a year after she broke her ankle that Marieta Velvis still complained to her doctors of leg pain.

Velvis said, "Burning felt like my foot was sunburned. It got to a point where I couldn't walk anymore."

Over the counter products gave her no relief, after nearly two years she was diagnosed with CRPS.

"Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, otherwise RSD, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, it can come about anywhere from a minor injury, such as someone pushing a shopping cart to into your leg, having a sprain can cause this or direct nerve damage," said Dr. Aruna Sahoo.

Pain often gets worse over time up to years after an injury.

"You start noticing it to be very swollen, shiny in appearance, sweating in the leg. You will notice increases sensitivity, even the bed sheets, when you ever your feet touch the bed sheet, you will feel pain form that," Sahoo said.

Treatment involves many disciplines, which include medication, physical therapy, plus nerve blocks, injections.

"The injections we do, because they think the problem lies in the your sympathetic nervous system, you target the sympathetic nervous system, they are called lumbar sympathetic blocks or ganglion blocks, depending on where the pain is experienced," Sahoo said.

A pain specialist can do the series of injections. The three injections given are a week apart and if the patients’ pain does not subside, within three to six month, more injections can be considered."

Velvis opted for injections.

"That gave immediate relief of all my symptoms. I loved it, it was a great feeling," Velvis said.

While her pain may flare up, right now, her pain is under control.