Amanda Siebe is a young woman living with a rare disease known as complex regional pain syndrome (or CRPS for short).
It began when Amanda sprained her ankle during a shift at the restaurant at which she works. Initially she just dealt with the pain and continued to work on the injured ankle. But in a few days her ankle had grown inflamed and very painful.
After that she attempted to continue working with crutches to take the weight off of her ankle, but another fall forced her to take time off of work. The ankle still did not heal. After roughly a year of suffering, Amanda was finally diagnosed with CRPS.
CRPS is a condition where the body’s nerves record every type of stimulation as pain. For example, simply poking the impacted area with your finger may feel like a stabbing knife. CRPS can eventually move to other parts of the body as well over time.
Click here to read Amanda’s story.
Dr. Cohn Comments
Pain is a complex entity. In medicine it is only considered a symptom. However, pain is the major factor that leads people to visit their doctors. Acute pain is most often related directly to some injury, trauma, or illness. The diagnosis is often easy and the treatment is rapid and then the pain is gone forever. When pain becomes chronic, the pain itself can become self-perpetuating despite the original source being healed. In medicine today, pain has often developed into such a problem with complex roots that a new specialty exists – Pain Medicine.
CRPS is a very complex problem, whose exact cause and treatment is poorly understood. Even among pain practitioners, many do not see the problem, and the challenges associated with it make these patients hard to treat. However, there are a few excellent practitioners who actually understand the condition and have developed a good track record in treatment of this condition especially for ankle and foot disorders, such as Dr. Lance Silverman.
CRPS is from an over active sympathetic nervous system that is being constantly stimulated from an ongoing injury in the ankle or foot region. In the case of multiple ankle sprains, or even a single untreated sprain, the ankle and foot region has damaged structures that have not healed and stimulate pain signals. Two things are needed for successful treatment:
- Aggressive surgical repair of all damaged structures by a qualified foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon, and
- Pain management by a skilled pain management expert who can handle all aspects of medication, interventional care, and coordinate physical and if necessary psychological care.
Finding the team of the Orthopedic Specialist and Pain Medicine doctor who do this all the time is the trick. I often partner with Dr. Lance Silverman (an ankle & foot orthopedic specialist) in such matters. Working together, we routinely help patients heal effectively and get back to a normal life.