The beginning of the pain

The doctors aren't exactly sure how I ended up with CRPS. When I was in high school, I sprained my right ankle a number of times. The last time I inverted my ankle (rolled the foot inward), heard a loud pop, fell, and almost passed out from the pain. This was in May of 2001. By February of 2002 I was undergoing an arthroscopic surgery to remove soft tissue wedged in the right ankle joint. The debate is over whether it was the initial injury or the operation that caused my CRPS. The jury is out on this and may never return.

After the operation, I got an infection at the surgery site. The surgeon was slow to put me on anti-biotics, so that probably didn't help my situation. By the time they removed the cast, the infection was so bad I was put on a heavy course of anti-biotics to get rid of it.

I was slow to walk after the operation. The surgeon said there was no reason I shouldn't be able to walk 2 weeks afterwards. 2 months later he, myself, and my physical therapist were all baffled. Finally the surgeon sent me to a pain clinic. That is where I met the doctor who finally gave me a reason for the pain. He only needed to compare my right leg to my left for a few seconds before telling me he knew what the problem was.

It was a huge relief to finally get an answer. We were so hopeful. Little did we know that a diagnosis was only a small piece of the fight I had ahead of me.

To this day, on a good day I awake in the morning with a pain level of 6-7/10. On a bad day my pain levels will be as high as a 10/10. This pain level, however, can fluctuate by the second.