[SweetSunshine]

Found out yesterday that my dad has this. He's had shoulder pain since his stroke in early March. This is very painful. He flinches at the slightest move of his shoulder. I took him to my pain management doctor~ a physiatrist~ or physcial medicine specialist. He was in the room with us for an hour. Examining dad, getting medical history etc.. I was soooo impressed by this doctor. I knew he was good since I go to him... but WOW.. the way he really tried to figure out what was wrong with dad... and FINALLY gave us an answer that we'd been looking for since the middle of May.. impresses me. This doctor is also a professor at Ohio State University. So he is an educator as well. Gave me information to read about what is going on with dad.. and what we can expect and not expect. This is such a HUGE relief to know this!!

Now we can move on to helping him thru this and hopefully get some relief. Dr gave him a cortizone shot in the shoulder for the bursitis/ tendonitis part of the pain. And put him on oxycontin in a low dose for the neurological part of the pain. I am concerned about the oxycontin.. but from what I understand .. if given in a whole form its kinda like time released . I see Neurotalk has a fora on RSDS so I will prolly post some over there too to try to get some suggestions as to how to help him. Here is the RSDSA information website.

[(JD)]

(((hugs))) This is sad news... such a terrible pain syndrome... while it's bad, I hope it stays in his shoulder only.. I'm sorry this happened. I see many ppl in pt each week trying to get a handle on their RSD (but they call it by the newer name... which I can't recall either)

[heyjoe]

its important to get the pain under control as soon as possible or else it can spread. If what they gave him doesnt work, he will have to get something else. Tell him not to chew that tablet, it is time released andif you chew it its released at once

[SweetSunshine]

Yes it is Sky. I feel for him. And he is 4 days into the Oxycontin and its making him have slurred speach, and lethargic.And its not helped his pain a bit . The cortizone seemed to help temporarily. He hasnt eaten for 2 days now. They are calling the Dr tomorrow to let him now.

Ohhh the new name is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

You know.. he's made it to 87 yrs old.. I dont understand why he has to have so much pain now. He's done some not so good things in his life.. but I really feel for him having to endure this at his age. For anyone at this age...

[SweetSunshine]

TY Joe~ So sorry its taken me so long to reply. I hope they find something soon for him. I wish it hadnt taken so long for us to find a doctor who knew what was going on. We might have had this taken cared of by now.

[(JD)]

Sweet it could be that at that age he's "run out" of the normal pain fighters our bodies have, and finding a good pain reliever to replace it will help. He may have been a tough guy...toughed it out, but with other things going on, just can't do that anymore? Who knows? TC

[heyjoe]

ask about the fentanyl patch. its a timed release in a patch you put on your skin. Fentanyl is very powerful but in that form , the patch, it doesnt have the same effect of drowsiness, lethargy etc.for most people.

[(JD)]

You know? I use the Lidoderm patches. They are lidocaine in patch form. I wonder if that has any effect on CRPS?

[SweetSunshine]

He was actually on that in the hospital Sky.. and it helped just a little bit. but not much. I use them also for my lower back arthritis and fibro pain. If its raining out.. I might as well not even use it. If its not and humidity is low.. it helps with some of it. I feel so desperate for relief sometimes that even that little bit helps. Dads was actually used on his broken rib area back in February when he went into the hospital. But by the time he got home.. that was about 90% gone. So I took the patch.. as I do for myself sometimes and cut it in half and put part of it on his rib area and the other half on his shoulder just to see if it did help. Like I said it helped a little bit. We'll see what the nurses find out tomorrow for him .