After 3 years of severe nerve pain from CRPS, Dr.Rosen suggested a lumbar sympathectomy. It took me a while to agree to it cause I was nervous but I went through with it in September. The post op pain was pretty rough, but once that subsided, I actually had a warm foot. My foot’s been cold and discolored since my first embo and the CRPS started. I was shocked to feel a warm foot immediately after the procedure. Most of my pain I’ve attributed to the CRPS over the years, cause it always trumped anything I was dealing with in regards to pain levels. But now that I can’t really feel nerve pain in the lower part of my leg, other pain has become a daily visitor. The past couple of months I’ve been dealing with severe throbbing shooting pain in my ankle, that goes up into my calf and down into my foot, but the epicenter is the ankle. It feels like there’s cement in my veins. Just immense pressure and it doesn’t matter what I’m doing at the time. Standing, walking, sitting, laying down. It comes out of no where and stays. I called Dr. Rosen’s office and his PA said it’s likely a pain caused by all the blood flow going to one artery, since that’s all that’s feeding my foot now. I’m worried it’s ischemic pain and it’s a forever thing, I’m also worried the AVM grew again. I have an appointment with him on the 23rd. I just want to chop my leg off. I feel like I’d be better off without it, learning to live without now, instead of ischemia causing another wound and infection that’ll take it later on when I’m older and it would be harder to recover. I don’t know, I was really praying g this procedure would bring more relief, but it just allowed other pain to come to the forefront. It’s so frustrating.
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Really sorry to hear what you are experiencing. I’m a big believer in a second opinion, and would wait until the next appointment, and if not satisfied perhaps consider it. I was a brain AVM guy, so quite different than yours. I see the challenges of our extremity folks and really hope you can get som relief. My thoughts are with you, John.
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