2 ms·

With all due respect, I have a question. Where does the pain come 'from'? Like, if we hurt ourselves, the pain comes from _that_ place. When it hurts, does it h

by arjie 12y ago

With all due respect, I have a question. Where does the pain come 'from'? Like, if we hurt ourselves, the pain comes from _that_ place. When it hurts, does it hurt _from_ a place or just a general feeling of pain over the whole body?

bitsweet 12y ago
It started in a limb (right forearm where he had trauma from a routine surgery). For many people with RSD/CRPS it doesn't spread. Interestingly people used to go as far as amputating the painful limb but phantom pain remained. For a small percentage of people, it spreads over the entire body. They call this Full Body RSD. My father has this so his pain is everywhere but most often it is in his extremities. At it's lowest pain levels he says it feels like the worse sunburn he ever had. At his most painful moments he describes it like being stabbed with knives. This TEDx talk by Dr. Krane (he works with children with RSD/CRPS) describes the disorder and where the pain comes about half-way through http://www.ted.com/talks/elliot_krane_the_mystery_of_chronic_pain?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/elliot_krane_the_mystery_of_chronic...
- arjie 12y ago
  Thank you for the description and the link.
bigtunacan 12y ago
My first thought as someone who has high comorbidity of autoimmune diseases is that this sounds like extremely severe neuropathic pain. Since I wasn't familiar with CRPS I did a quick search for it and found this article http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy/detail_reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy.htm http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reflex_sympathetic_dystro... A search for autoimmune on that page turns up this nugget, "CRPS is more common in individuals with other inflammatory and autoimmune conditions such as asthma." Seeing as how it is a rare disease very little research is going to go towards this, so I'm just throwing out some conjecture that CRPS is likely an autoimmune disease itself. Autoimmune diseases often cause neuropathic pain. Link below provides some details, a quick excerpt though is provided here. "Neuropathic pain is distinguished from other pain conditions where the pain generator begins with disease of nonneural tissues. These nonneuropathic pain entities are said to be nociceptive and include conditions such as osteoarthitis and inflammatory pain." Now to put it in layman's terms from a patient that doesn't understand the medical condition (me); the pain comes from my nerves/brain not working right. I'm nowhere near as bad as the guy in this article; I am highly functioning on a day to day basis, but still have to use benzodiazepines in conjunction with opiates. As I understand it the former helps to slow down the overreaction of messages going between the nerves and brain, while the latter helps to take the "edge" off from the constant pain that remains. The pain can come from anywhere and everywhere. I really feel for this guy; on a real bad day the pain has gotten so bad I can barely get out of bed and move. On the rare occasion that happens I double up on the drugs and sleep it off. Sounds like this guy is suffering times 1000 on a daily basis what I am on my worst days. That's some seriously awful shit. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1810425/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1810425/

by arjie 12y ago

bitsweet 12y ago

It started in a limb (right forearm where he had trauma from a routine surgery). For many people with RSD/CRPS it doesn't spread. Interestingly people used to go as far as amputating the painful limb but phantom pain remained. For a small percentage of people, it spreads over the entire body. They call this Full Body RSD. My father has this so his pain is everywhere but most often it is in his extremities. At it's lowest pain levels he says it feels like the worse sunburn he ever had. At his most painful moments he describes it like being stabbed with knives. This TEDx talk by Dr. Krane (he works with children with RSD/CRPS) describes the disorder and where the pain comes about half-way through http://www.ted.com/talks/elliot_krane_the_mystery_of_chronic_pain?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/elliot_krane_the_mystery_of_chronic...

arjie 12y ago
Thank you for the description and the link.

bigtunacan 12y ago

My first thought as someone who has high comorbidity of autoimmune diseases is that this sounds like extremely severe neuropathic pain. Since I wasn't familiar with CRPS I did a quick search for it and found this article http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy/detail_reflex_sympathetic_dystrophy.htm http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reflex_sympathetic_dystro... A search for autoimmune on that page turns up this nugget, "CRPS is more common in individuals with other inflammatory and autoimmune conditions such as asthma." Seeing as how it is a rare disease very little research is going to go towards this, so I'm just throwing out some conjecture that CRPS is likely an autoimmune disease itself. Autoimmune diseases often cause neuropathic pain. Link below provides some details, a quick excerpt though is provided here. "Neuropathic pain is distinguished from other pain conditions where the pain generator begins with disease of nonneural tissues. These nonneuropathic pain entities are said to be nociceptive and include conditions such as osteoarthitis and inflammatory pain." Now to put it in layman's terms from a patient that doesn't understand the medical condition (me); the pain comes from my nerves/brain not working right. I'm nowhere near as bad as the guy in this article; I am highly functioning on a day to day basis, but still have to use benzodiazepines in conjunction with opiates. As I understand it the former helps to slow down the overreaction of messages going between the nerves and brain, while the latter helps to take the "edge" off from the constant pain that remains. The pain can come from anywhere and everywhere. I really feel for this guy; on a real bad day the pain has gotten so bad I can barely get out of bed and move. On the rare occasion that happens I double up on the drugs and sleep it off. Sounds like this guy is suffering times 1000 on a daily basis what I am on my worst days. That's some seriously awful shit. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1810425/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1810425/