Hi, my name is Mo. I don't know if I am in the right section or not because Im not 100% sure what is wrong with me. My story is kinda long (sorry) but I will try to make it as short as possiable. Also sorry for any misspelled words. I fell in 97, slipped on black ice and came down on both of my knees and hurt my left ankle. I should have gone to the hospital when this happened but being stubborn and bullheaded and living on my own I couldn't take the chance and something be wrong and me be unable to work. Me not working meant no money to pay my bills. I was in severe pain for ever it seemed, finally had to give in and get my right knee looked at because it never seemed to get better and was giving out on me and the pain was horriable. I was also having trouble with my left foot, awful pain and foot was giving out on me. Went to my family Dr, he did all he could and nothing helped the knee and he said I had just badly sprained my foot so he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. This Dr checked knee and said I needed surgery and checked the foot and said I had a grade 5 sprain and said that's the worse you can sprain an ankle it would have been better off if I broke it. So I ended up having arthoscopic knee surgery and I had to keep my foot wrapped with an ace bandage and wear I think it was called an air splint? I was off work for a few months and did therapy for the knee but not the foot and the foot seemed to get better cause I wasn't working or on my feet and always had my legs propped up due to both injuries. I finally returned to work and all was good for a few weeks then all of a sudden I started having major issues with my left foot again. I was having excruciating pain no matter if I was on my feet or not and my foot was constantly giving out on me again. I had to tolerate it as long as I could again because I was just off however many onths from knee surgery and couldn't afford to take more time off. Well it got to the point that I had no choice but to go back to ortho Dr. I don't even remember now what he said was wrong with my foot now but I do remember I had to do therapy and I couldn't do it. The slightest movement to my foot put me through the roof. This ortho guy I was seeing retired or something so I started seeing another ortho Dr in the same group. I ended up having to have foot surgery. I had a tendon replacement, I had a plate and 8 screws put in my foot, I had a bone graft done, something was done to my achellies tendon, cant remember what and I had a few other things done but cant remember what right now. So back on crutches and no work, finally time to start therapy and once again I cant do therepy for my foot because I couldn't do even the beginner stuff, they couldn't advance me at all because even just trying to pick up cut up rubber strips tied in knots with my toes was excruciating for me so therapy was stopped more xrays were done. Ortho guy couldn't see why I was having so much pain. put me back in therapy to basically sit there and do nothing and ice my foot. This went on for a long time and I still was never able to advance in therapy. So stopped therapy again. Now I was told my foot was rejecting the plate and screws and had to have them taken out, had another surgery #2 on my foot now to have hardware taken out. Foot felt better at first until I started therapy again, same issues to much pain and couldn't do nothing. I was starting to feel like I was going crazy because the ortho dr kept telling me he didn't see how or why I should be in so much pain, he even accused me of faking it. So he gave me a bunch or cortozone shots in my scars from surgry and put me back in a fracture walker. Then after time returned to therapy with the same results as every other time. By now I was desperate and was looking on the internet for possiable reasons my foot wasn't getting better. I came across RSD and asked DR about
that...do you think I could have this because I do have some of the symptoms....he flat out said no you don't have RSD but he still couldn't explain or figure out why I was still having trouble walking and having excruciating pain and I had the pain even if I wasn't on my feet. More time goes by, I heal from surgery, still having same issues, still cant do therapy. He takes cat scan and now tells me I have a torn tendon and a few other things wrong. I said well I think these things happened from me trying to do therapy and he said that wasn't possiable and again I brought up RSD and he dismissed it. So now I had to have my 3rd foot surgery to have torn tendon fixed and whatever else he said was wrong. Now every time I had surgery on this foot it got worse. I was healing from 3rd surgery and time to start therapy AGAIN and STILL couldn't do it. so he puts me in a cast from the knee down and had me wear it for 8 weeks!!!! Cast comes off he puts me in therapy again and STILL cant do therapy. He finally told me he has done everything he can think of and nothing is helping and told me I might as well file for disability because I wasn't going to ever be able to work again and he said he would do what he could on his end to help me get it. So time goes by and my insurance from work changed and I couldn't see my regular family dr and picked another, I was sick and needed to see a Dr. While I was there I was telling him about
my foot and NEVER did I mention my theory about
RSD. He had me take my shoe and sock off to look at my foot and he got out a long Q tip and slowly ran it over part of my foot and asked if that hurt and I nearly sent the man through the wall, just touching my foot with the Q tip hurt and he did a couple other things, cant remember what and it hurt like hell and he looked at me and said...."you have RSD" I just started crying and he asked why and I told him I asked the ortho guy about
RSD several times and he dismissed it each time. So this regular Dr started treating me for chronic pain. He tried a few drugs but they didn't help then he put me on
Neurontin and kept upping my dosage I was taking a very high dosage and started having trouble seeing so I had to stop taking it. For some reason I couldn't see this Dr any more and started seeing another in the group. I gave up on my foot for awhile and just lived with the pain as horriable as it was. I ended up in the hospital with phnemonia and this new Dr came in and saw all the scars on my foot and started asking me about
it. This regular Dr also does research programs where you get paid and get free meds to be a guinea pig. He said just from my story he could tell me that I had RSD/
Neuropathy. He said he had a pain program starting and said I would be a good person to put in this program and asked if I was up to it. I said what the heck, nothing else has helped. I got out of the hospital and the pain program finally started and I was taking
fentanyl I put it between my cheek and gums and it melted. This was my wonder drug. It tremendously helped my pain but I still had bad pain but it was a huge difference. Program ended and that was that, thanks for helping now you cant have
fentanyl any more. I was devastated. So this Dr put me on Ms contin and that is what I am taking to this day. I take 45 miligrams every 12 hrs, its time released. Some days it helps a little but most days it doesn't even touch my pain. I am about
ready to ask for my dosage to be increased again. Well I started having trouble with my left wrist and he had to send me to a hand surgeon and while I was at the hand surgeons office I saw a certificate on his wall that said he had a speciality in the foot and ankle so I told him my whole story. He did xrays. He came back in the room and said well I have good news and bad news. He said the good news was the if it wasn't for all the scars on my foot he would never believe I had 3 surgeries on my foot. There are no signs inside my foot of ever having any surgeries. The bad news was that he said I have severe arthritis in my foot. He said honestly I don't see how you are still walking. I asked him if "severe arthritis" is
Rheumatoid Arthritis and its like he wont give me a direct answer, he just says it "severe arthritis" so does anyone know if severe arthritis is the same as
Rheumatoid Arthritis??? I asked if I had RSD and he said no its more "severe arthritis" I am also morbidly obese which happened over all this time of having surgeries and being off work and my foot hurting so much it has completely changed my life. I cant even do dishes without having to wash some then sit for awhile the get back up a do more dishes. I cant do anything without being in excruciating pain, even the slightest movement to my foot puts me through the roof and my movement is VERY limited in this foot. I can hardly move it up and down let alone sideways. So this hand surgeon/foot and ankle guy wants to put me in whats called a "crow boot" for those that don't know what that is, its kinda like a fracture walker but its huge and black and had 4 velcrow straps to hold it on...it looks like a Frankenstein boot/shoe. The difference between a crow boot and fracture walker is the crow boot completely takes away all movement with the foot when its on. When you have a fracture walker on you still have some wiggle room. This hand surgeon Dr told me that even if I loose weight I will still have severe arthritis and all the pain, it might let up some but not much. I have been working on loosing weight and have lost about
60lbs since last summer, no difference in pain but I am still mobidly obese. Since all this has happened with my foot my whole body hurts so bad every day. I hurt from my feet to my neck and every where in between, my fingers hurt, I have carpel tunnel in both hands now, on days when pain is tolerable I use a cane when I leave home but don't use it at home cause things are close enough together that if I heed to grab hold of something Im fine, but I do have days where I need to use my crutches and do partial weight on my foot. I have pain in my foot every day, just the degree of it changes through out each day. My body hurts every day. Some days its all I can do to get up to go to the bathroom, let alone try to do things around the house. I am miserable. I am depressed over the foot issue and other issues in my life. I lost my mom 8 yrs ago and she was my best friend and I have had a horriable time dealing with her loss and have made several attempts at therapy for my grief and other issues and they all fizzled out. so I just stopped going. I just recently started back up in therapy with a woman who specializes in grief and she said I have complicated grief. I have been seeing her now for a few months and I have made good progress. I also take a lot of psych drugs cause I have "issues" like the depression, I have bad anxiety and I have other issues that are believed to be caused from all the bad things that happened in my life when I was young, abused by father mentally, physically, verbally and sexually, I have severe PTSD...in other words I am a huge freaking mess but I am working on getting better this yr with my mental health and my grief and loosing weight. This hand/foot Dr acts like he don't even want to mess with my foot after hearing my story...like he afraid to do anything for being sued which is probably what I should have done to all these other Drs. I even asked about
pain meds and told him I was taking Ms contin and asked if this was what I should take, should I get the pain script
s from him now or still get them from my family Dr...he said just do what you have been doing....he don't even want to give me pain meds...I think he is very scared of my foot lol....hell Im scared of my foot!!! So I don't know what to do who to see, should I just keep seeing who I am and taking the Ms contin that don't really work well...Im so confused. Oh and I did get approved for disability after yrs of not applying I finally did it back on 08 and got approved in 5 months on 1st time applying....what a shocker there!! So I do have Medicaid and medicare. I apologize for this long mess of a story...its my baggage.