Desensitization for CRPS | Where to start!

[@rachelwaldman7826]

This is so great tysm for sharing and your lovely student! I personally love the Recognise App. A few things, we have to start on my back opposite to my left foot for desensitization. Its not necessarily pain but other over active sympathetic nervous system reactions- severe nausea, spasms, etc. So strange but slowly its helping! Ty again for sharing with us!

[@ChaseTeagarden]

I’m so glad it’s helping! Happy to share all of this with you. Much more to come!

[@holdindownthefort8982]

Another fabulous vid! I have desensitized myself over 4 years with the help of a great PT. I started out with just air on my foot causing extreme pain too being able to wear and walk in a soft clog. Working on being able to leave a tie athletic shoe on for an extended period of time.

[@ChaseTeagarden]

I love that! I am proud of you for sticking with it even with how scary and painful it can be at first. It pays off!

[@Lariss7130]

This is such a helpful video I wanted to start desensitization for the allodynia- I have CRPS in my left foot and spread to my upper legs. I just didn’t know where to start but now I do. I know that in time I will be able to wear certain clothes and shoes again. Thank you for these amazing resources Chase

[@ChaseTeagarden]

I’m happy to be providing things for people who need it just like I did! Much much more to come!!

[@denisehymel2607]

I have been trying desensitizing myself. My hypersensitivity seems to be less sensitive and i tolerate it better.

[@ChaseTeagarden]

Keep going! As the brain updates with messages of safety the pain will come down 🙌🏻

[@LS-qo7ku]

What about how to stop the swelling and colour changes and freezing cold pain

[@ChaseTeagarden]

Check out my Q&A from last Friday (Q&A #2). I talk about calming the alarm system! I will also try to touch on this in this weeks Q&A.

[@marybeth37]

What if you have had CRPS for a long time ? Can desensitization still help after years ? And, if you don’t have anyone to assist you ? Thank you for all you are doing .

[@ChaseTeagarden]

Our brains can always learn and adapt to new things. When someone learns piano, their brain remaps to represent their fingers as larger. Because they practice the skill of piano. This is true with anything we do in life. The brain adapts and learns patterns. Both good and bad. So we can use that learning to our advantage. There are many other forms of desensitization we can do that don’t require a second person. I will post videos about those as well in the coming year 😃 This process is how I got out of pain and now I get my patients and clients out of pain. This girl herself had CRPS for many many years, but she is improving now that we’ve started these techniques! Thank you again for your kind words!

[@marybeth37]

@@ChaseTeagarden thank you so much for your reply, you are quite amazing ! I am especially grateful you answering this with the time so very late ! I will be here for all your videos . I’m pretty far along in this but I surely will try.

[@ChaseTeagarden]

No need to thank me. I truly feel this is my purpose. I am excited for all I have to share with you. I’ve spent many years of my life trying to fully understand what happened to me and how I ended up with CRPS. I went to school. Got three degrees and then spent 3 more years specializing in complex pain conditions. I was in that hell and I got out. Now I spend my days going back pulling people out. Both at my hospital and through my website/KZbin! 💙

[@rebeccafaubert8398]

I’m into year 15 of crps bilaterally in my upper extremities and it’s spreading down my back. I’m watching your video and wondered if the daily routine for desensitization should be done on both arms or if only one and alternating is appropriate? My pain originated in one arm but hurts most in my upper back, if that’s relevant. Just unsure whether the back should be considered a separate region/“limb” in the recommendation you made about alternating etc. And tysm for sharing this!

[@ChaseTeagarden]

Yes I would consider the back another region to apply these methods. So I would do each arm and then the back. But pace yourself. If you feel that doing one area increases your pain then do the arm at breakfast, then the back at lunch and then the other arm at dinner. Eventually you’ll be able to do all three every time. Just gradually build up! Happy to share and much more to come!

[@rebeccafaubert8398]

@ thank you so much! I won’t deny that a part of me is now immediately skeptical of everything I try to meditate the pain - years of having hopes dashed will do that to a person, and I’m on year 5 of refusing pain meds except the weakest RX in the lowest dose to stop escalating flares (a far cry from the massive morphine doses I had used and had my body grow dependent on). Now that my doctor is sincerely phoning it in as he’s run out of ideas, I’m cautiously optimistic that I will have better luck myself (since no one is more motivated to have me hurt less than me!) so however it plays out, thank you for being a resource to those of us feeling like there’s nothing left to try!

[@ChaseTeagarden]

I hear you. When everyone else failed me and the doctors gave up it ways my own intuition that lead me out of the pain of CRPS. That’s what has also lead me to spend the last decade of my life learning about complex pain conditions and become a pain specialist myself. To help people just like me who were forgotten or failed by the medical system. So I totally understand. No need to thank me. This is my purpose.💙

[@rebeccafaubert8398]

@ it’s an evolved mind that can find the benefit of such a diagnosis. It took me years to retrain my brain to moderate my emotions to minimize flare ups, certainly taking one of my degrees in psychology as a starting point for undoing a lifetime of Type-A overthinking. Thus far I have only been able to help a handful of people to see the benefits from putting the work in but I can absolutely understand how you have deduced that this is your purpose - it’s fulfilling to feel as though someone’s day and the days to come are improved through your impact. While I would never wish CRPS on anyone, it would be a blessing to have a doctor who understands the all-encompassing nature of the disease versus the overall failings of the healthcare industry that sees $ not people. Anyway, thanks again and I look forward to watching the rest of your materials!