Life can be good again
Online Therapy for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
Hand Therapy - Sunshine Coast, Bli Bli
Palliative Care home visits - Sunshine Coast
Do you have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)?
Get checked out.
Your first step will be to get thoroughly checked out in person by your Doctor/s. Sometimes it can take a while for a specific diagnosis to be given. If there is any chance you might have early signs and symptoms of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), it is well worth starting treatments now. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by starting treatments as early as possible.
Most Commonly Recognised Symptoms
- Pain - More intense and lasts longer than would be expected after an injury
- Temperature - The affected hand/arm or foot/leg (sometimes face) might feel hotter or colder than the other side
- Skin colour - Might be a different colour (sometimes blotchy, darker or paler)
- Swelling - that stays around for longer than expected after an injury
- Sweating - Less or more than affected side, you might feel more clammy in the web spaces or have visibly more sweat
- Muscle issues - weakness and or poor coordination
- Hair - might grow thicker and darker on the affected limb
- Nails - might grow faster or slower, thicker or thinner on the affected side
- Skin texture - Sometimes thinner, drier and shiny
Other Possible Symptoms
- Strong dislike of the limb/digit
- The limb/digit feels foreign
- The limb/digit feels a lot smaller or larger
- Palmar fasciitis - small lumps on joint lines, tightening/chords of tissue in the palm or fingers
- Digits becoming visibly thinner and more pointy (pencilling)
What it is like to live with CRPS?
If you are living with the signs and symptoms of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), you are all too aware of the impact on your life. Compared to another person with CRPS your experience will be different in some ways, and similar in others.
Understanding the Lived Experience
Health professionals and the wider community need to try to understand the lived experience of those with CRPS.
The Welsh neurologist Thomas Lewis wrote “pain is known to us by experience and described by illustration”.
The artist Rosemary Eagle explains this piece.
“Early 2013 I decided to try to express what was really going in my life relating to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Black Dog Crossing is based on a real dog I photographed one day, it was a dark day in my life, a day when everything changed and the world around me became temporarily blurred. The dog became a reminder of that point in time and as I was working on this etching I remembered that the black dog also symbolises depression and this seemed appropriate. What looks whimsical on the surface masks a darker meaning and the picture is open to interpretation; for me it is about a difficult journey, the ladder running up the side of the tall building, the dog on the tightrope-all seemingly impossible obstacles.”
Treatments
CRPS
Pain science tells us that you will be in pain if there is more evidence of danger than there is evidence of safety. Learn how to reduce cues of threat and increase cues of safety is principle in treating CRPS.
Hand Therapy
A fully accredited hand therapist (Occupational Therapist) with over 19 years of experience treating the upper limb. Come visit us in our comfortable clinic in Bli Bli. Those with sensory sensitivities are well catered for.
Palliative Care
OT Homevisits for pain management using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and a dermoneuromodulation device called InterX. Minor home modifications, such as suction grabrails and equipment, can be prescribed. Free 45-minute Access Bar session for the first appointment for you and/or your carer (reduces mental stress).
Technologies to treat CRPS outside of the clinic setting
We have some amazing technologies available to us now. Learn how to safely and effectively use certain technologies.
TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises)
Want less stress in your mind and less tension in your body? This amazing somatic (body) technique can be learnt as a home practice and then you have the skill for life. Initially while learning how to self regulate in the technique please ask how a TRE provider can be invited to join your OT session.
Our Services
The Protectometer
Pain science tells us that you will be in pain if there is more evidence of danger than there is evidence of safety. Learn how to reduce cues of threat and increase cues of safety to switch off pain.
Explain Pain
When you really understand what is driving the pain of CRPS and how it is completely different to the pain of a new injury - this can be the turning point you need.
Graded Motor Imagery (GMI)
This treatment tool is the current number one in the scientific literature for treating CRPS. Doing this, and doing this well, can reverse CRPS.
Technologies to treat CRPS outside of the clinic setting
We have some amazing technologies available to us now. Learn how to safely and effectively use certain technologies to treat yourself regularly at home.
TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) - underway
Learn how to access natural recovery mechanisms within your body, simply and easily from the comfort of your home.
About Rosie
Hello!
My name is Rosie.
Business owner and therapist at Compassionate Hands for CRPS.
I have been working as an occupational therapist since graduating from the University of South Australia in 2000. I work with people who have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in an arm, leg, face or whole body. I hold the Accredited Hand Therapy qualification as awarded by the Australian Hand Therapy Association, and have had extensive training with the Neuro-orthopaedic Institute regarding chronic pain (persistent pain states). To keep up-to-date with new developments around the world, I am a member of various organisations including the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and their special interest group for CRPS.
