CRPS Explained: Physiotherapist Reacts To 'Take Care of Maya' Case

Australian Physiotherapist reacts to the verdict of Maya Kowalski's case and explains Maya's initial diagnosis - Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, and how to treat it effectively.

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Time Stamps
0:00 Intro
0:46 Brief overview of Maya Kowalski's case
1:30 What is CRPS?
5:07 What is Pain & Chronic Pain?
8:26 Physical Symptoms of CRPS
9:49 Establishing a Baseline
10:41 Exercise
11:47 Deep Breathing
12:30 Cold Showers
13:48 Gut Smash

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Your Wellness Nerd is my way of trying to offer a new perspective on pain, injury, and daily function based entirely on what I'm finding relevant in the clinic day-to-day as a Physiotherapist. I'm a HUGE nerd about optimizing human function and performance and sincerely hope to provide the "a-ha!" moment you didn't realize you were looking for.

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[YourWellnessNerd]

I genuinely hope this helps anyone better understand their CRPS!

[aleishaward]

Hi there, as someone who has CRPS type 1 (it's 98% better now) I found this video really interesting, but I'd also like to add a couple of things from my own experience that may help other people who are going through the same thing. I was incredibly lucky that I was diagnosed and seeing a pain doctor within 6 months and had an excellent physiotherapist to help me, but even then it's a long journey- I've been told I recovered at a rate that is way off the top of the charts, but it's still a process of years, not weeks or months. It's good to be aware of that, but not to despair over that because it is possible to recover fully (and emotional regulation plays a role in recovery).

I would offer caveat around exercise and temperature in the more acute phase of the syndrome however, because it really depends on the person, the severity, and how CRPS presents. My CRPS (lower right leg) involved severe temperature sensitivity and temperature pain flares, so increasing heat or cold did not work for me and in fact made things much worse (I learned that the very hard, very painful way). Even now- 3 years on- I still have some temperature regulation issues in my right foot (that's part of the 2% that I still have to work through). Similarly around exercise, every environment outside of my home became threatening for me for several months (I was on crutches for 7 months and a cane for 10 months) and as much as I tried to continue to be active (because I'm a very active person) it was actually making the CRPS worse, more embedded, and increasing my brain's faulty wiring. What my nervous system really needed was to slow down, and not try to be out and about and active. So my advice to people with CRPS is to find your safe space (mentally and physically) where you know you're relaxed and feel comfortable and safe, and work to slowly, incrementally, gently increase it. 

The real beginning of my recovery came when we went into lockdown for Covid and suddenly I didn't have to try to go anywhere or do anything. That was when my brain and central nervous system was really able to relax, and I was able to apply neuorplasticity work and breathing work to allow my brain to realise that the outside world wasn't threatening and I could relearn how to walk. The first month was first learning how to walk down my driveway and back, then down my road and back. Without the external pressures of having to go anywhere or trying to be active within 3 months I was able to walk a kilometre without a crutches, and I was able to start my journey back to the dance studio and all my other activities. It's taken another 2 years to get to the point where I'm almost 100% better, but I also recognise now that the more tired and stressed I am the more I'm pain sensitised and I know there are still patterns in my brain and body that I need to course correct to truly get back to normal. I hope this helps anyone going through the same thing- and for anyone with CRPS reading this, good luck on your journey.

[jodiashcraft]

It is called COMPLEX regional pain syndrome. The word complex was important to have as the first word because it begins to explain it, right from the start. Plus it is a disease. Chronic, which you keep saying, does explain, maybe, what it could or will be for most, but that’s not good enough for several reasons. Do a little more digging. I cringe when people talked about as if they are some sort of expert and they don’t even know what it’s called.

[acid_milk]

This disease will be the end of me, of that I am certain.