As I deal with the grief of having CRPS for the second time, I see our entire world struggling with similar stages as we face the pandemic of COVID-19. Dr. Jennifer Martin altered Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s original “5 Stages of Greif” that society has used for years to explain the stages of grief from losing a loved one to a seven stage iteration for chronic illness.
These never-ending seven stages more closely resemble the process of unpleasant life changes. If I try to bundle things together, especially if I lose multiple items at once, it becomes too overwhelming, and I get stuck in one of those boxes. So one issue at a time, I work through the circle.
The denial stage includes feelings of shock and disbelief. Getting stuck here means not getting the necessary treatment. It means not giving your medical team the accurate information they need. For CRPS, staying in this stage for any time delays treatment. There is only a short window of time from the start of CRPS before it becomes a permanent condition.
CRPS/RSD
“You have RSD/CRPS.” “No, I don’t!” I had that argument with my neurologist in February 2020. I argued listing all the symptoms I was missing, and she just held her ground. She explained that I didn’t seem to have as severe a case of RSD/CRPS as last time.
The last time was 2004, immediately following a total knee replacement. The immediate symptoms were:
- Off-the-charts burning pain that was not affected by known pain relievers.
- I couldn’t bend the new knee.
Within a couple of months, I also had:
- A dark maroon discoloration around my knee that looked like a sleeve;
- A significant temperature difference between the maroon area and anywhere else on my body;
- No hair growth in the maroon area; and
- Extreme sensitivity to hot, cold, wind, fabric, and touch in the maroon area.
Loss of Physical Strength
“You have lost muscle strength in both the upper body and lower body in the last four weeks.” This time I didn’t argue. I was just defeated by my own body.
Mental Fog
I received a request for a donation to one of the many Alzheimer’s charities. In it, there was a list of symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. I was so upset that I had all the symptoms that I threw the list away. I did have this same problem last time, but it was attributed to all the pain medications I was taking. I am not taking any now.
Travel Restrictions
Since 2012, my husband and I have been traveling. We come home in between trips to do laundry, see our kids and grandkids who live here and connect with friends. Then we are off again. We have many trips planned, but after two days of a four-day trip to Dallas, I realized that I don’t have the strength or stamina to do normal things and I asked my husband to take me home.
