Do not let CRPS define you

The number is 80 percent. 80 percent of folks with CRPS go into some sort of remission. I have gone from working on the mission of spreading positivity regarding our affliction to distraction regarding my other hobbies, history and amusement parks. I recently wrote and released a book regarding Pennsylvania Amusement Parks called "Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip." I have not let CRPS dictate me. I do not think about it. The pain is much less. I hurt every day but I do not think about it. I move around as much as I can, I do the things I want to do. I know my limits and I expand my limits daily. I crutch walk to work a mile out and back on a daily basis. I have started working my way back into the classroom. Last week I had a lump removed from my breast in an unrelated condition. I am recovering steadily from that. I took the bad hand of CRPS and turned it into a positive. I have had more sitting time on my hands and more time for my brain to be idle while I have put teaching on hold. I ended up writing that book about my two favorite hobbies, history and amusement parks, and it has ended up being very successful. It has gone out into stores and I even released an e-book version of it a few weeks ago.

We saw our first spring flowers on Saturday. Let today be your first day of spring into regaining your life.

I am prompted to re-up my efforts on my page and in my page https://www.facebook.com/CRPSandRSDpositivity and group https://www.facebook.com/groups/396230363742257/ because of something that happened last night. Even though I have backed off on my groups I still see posts pop up occasionally regarding our condition. I saw one last night that troubled me a bit, one of the main reasons I started the page and group to begin with. I saw a negative person who saw a bad outcome discounting my positive outcome. She said something along the lines of "that is not normal, people cannot expect that," in regards to my state of partial remission. Regardless of the statistic that 80 percent of folks see partial or full CRPS remission, because of her norm, no one else could have a positive outcome. The reality is that if you follow the advice of PT to move around as much as possible, over time you will see a better outcome. It hurts a ton to start, but slowly and steadily you will see a better outcome. You will feel less pain and get to see the world again. As long as you can taste your favorite food, maybe smell your favorite flower, or feel the winter turn into spring, you already have it better than so many people. CRPS is not a deathwish. It can, in fact, be a blessing that helps you better understand the world and motivate others to overcome their problems. Please spread the word to all of the negative folks that this is something that you can overcome. This is something that 80 percent of folks overcome in some shape or form. Please believe me. Let today be your first day of spring and a new beginning towards recovery.

As soon as my PT started me with movement exercises and the program from the NOI group called "Recognise," which you can find online, I immediately started regaining my movement and feeling less pain.

The other thing that saved me was sticking with my two favorite hobbies: history and amusement parks. My two other groups are www.facebook.com/coastertalknobszone with www.coastertalknobszone.com as my blog for that, and www.facebook.com/interestingpennsylvania with interestingpennsylvania.blogspot.com as the blog for that. Find a hobby that interests you and run with it. I wrote a book about my hobbies as a result of allocating the newly found time I gained from this condition. It was a dream of mine to write the book and I followed it. Please follow this path and do not let the negative folks on the net make you believe that you are hopeless. You have got this! Follow through. It is a difficult road but please let a positive attitude and regaining things define you.

Catching up......

The last few months have been particularly busy for me and I have been unable to find the time to write out posts for here. The last time I posted, way back in December, was right before I released my new book. It was the result of all of the extra time I have not working in a teaching job. It is available on our other blog, www.coastertalknobszone.com using the dropdown menu, through Amazon and many independent book stores.

Since I released it I have done so much leg work for it. I am back to write a post now though because I feel it is important to catch up. I have not thought too much about the condition because it is my new normal. I have made such tremendous strides that I can actually carry my crutches quite a bit of the time instead of having to be on them solely. We have made the best of it though and not sat around worrying about it. I have followed everything PT has told me to do and just kept on keeping on. On Sunday we checked out the Lake Erie ice formations and some snow covered roller coasters which was pretty awesome. If you follow that link you can see the cool stuff that we saw. It was really quite amazing and something I would recommend checking out if you are near-ish to one of the frozen Great Lakes.

The biggest piece of advice I give you is to follow all directions given by medical professionals, stay positive, keep moving and do not think about it. Writing this book is what has kept my head up through this. Keep your head up, find a hobby and run with it.