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It is past time to give all who love Kathryn an update. She is experiencing a severe flare-up!

Last night I held Kathryn for several hours as she cried in severe pain; she was no longer able to be strong and to forget The Beast that is CRPS. (Distracting herself and ignoring the pain has always been Kathryn’s strong suit.) I have held her while she screamed in pain many times in the last five years, but very seldom since her last Ketamine treatment. My highest priority at this time is to find and schedule another Ketamine treatment for Kathryn and to find the funding for it.

Over Christmas we discovered that Kathryn had a kidney infection. As you have heard me say before, we wish that we could put Kathryn and all those with CRPS in a bubble, because the smallest illness or injury can flare their pain intensely. This infection affected her pain from the beginning but did not seem to take her down into a full flare-up at first. However, it has now! How illness and injury flares CRPS and other similar Autoimmunes is predictable by observant clinicians, patients, and care-takers, but why it does so is not truly understood.

In March, I hope to speak to a group whose ministry is care-giving. I’ll attempt to tell them Kathryn’s story and to tell them the story of CRPS as I know it. It came to me this morning, by inspiration I hope, to ask each of you who sees Kathryn out of the house in a vertical position when she is putting forth her strongest effort, to share a few of your most honest words about this odd thing called CRPS. Simply share your thoughts as you understand CRPS or as you do not understand it. You can send your thoughts to me through email at macdonaldrz@gmail.com, or you can leave comments on this site. This will be extremely helpful as I share more about CRPS and how it is understood and misunderstood by friends, family, teachers, and others in the community.

As I speak to others about CRPS, I will attempt to address how invisible and lonely chronic pain can be. I know that people who make it a part of their lives to minister to those who are suffering see many frequently repeated themes and, no doubt, will hear in Kathryn’s story much that is familiar. But I also know that CRPS has many aspects that are an unknown nightmare to most, with characteristics that are sinister, hard to hear, and hard to understand.

We continue to thank you from our hearts for your prayers. God shows his help to us every day of our lives! We praise him for His goodness and His love!