THE END
I am done with the pain program at Rehibilitation Institute Of Chicago, and i have a certificate to prove it!!! It has helped me in so many ways. I am doing so much more, i am able to talk about it more and my pain flare ups continue to reduce. I believe my baseline pain level will go down in the near future as well. The RIC and my pain family has helped prepare me go out into the waters. I am still going to need to check in for maintance in the harbor sometimes, but i am ready for my life and controling the pain on my own.

My new family's art work during the last art therapy

Jenna visited me this week and it was so nice to see her. She is such a sweetie and i cannot wait until the day i see her again. She is a great friend and was a great comfort to have there. And of course my madre has been a great comfort all along especially down at the RIC, Kevin is right she is the best mom ever!!

Thank yall for supporting me through every step of the way. I know things still won't always be easy but I am prepared and I believe it'll keep getting better.

Peace,
Little E


ps my goal of being able to wear 5 finger shoes without screaming has been made a reality :D

Wednesday is complete.

woaw. This is crazy. I am almost done with my treatment...while in chicago now i have to apply all I learned into my life at home, which is going to be just as hard.

Yesterday was exhausting. I ended with conditioning and i get exhausted so easily..we all do, we are in pain doh haha, but exercising whopped me. I had to recover at "home" and then couple hours later Kelly and her mom came over to have dinner with us. That was a lot of fun, we just sat on the roof top eating pizza and fruit. We talked all night, and the moms got a chance to have someone who knows what they are going through. (kelly is almost the exact situation as me with CRPS)

Today started off with my shoulder being awful, it was on and off all day. But i did run again with my physical therapist on oak street. Painful but nice, and even though i felt the same she said i controled my gate pattern better and didn't favor my left! So it's nice to know that even when it feels bad on the last half of 2 minute sets that i am not harming myself.

Today was my last day with Felix, my biofeedback therapist. I am gonna miss him. He is this russian man who laughs with his belly and is uber funny :) But he said he see great things in my future and said i have come very far in the biofeedback. such a sweet old man!

I had to say goodbye to Lisa, the women in my group who also has CRPS, bc she has to leave. It was so sad to say goodbye. i love her so much. She is such an inspiration. she lives in conneticut and I miss her already.  :/ SHe is one of my new mommy's. She always look after me, like they all do, and said to call or skype anytime i need or want. If you have an extra prayer, please pray for Lisa, she is so sweet and has it pretty bad. She has been such a blessing to my life and i know she may be leaving here but she will never leave my heart.

I ended today in relaxation, and no surprise i fell asleep today. the therapist had to shake my arm 3 times to wake me up...needless to say Kevin is getting a lot of laughs from it. He knows i almost always nod off.

I am not as anxious about getting "out of the harbor" and going out into the waters. The staff has really worked these last couple days on how to prep me for applying everything from there into my daily life. The first 3 days I work full days and i am still kind of anxious about it, but then i will have the rest of the week to recover from it. And my fears of having an ideal college life with my nerve conditon have also been dealt with a lot here.

Here i have dealt with most of the feelings that i have run away from for 3 years. My group helped my out and I am ready to be more open with others and not run away from the feelings that scare me. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and I want y'all to know i promise i will start coming to you more when i need someone to help me.

So here i am, almost done with my 4 weeks of agressive treatment. I have improved emotionally, I have met other people who are going through the same thing, I have become more functional, my hypersensitivity pain has improved greatly and I feel it will continue to improve. Through all of this exhaustion and pain i have been able to enjoy my summer and meet a new family :) This is where I was suppose to be, God is always right.

peace,
E

Day one of week 4!

The final week here in chicago for the Rehibilitation Institute of Chicago! This whole thing is going by sooo fast! It has definitely helped me and gave me the tools and support to continue to improve when i go home. This weekend was mixed in with good times but over doing it and then making the rest of the weekend not so good. not so good.

I don't want to jinx myself but i think my baseline pain level is starting to go down!! bahhhh. Still a lot to work on but I will get there some day. Today during group session I had a breakthrough in dealing with my feelings. It was a bit much to handle but I think it was a good step and showed me how close my group has become. We are literally a family united by pain. They are the BEST. I am going to miss all 7 of them sooooooo much. It is rediculous!

Today I had pt where we worked a lot on stabilizing my shoulder, hard but good because doing them i realized how weak my left shoulder is. I also had aqua therapy when really gave my shoulder a work out..bit too much of a work out actually.

My Aunt Jen stopped by to see mother and me :) that was nice. we just sat out on the roof top garden and ate some cheese and crackers. Now i am currently trying to find the motivation to not pass out asleep and go do all of my exercises...mehhhh.

It's kinda scary thinking of having to go back to my life at home and apply everything into my old life. And of course pace in real life... ;p biggest challenge for sure. But I am clearly so very excited to see my family and friends but I have to learn how not to over do myself in work and all the craziness of life.  woaww.

Kay bye, love y'all
Erin

Day 4 of week 3!
Today it reached a 107 degrees here. so that's always nice to pretend your on the surface of the sun haha. My Aunt B can to visit for lunch. It was really nice to see her!  It was so thoughtful of her to stop by.

Pain today in the shoulder region was pretty bad, only because my pinched nerve in my arm pit has been awful. I don't know why and there is nothing to do but stretch it and stablize the shoulder. The pain shoots down the rest of my left arm and then tightens all my arm/shoulder/neck muscles. Luckily i have nothing going on the rest of the night and just get to rest and use my exercises to help the pain pass.

I know this post is very uneventful but i honestly couldn't tell you any more about my day because my brain is so fogged up. gonna go rest here. thank you everyone for your support, it really helps me keep my spirits up!

Lots of love,
E

4th of July & CRPS

I was off today from my pain program. I have a worse pain level today, the leg increase is from the run..but not positive why my shoulder is above it's base line pain. :/ luckily i'm starting to feel a little more in control of it and know it'll pass. Now i just have to figure out how to keep getting better so my form of pacing will actually match the college life i want to live.

 I had some fun, had some descent pain but the family was pretty good about distracting me. Unfortunately the 104 degree weather was not helping distract me at all. But we were able to get fun in, just felt bad bc i was lagging down everyone having to stop for breaks etc..

Ace (Siobhan) and i did get to go spend some of our gift cards at the gap here, that was fun bc we could actually buy stuff hahah. Then we went to the black hawks store..Of course! HAWK PRIDE.

We came back for a break, i lied down and did some exercises. then we had subway here at the Mcdonald kitchen and then headed out for a boat tour. It was soo darn hot but the boat tour was cool. we were able to see the city from a different view. Check out Dans pictures on fb when he puts them on. They are epic..or at least the view was, hopefully the camera caught it!

All of this weeks blogs..I NOW HAVE internet to put them on :) :)

yo. I am here and ready to start the 3rd week of my treatment at RIC! yayy. I am really pumped because Dan came with me and my mom, we had a blast here at the Ronald McDonald House
And the greated part was that we didn't really do anything. we hung out in the room, showed Danny aroundt he place, and ate ice cream/played cards out on the roof top garden :)
Ohh plus we had about as many funny issues you could imagine. I lost my shoe in the busy street, where my mom parked the wrong way in a one way street, then we went to the alley to trn around but we had to make so much points to get out i
felt like we were one of those comedey movies..more happened but i won't bore you.
I have to do something that is called desensitization and i do that because my CNS persives everything as a threat to the body hence the constant pain signals. Sooo if i repeatedly rub the secections of my left side then hopefully my brain
will stop interpreting those signals in a harmful way. It was a break through, last night my session didn't increase my pain!!! You may not fully understand this, but just knwo that that
is HUGE :) and today my sessions increased my pain but it came back down fairly quickly..as in like 2 minutes. whoot whoot!



July 2nd
Here we go. First day of week three complete. I started the morning out with almost passing out..again. 3rd time in the past three weeks so i guess i'll figure out what doc says tomorrw.
Things got better after some time. But my shoulder is pretty awful today cannot figure out why, its not like i over used it or anything. Just crazy nerves i guess. :p

When i was in psychology this morning i realized how far i have come in such a short amount of time. I have been able to get better control/avoid more flare ups, I have been able to open up to people about my CrPS without
being afraid of judgement or being not as "strong." I have been able to start dealing with my feelings and learn many tools that i can use on my own to help the pain.
Ohh and my desenseidization has started to improve as well :)

My uncle nonny came down to visit for the afternoon. it was great to see him. We went to oak beach right by my building and had lunch. it was a great afternoon. He is such an inspiration.
When i got out of "boot camp" i went home to rest. Like i said my afternoon into night was pretty rough, luckly things with uncle nonny were good. but anyway..I rested then went to the dinner that was donated by a 5 star resturant! it was such a delishous meal! woaw. I cannot believe they made all that food just for us here at the ronald mcdonald house! I rested some more and then we headed out to go on the double decker bus tour. Danny really wanted to go on it.it was actually pretty interesting and fun until my pain got a lott worse. We got off early to get right back home.I am doing on the boardwalk to try and run tomorrow. Right on the lakeside, ohh yeahh.
back to the rest of my homework exercises!
Peace,
E


July 3rd
Heyyy. Day number 2 down of week three! I RAN OUTSIDE BY THE LAKE TODAY!!!!!!!! My pt came out said its better than the treadmil and she ran behind me watching my gate pattern.
She gave me a lot of useful advice for the future out how to build up running, pacing, and watching my pattern to prevent injury. So that started off my morning. The sun was still not high over head so it was right over the lake and the beach looked beautiful and there are sail boats out on the water... It was a very dear moment to me that i will hold in my heart. I rand for 2 minute intervals for a total of 8 minutes, and my pain didn't sky rocket, in fact by the end of biofeedback the next hour I had a 3/10 pain!! it was such a great dayy!! gosh. and i did the bike and ab work outs later in the afternoon.
I go from having an awful night to this day. God gives me what i need that's for sure. Let's pray it continues in that direction. :)

The rest of my family came down this afternoon. We went to the family session and out to eat at Gino's! Love that place. The best chicago style pizza's, i swear. Plus i got to write on the walls there. That always makes a resturant 10 times cooler.  If i ever open up a resturant ppl are definitely going to be able to write all over the place, that's what adds character. We then came back home for a bit, rested and then headed out to navy pier bc even though my father lived down here for years
he has never been to navy pier. We went on the ever awesome ferris wheel and walk aroound the shops. twas nice.

To some it up, I am currently exhausted but the day was the best day i have had sense i can remember. :) praise the Lord! too stoked, hoping for more days like this. I have not had
this much energy in quite some time.
Peace,
E

End of week two!
Yo. I have not had internet at the new ronald mcdonald place yet :/ so i have a lot to write but probably not all will be written i am exhausted!
I ran today, 2 minutes on the treadmil! ahhhh boy did i get it. But it was good. And i talked to one of the physical therapists said she is not a huge fan of the treadmil  to work on gate pattern. I agreed so she offered to take my out to the board walk right by the lake and run with me for p.t. sessions. I am really pumped to do that!
... I feel very out of it so i am sorry if there are parts that one cannot comprehend.
So tuesday I moved into the new Ronald Mcdonald House in Chicago. It is amazing!
This bellow is one of the murials that's one the roof top. It has an amazing few. 

This picture bellow is the meaditation room. it's wonderful. I often have been going in there to do my biofeedback and relaxation.

Below shows the sounds of love. All the dots on the ground make noises and are a huge hit.

This is the layout of the quiet garden roof top. So beautiful!!

Monday of week 2

Hola! Day 1 of week 2! woaw. Today was good but not...I did a lot more. it was a busy day & my pain didn't increase as much as it would have in the past. But by taking the long way back it was just a bit too much. I got a migrane as well. But i rested some and keeping good spirits, so it's all good.



Tomorrow's schedule will be easier. but today i had OT, PT, therapy, conditioning at gym and aqua therapy. They definitely kept me moving. I did the bike today for 20 minutes, my legs felt like jello afterward but it was great to be moving! I got my heart rate up to 163! yayy. I had to go down right after i reached 163 but i can say i got to it hahah.

God is wonderful, I look around at the people i am with at this program and my ohh so amazing mother and cannot help but see the loving and good things God gives. Like Kevin for example, he is in my RIC group. Sweetest man i've ever met and despite his pain always praises the Lord. He is such a role model to me with how he tells the truth but is still such a sweet guy & does not feel the need to focus on his pain. Love him! And everyone else in my program with me, he is just one of the examples.

I also met 29 year old today who also has Complex regional pain syndrome. It was so nice to talk to her. I always love meeting the people who know exactly what it's like. She was such a sweet heart. She is from Charlottle, NC, where my bestie lives ;) She, like me has also had CRPS for 3 years. We talked for a while just about treatments and how they've spread ( we both have had it start on our leg and has moved all the way up our bodies to the neck). She has it on her right side, and mines my left so we decided we can become one whole unbroken person if you put us together haha

Migrane is still prevalent, i'm gonna bounce.
Peace,
Erin

One week down here in Chi-town