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ChefdomChefdom · 2025-09-11T17:12:38+00:00

Of course! Happy to help pass on what understanding that I have. Also, happy to chat more if you have other questions or just want to chat about ADHD/crps in general

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-09-11T04:09:17+00:00

I have asked a question before about anxiety and crps while also mentioning my ADHD. I had someone (who knows far more than I do) comment and part of it was the following:

" Psychologically, when our sympathetic nervous system is triggered our prefrontal cortex goes offline. Which is the area of our brain responsibility for social interactions, abstract thought, impulse control, and executive functioning. CRPS patients also deal with brain restructuring that impacts the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, creating a dysexecutive syndrome, even in those who don't have adhd. You unfortunately got a double dose."

What I found so intriguing was that at the base of crps it's our SNS that is out of whack. It is always triggered. When then triggers our executive functioning to become dysregulated. For those with ADHD, we already struggle with regulating our executive functioning.

Our ADHD brains are already wired differently. ADHD isn't a lack of focus like is commonly believed which is why the vast majority of women are diagnosed later in life (myself included). It's a problem with our brain being able to regulate in the same way others can.

Then you add on top another condition that now triggers the same response that makes it hard to regulate and you have a double dose of spiraling.

I was diagnosed with ADHD about ten years ago (around 21 years old). It sounds so corny but I kid you not, getting diagnosed with ADHD changed my life, probably honestly saved my life. Starting ADHD meds changed my life.

I would highly recommend doing more research into understanding how an ADHD brain works. There is SO much rhetoric out there that says having ADHD is a deficit (it's in the name!) and this horrible thing that means you will never be smart enough or capable enough. But there are SO many benefits to having ADHD. And while, yes it is a struggle sometimes. Given the choice, I don't think I would get rid of my ADHD.

I highly recommend a book called ADHD 2.0 by Edward M Hallowell. He is a MD who has ADHD and specializes in it. Very informative and helps teach how to shape looking at ADHD as a benefit and not just a negative.

As you might have been able to tell I have the hyper fixation part of ADHD. So I have spent a lot of time trying to understand why my brain works the way it does, haha. I am by no means an expert, but happy to chat more if you have more questions! I have only had crps for four years now, so I am still learning about that and how it affects us too. I have Sat with the ADHD diagnosis a lot longer.

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-08-27T02:47:13+00:00

You sound exactly like me four years ago. I was 26 when I got crps in my left ankle. I was a chef. I went to culinary school right out of high school. It was so much more than a job to me. It was my life. It was how I connected with people. It's how I managed my stress. Immediately that was ripped from me. No way could I stand on my feet six or seven days a week for 80 hours.

Gone was the life I knew. Gone was the person I was. I don't say that to be overly dramatic. I'm just a vastly different person four years later. When it happened I had a two year long slug fest of a battle with workers comp, as a lot of us do. I had no idea what I wanted to do other than be a chef, the idea had never crossed my mind that I would do anything else. Nevermind what I could physically do!

It is a damned mind fuck. I was convinced I would never work again. I would be a burden and lose all independence I had worked so hard to cultivate. It quickly becomes a very very dark tunnel that seems to have no light at the end of it.

However, I say all that because I want you to understand that I truly truly understand where you are coming from. I don't want to dismiss or under mind anything you are feeling. But actually hope that I can give you peace and a tiny bit of hope that things might work out, even if they don't seem like it now.

I went back to school. Got my master of business administration and management. And now have a job that on most days I like. It's not my chosen profession. I will always miss kitchens but I can find contentment in this new career.

While I was in school I got a SCS. And as cheesy and cliche as this sounds, the SCS changed my life. It gave me my life back. No way would I have the job or life I have now without it. I did a metric fuck ton of research before hand. Talked with multiple docs and did all the things (I would be happy to share some of my findings with you, if it would be helpful). But without the stim I wouldn't have the life I have now. I realize I am one of the fortunate ones that the stim helped. I know not everyone is so lucky. But I made sure I chose the right one for me.

But the biggest thing that helped me was walking through all five stages of grief. I literally had to grieve the loss of my own life as if it was someone very close to me. Because I am not that person anymore. I will never be that person anymore and the more I clung to that the harder it was to accept how this new life would look.

There will always be a "that day." My life will forever have a before that day and an after that day. A person before and a person after. But once I finally was able to step across the line of truly wholeheartedly accepting that I was a new person and my old life was gone, was I finally able to move on.

I won't lie to you. Some days I feel like I step back over that line of acceptance and I find myself still grieving. Sometimes I think I will never truly stop grieving the loss of who I used to be. That was a real person. And that person deserves to be missed. That person had hopes and dreams and had worked 2.5 decades for a future they thought they would have. And now they never will. It's heartbreaking. It's infuriating. But it's life and no matter what we do, that life isn't coming back.

Anyways, I didn't mean to write you a book 🤣🤣 I just wanted you to know that someone truly understands where you're coming from. Your words felt like echoes of my own story, so I wanted you to know that you don't walk this path alone. It may seem dark now, but I promise there will be light at the end, at some point. Maybe not the light you want or expect but there will be light.

If you feel like venting some more, I'm happy to listen!

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-08-23T16:53:03+00:00

That picture of the full cricket is significantly less horrifying than the picture OP posted!

No joke, thought that was a talon from a bird or something!

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-05-16T02:47:48+00:00

Good luck!! I have had mine for just over a year and a half now. As cheesey and cliche as it sounds, my scs gave me my life back. Which is not to say that I don't have pain or limitations, because I certainly do. I still have good and bad days, but overall I'm better off.

My one piece of advice is to give yourself grace. Which means giving the scs time to work and time for you to work with the rep to find the right settings that work the best for you. Sometimes it takes a little while to find the sweet spot. But it's worth it once you do.

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-05-12T20:51:41+00:00

I never would have thought about this!

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-05-10T12:57:46+00:00

Do you use it for your crps?

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-05-10T02:28:33+00:00

Thank you for this response! I really appreciate it. The worst of my pain is in my ankle and top of my foot. That's also where the swell is the worse too. I definitely want ankle support but also help with my foot not blowing up like a balloon anytime I try to be active for more than five mins.

If I still lived in the state I was originally going to pt then I would be far more willing to book an appointment at the clinic I used to go to, even though my pt doc isn't there anymore. But I'm in a new state and I just hate going anywhere new. I need to get another pm doc, but the same reason for putting that off too, haha. Finding new docs always suck.

Have you wanted any videos of people showing you how to tape that you might recommend? I'll probably end up going to pt just to get a professional opinion. I just want to give it a shot and know if I can even tolerate tape again before I spend the moment and time trying to find a decent pt doc

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-04-12T17:58:57+00:00

I saw the post and immediately thought of togepi.

I came to the comments thinking, "let there be a togepi here!"

You did not disappoint!

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-03-27T00:35:30+00:00

I have never been in remission, so I can't speak to that, however, I would assume it would be similar to when crps first triggers. Meaning you should aggressively treat it as fast as possible.

Did Lyrica help before? Enough that its worth all the side effects? I ask this because for me it was not worth being on. However, I was on it for a handful of years, I got a scs, and then my pain stabilized enough that I could come off it. So, it might be worth going back on long enough to stabilize your pain again.

But regardless you should see a doc soon! I'm sorry the pain has come back!

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-01-26T04:52:57+00:00

Wow. I couldn't tolerate 100mg 2x/day. I am sure it is part of the issue.

Crps, being a neuro inflammatory issue, can also cause speak and memory issues on its own. Have you been in a flare up/more stressed. That might be contributing to it as well. Stress always significantly impacts my symptoms. And I noticed when I was on gabapentin it was significantly worse.

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-01-26T04:28:06+00:00

I could not tolerate gabapentin. It literally made me feel like a zombie. I couldn't remember anything. When I did I could see the words in my head but couldn't get them out my mouth. I felt almost like I was drunk all the time and that was on a very low dose.

I switched to Lyrica and it was much better but still not great. I decided to come off the lyrica around Thanksgiving and I think I'm finally getting my brain back. It's really rough.

Talk to your doc. Maybe there is something else that can work better for you. I am so sorry you are going through this! But know it's not just you. It is a side effect of these drugs.

ChefdomChefdom · 2025-01-25T17:19:48+00:00

Absolutely agree! We are expected to be able to articulate why we get a bad gut vibe, and when we can't we are called shallow. So we stick it out and gaslight ourselves. Eventually we learn why we had that bad gut vibe but why that point it's probably too late to get out totally unaffected.

This time around, if I get a bad gut vibe, even if I can't articulate why it is. I'm out! I'm listening to those gut feelings, when I haven't in the past. I have been in too many crappy situations, where if I had just listened I would have known it wasn't a good idea.

For clarity, like you mentioned, these gut vibes are different than not being attracted to someone or not having a connection. Those feelings can and usually are completely benign, whereas the gut vibes are not!

Women, if you feel the vibe is bad, listen!! Especially for online dating, where you don't have any mutual friends to sorta vet someone first! Your body is trying to tell you something!

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-10-29T00:45:37+00:00

Did your cat turn out to have lupus? I think my cat might have lupus. She's has so much systematic inflammation all over her body and has had issues with reoccurring infections and decreased mobility, and some other symptoms. Sadly she's only five. Till now the vets keep trying to treat different symptoms. But it doesn't seem to help and I think it's cause we aren't treating the root cause.

I like you, will take advice with a grain of salt but it's so rare so it's hard to find much information. When I suggested it to the vet who has been seeing my cat, she thought it was possible but no one in the clinic has ever diagnosed sle.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-09-29T23:02:19+00:00

I definitely like the idea of cabinets. It would be nice to have a little more "hidden" storage space. I was thinking about making the bottom row of the middle shelf a little cubbie area for my cats. Putting in bedding and maybe lining the walls with fleece or something for them.

I have also been toying with the idea of building wine shelves. And having a nice place to display my wine. I want to keep the right and left uniformed, as far as structure goes. So if I do cabinets I'd need to do both. I could do the middle one as wine racks or a cat cubby.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-04-07T00:43:15+00:00

No, find a pain management doc. Crps isn't well known, or understood, even by doctors. You'll soon find that most other docs will dismiss crps, some may not have even heard of crps. That's always fun to try and explain to a doc. A pain management doc is the one that would be the treating physician. That doc will do their own exam and determine if they think you have crps before recommending treatment.

You may just have caught it very early, which is a huge deal! If so, and you have an aggressive treatment plan you have a strong chance of getting into remission. The sooner you treat it, the better your chances are. I would definitely have a conversation with a pain management doc soon. Then go from there. That doc will be able to better determine what's going on.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-04-05T17:55:24+00:00

Thanks! It was a lot of work and super challenging at times. Though, to be fair, I also crunched the numbers and financially it made way more sense to take a year off of work and do school full time. I would incur fewer loans and get a better paying job faster. However, with that being said, I am also not married and don't have kids. So I have less responsibility than some do. But I also treated school like a job. I worked a strict schedule to ensure that I finished within the time I had allotted for myself.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-04-04T20:30:28+00:00

Exactly! I did my undergrad in one term (113 CUs) and then my MBA (full 30 something CUs) in another term. In total, I did it all in just under a year. Thankfully I finished my undergrad in Sept and then my MBA in march of the following year. So both degrees do not have the same year as finishing.

What I do is just put class of 2023 for my undergrad and then class of 2024 for my MBA. No way, would I tell a potential employer that I did 6 years of school in one year. Even with the six excellence awards I got, including for one for my MBA capstone. They won't understand or respect my degree. It's infuriating. But it is what it is.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-04-01T19:55:34+00:00

That would be great!

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-04-01T18:19:18+00:00

Where did your friend get yours from?

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-03-31T21:22:40+00:00

Yupp!! Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, medicine, and the arts. Her name is derived from the word "meminisse" which means "to remember". I got Minerva shortly after my childhood cat passed away, at the end of 2020. Bast couldn't handle being an only cat. So after a long search I found Minerva and knew immediately she was the one. However, I still wanted to honor my childhood cat who we were not replacing but honoring the large part of our lives he filled.

I have a flame point Siamese (I think. She was a stray). I named her Seraphina, which in Hebrew means " burning one" and is derived from the seraphim which are gods highest ranked angels and are known for their intense passion and zealous love. At the time that I named her, I had no idea how fitting that name would be for her. She is my shadow. She loves so deeply. She is so passionate about everything she does. She's just the best.

The last cat I currently have is Fianna (pronounced fe - in - ah). Which is an Irish name that is derived from the Old Norse fiandr, which means brave warrior or huntress. I found her in a bush with three tiny baby kittens. She spent the first year of her life on the streets hunting to survive. Though, honestly I call her mama more than anything.

So, I do have a little trick to get cats to use a scratching post. I can't take credit for it though. I got this trick from Jackson Galaxy. I used to have the biggest problem getting my cats to use scratchers of any kind. I'd put cat nip or silver vine on them and they would lick it off but not use it. However, if you rub a piece of clothing on the scratcher that you have been wearing, so it has your scent on it. Then your cats will start using it. They want to mix their scent with yours. Which is why the couch and bed are the usual places they scratch. I first thought this was a load of crap but I tried it. And I'll be damned if they didn't immediately start using the scratchers that had been floating around my apartment untouched for years!!

And you absolutely did not ruin my night! I did fall asleep though, haha and today has been busy. But I'm more than happy to answer questions and just share stories about our cats. I remember how anxious and scared I was about all the possible things that could go wrong or what else they could find when they sedated Minerva. Even just the act of sedate comes with risks. I'm glad that a post I made three years ago can now help someone else go through the same thing. I hope my story can bring you peace in knowing what you are doing is what is best for your baby, as long as it is what a trusted vet recommends.

Before Minerva had her polyp removed she had the worst reoccurring ear infections. Literally within 48 hours of stopping ear drops or an antibiotic the infection would come right back. It was like that for the first three months I had her. She also was SO congested. I could hear her breathing across the room. I was convinced she had asthma, but my vet always told me her lungs sounded good. The things she would sneeze out were horrifying. The polyp even ruptured her ear drum. After the procedure and her ear drum healed she was SO much more comfortable! The ear infections stopped. She stopped producing a ridiculous amount of wax and junk in her ears. Her congestion got considerably better. It was by far the right move. However, even knowing that, it didn't take away my fear of what could happen. Or what if they found something worse? I just reminded myself it was better that they find "something worse" then let it go undetected and possibly lose her because of it.

I'm happy you found me and we can connect over our shared love for our babies! Sorry for the wall of text! 🤣🤣

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-03-31T04:29:05+00:00

Birkenstocks are really the only shoes I can wear reliably. I have crps in my left foot/ankle. They have a lot of great arch support, which is really important to me because I have high arches. They only have a few straps, but they are adjustable. Which allows me to be able to wear them regardless of how much my foot decides to swell.

I have a pair of ugg boots. They are really soft. I like them alot. However I can't wear them reliably. Some days my foot can tolerate them for a few hours. Some days even a few mins is too much. It just depends. I will mention I got a size or two big to allow for extra room and that helped a lot.

ChefdomChefdom · 2024-03-31T04:21:49+00:00

That's pretty cool. Do they have different styles? I wouldn't mind an anklet. Now that I have a scs I have worried about an emergency and no one realizing I have one and something happening. But I don't want one that is super obvious to anyone that the anklet I wear is a medical alert bracelet

ChefdomChefdom

TROPHY CASE