effects of a vegan plant-based diet on complex regional pain syndrome or RSD
In March of 2016, my daughter fell, twisted her ankle, and injured both knees. The fall and injuries were nothing new. She was clumsy, walked duck-footed, and constantly sprained toes, tripped in holes and over objects, and spent a lot of time on crutches.
What was new about the injury was the following day she asked to go to the doctor. She avoided doctors as much as possible and would have to be forced to go. But she knew something else was happening and the pain was excruciating and like nothing she’d felt in the past. Even touching her skin sent the sensation of stabbing knives and fire throughout her feet and legs.
Off to the doctor we went, and, on that day, we entered into an almost six-year long journey through bad doctors, misdiagnoses, harmful treatments, bad drugs, incompetent organizations, and sleepless nights filled with severe pain.
CRPS
My daughter in March of 2016 the day after her initial fall.
Within days of her fall, she developed a rash and swelling on her twisted knee and it quickly spread down one leg and to her foot and then it started on the other foot and worked its way up her other leg.
There seemed to be nothing troubling about her injury.
Her knee at the time of her injury.
The start of the rash, redness, and heat.
She rested her foot on a boot in the bed and wasn’t comfortable unless her legs were elevated on pillows with constant ice packs.
The swelling and heat intensified.
The doctors didn’t have a diagnosis for her condition though they ran several tests. An orthopedic doctor basically accused her of faking it and threatened to either stick a large needle into her knee and drain it or do surgery. We left his office in tears.
We decided to try physical therapy, but every touch or movement made her condition worse.
July 2016. Trying to stand with the help of a personal trainer.
August 2016. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome aka Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy
With research, we finally had a diagnosis. We thought she had to hot kind of crps because she was mostly red with swollen hot legs. People thought she was sunburned, though she hadn’t been outside in months.
August 2016. A fall at the gym where she used the pool from a badly installed shower chair made her symptoms go full body.
She already couldn’t walk. But her hands and arms got so bad that she also no longer did any of her daily grooming herself. I did everything for her.
October 2016. Tennessee
I found a program in Tennessee that said they could cure crps symptoms. They pushed her so hard that she became even worse and developed tremors.
She moved into a motorized scooter.
Life in a wheelchair.
She couldn’t have her feet down for more than a few minutes at a time, so her wheelchairs had leg rests to keep her legs elevated.
January 2017. The cold hit.
She started getting cold and blue areas at the same time as the red and hot in other parts of her body and her toes turned black.
January 2017. We found Vecttor and Frequency Specific Microcurrent.
Here the technician has her hooked to the fsm machine and she’s wearing socks I made for her since she couldn’t handle socks on her feet.
Vecttor and Erythromelalgia
She started using Vecttor to increase her circulation. Dr Rhodes, the creator of the machine, diagnosed her with CRPS and erythromelalgia. Her symptoms persisted. She was on fire 24/7 and couldn’t take medication. It made her vomit uncontrollably. Her only relief from the pain were cold wet cloths and oils since we found out ice made her condition worse.
Her symptoms moved and changed from cold to hot, but were constant.
The circulation below her ankles was almost nonexistent.
April 2017. Still using the pillows.
May 2017.
Visit from her future puppy.
Erythromelalgia hands.
Intense heat!
A mixture of cold and hot after trying to walk on crutches.
First puppy shots!
Cold and hot!
This is the best evidence we collected of her full body symptoms with cold and black feet and white hands on right and red hot hands and feet on the left.
Standing on crutches in her new custom-made arch support shoes. They were velcro to change the size as her feet swelled and shrunk.
August 2017. Dr Rhodes, the creator of Vecttor with Chelsi.
Our first visit with Dr. Rhodes. He figured out the best protocol so she could use the machine for more than a few minutes without heating up. He also diagnosed her with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and Reynauds.
Still hot!
But she slept for the first time in over a year since her injury, thanks to Vecttor.
September 2017.
Finally, she was able to use Vecttor for the prescribed amount of time.
Her feet were looking really bad. Her toenails started bleeding from the swelling and we used silver nitrate to stop the bleeding.
No pillows!
She was finally able to give up her pillows. We learned from Dr Rhodes that CRPS is similar to diabetes in some ways and to reduce her sugar and grain intake.
One cold foot. One hot foot.
Nurse Abe Lincoln.
Using Vecttor on hot legs.
October 2017. Xrays at the chiropractor’s office.
He couldn’t help her.
November 2017.
CRPS causes calcium to leak from the teeth and bones. At the dentist office because she started having severe tooth pain.
We carried a bowl of cold water everywhere for her wet cloths.
Blue legs.
If she stayed in bed and didn’t move, her symptoms started to improve. The moment she got out of bed her legs turned colors from the blood pooling in them.
I started washing her feet after every shower after she used Vecttor for a few months and her feet weren’t as sensitive to the touch.
December 2017.
At the chiropractor’s office.
Back at the dentist.
January 2018. The circulation in her feet was getting better. She quit eating all grains and sugar and ate mostly plants and chicken.
Red foot doing Vecttor.
February 2018.
Staying warm with a blanket on her legs. She couldn’t wear socks, pants, or covering shoes, not even in the winter.
March 2018.
Going outside for fresh air with one cold foot and one hot foot.
After being outside.
She said her foot felt like it was being squeezed.
After eating meat and oil. Greasy foods, spicy foods, hot foods, sugar, meat, and processed foods were triggers. She’s allergic to dairy, soy, and eggs, so she never ate those. Just chicken and fish.
A trip to the zoo. Kids stared and asked what was wrong with her. It was upsetting.
April 2018.
A new wheelchair!
Still using Vecttor!
Trying something new! Red light therapy. She also tried sound therapy and green light therapy.
The pain never stopped. It lasted for years. Her only relief was from staying in bed and not moving and not eating anything that triggered her.
Trying Feldenkrais!
May 2018. In the storm cellar during tornado warning.
It took 30 minutes to get her down the stairs and even longer to get her up them so we had to go way ahead of storms and sit there. She couldn’t move for 3 days afterward.
June 2018.
I made pads for her wheelchair footrests because the texture bothered her.
We tried Chinese medicine cooling patches.
Using a cooling patch with Vecttor.
One blue leg. One red leg.
July 2018.
She made the hour and a half trip to visit her great-grandmother for the last time.
August 2018.
September 2018.
October 2018.
November 2018.
Another trip to see Dr Rhodes. He said her nervous system was more balanced and the circulation in her feet improved. She felt like smiling now. She had hope.
As close as she could get to the beach in her wheelchair.
Her puppy grew while she was in bed.
Vecttor at the beach.
Her primary care physician was pleased to see her out of the house. She was sick with a sinus infection and not happy about having her picture taken.
December 2018.
January 2019. I quit feeding her meat and made her go plant-based vegan. She wasn’t happy about it at first. But she hasn’t eaten meat since then. I had already quit meat in 2013 for my arthritis pain and it helped me. I knew it would help her.
For the first time in years, she could stand at the sink and brush her teeth. She no longer had to brush them in bed using spit cups. I clapped and cried. Proud moment.
February 2019
Walking a few steps with a cane!
Soaking her feet in vinegar, warm water, and Epsom salt per Dr Rhodes’s instructions. One hot foot.
March 2019.
Getting out of the house more.
Her symptoms went from being 24/7 to flares once or twice a day for a few hours.
April 2019.
Her black toes are from silver nitrate. Every time she tried to walk on her cane, her feet swelled and her toes bled.
Back at the bookstore. Look at those white legs! Not red or blue.
Giving Sophie a ride in her wheelchair.
June 2019.
A trip to Graceland with Grandma and a new hair color.
A trip to the bone museum.
Getting out more. Another museum trip for Father’s Day.
August 2019.
She loves bookstores.
October 2019.
Art museum. As an art history major, she loves museums!
April 2020.
Putting her feet in the grass for the first time in years. Grounding.
May 2020.
Slowly building strength by using a cane occasionally just to walk a few steps, but not better yet. I was busy making face masks, so I had little time to take pictures and she quit leaving the house in March of 2020 due to the risk of Covid.
October 2020.
She still had bad days.
November 2020. Hospital bed.
My husband brought home Covid-19. I had a severe case, but since Chelsi was still not moving much, she developed pneumonia. Pushing her wheelchair into the emergency room and leaving her there alone was the worst day in my life.
Home from the hospital.
She was too weak to use her wheelchair so we put a portable toilet by her bed that she could get to with her cane.
Her diagnosis.
April 2021.
Wearing shoes!!!
June 2021.
She worked for weeks to be able to walk to the future site of the pool with her cane. She almost made it. She figured out that the stricter she was with her diet, sticking to plant-based vegan with no junk food and daily Vecttor, her body continued to heal with occasional symptoms.
July 2021.
She made it to the pool and started working out for an hour every day in the pool and quickly built up her strength. Even with erythromelalgia and a bad reaction to the sun for years, she sunbathed all summer and finally developed a natural color. No more red or blue or ghostly pale.
August 2021.
Walking without a cane!
Walking her new puppy in both socks and shoes.
Finally leaving the house again, without her wheelchair.
Back at the dentist with her puppy.
November 2021
She finally made it to the beach and she wore pants!
It took years and lots of trial and error and plenty of mistakes, but we learned that a combination of a strict plant-based vegan diet along with daily use of Vecttor to increase her circulation and high doses of vitamin C were the answer for her symptoms for CRPS, erythromelalgia, POTS, and Reynauds.
She still has bad days. She can’t do much activity in a day, or her symptoms return, and they come back if she eats junk food or eats greasy food.
Her life is a constant balance, but there is hope.
If you have CRPS/RSD or know someone who does, don’t lose hope.
Like my daughter, you can get back to a somewhat normal life.
It’s possible.
Every body is different so figure out what works for you.
A plant-based vegan diet will help your body reset and the Vecttor machine heals your body at a cellular level. It’s a powerful combination.
You can heal.
College Graduation 2022.
I’m so proud of my homeschooled college graduate!
Her entire life is ahead of her now. She’s not 100% better. She still has her days. But she uses her Vecttor machine regularly or the tremors return, and she has to eat carefully, sticking to a plant-based vegan diet with only occasional processed foods.
She had a severe full body case, and with plants, Dr Rhodes, and a fierce determination to get better, she is well on the road to healing. Without medication.
Natural healing is possible.
For more of Chelsi’s story, order my book, “Sprouted Vegan: Your Guide to Plant-Based Health” on this site on the product’s page, on Amazon, or on BarnesandNoble.com.
