HealthEast® Quality Data
“Dr. Ammons has saved my life. It’s that simple.”
HealthEast Podiatry Care patient Kristi Caldwell
“It was like electric shocks — like I’d stuck my hand in an outlet.” Kristi Caldwell’s description of reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSD) doesn’t even begin to capture the intensity of the pain she endures during a flare-up. “It all started when I fell waterskiing. The ski didn’t come off, and tore my hamstring off the bone.” The surgery to reattach her muscle resolved the tear, but was just the beginning of Kristi’s years battling RSD. “RSD involves the sympathetic part of your nervous system — your fight or flight response. When you have a trauma to your body, even a little one, it can trigger it, and put you in a constantly heightened state of pain.”
Kristi’s background as a personal trainer meant she understood the ramifications of the syndrome, as well as the effects it would have on her life. “You have to be your own advocate with this disease because so many people don’t know about it. I would have ongoing flare-ups that would last for weeks, where the pain would constantly be at a 10 out of a scale of one to 10. I was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t work, with two daughters at home. But I was bound and determined not to let RSD get me.”
Kristi tried everything from pain treatments such as methadone to alternative options like healing touch — to no avail. “Finally, I found Dr. Kenneth Ammons, who has a procedure where he decompresses a nerve — in my case, the peroneal nerve — and stops the source of the pain. I decided to go through with the surgery. And to be honest: I got worse before I got better. The RSD spread into my other leg. But once I had the second surgery to decompress the nerve in my other leg, well, I woke up from surgery crying, because I was not in pain. For the first time in years.”
Kristi lists many miracles in her story: Not needing a wheelchair or crutches any more, being active with her church again, being able to return to her active routine. “You’re not supposed to exercise when you have RSD, but going to the gym keeps me sane and strong. When my RSD was at its worst, I would still take care of myself, and people would look at me and say, ‘Oh, you look fine.’ They didn’t know that inside, I was dying. Dr. Ammons saved my life.”
HealthEast® Quality Data
Healing words, surgical solutions: Dr. Kenneth Ammons
People who suffer from reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSD) (also known as chronic regional pain syndrome or CRPS I) find hope in the form of Dr. Kenneth Ammons. “There are patients who have been suffering from this painful medical problem for many years. Because of the nature of this condition, patients can be told that their pain is imagined. I can offer them understanding as well as hope — and give them relief by immediately acknowledging that their pain is very real. So often, many of them simply break down and cry, just from hearing that I believe them,” said Dr. Ammons.
RSD can be triggered by an injury as small as a sprained ankle. While the original injury is typically treated properly and heals, a person with RSD begins to experience crippling, relentless pain via the sympathetic nervous system, often in their arms and legs.
“RSD is traditionally thought to be untreatable, dooming a person to a life in severe pain,” said Dr. Ammons. “But Dr. Lee Dellon of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has been researching peripheral nerve surgery since the early 1980s. His nerve decompression procedure is based on the fact that you can identify and surgically treat a nerve sending a pain signal, and offer relief. I received special surgical training from him in 2006, and I’ve been successfully treating patients with RSD, using Dellon’s procedure to either reduce or resolve pain.”
Often, people who suffer from RSD avoid surgery in the fear that it will exacerbate their condition with a new flare-up of pain. “This surgery isn’t widely known, even at the pain clinics or the support groups that RSD patients attend. It’s going to take time to get people to understand that it really works,” said Dr. Ammons. “The powerful pain medications that people take for RSD — morphine, methadone — just mask the symptoms. Sometimes they make things worse, making patients non-functional mentally. The good news is, I can help. There is hope.”
