Sara gets relief from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome on carnivore diet

I wanted to leave this here for anyone who is interested in hearing my story. If I can help just one person feel the pain relief I have then its worth sharing.

About a year and a half ago I was injured from a incorrect IV poke that led to a IV infultration in my left arm. Within a month later I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. About a month after that it quickly spread down my left leg then eventually to my entire body. Even though I consider myself pretty unlucky for developing this horrible disease I’m truly blessed to have been properly diagnosed so quickly.

I went through tons of doctors, all offering different treatments or just simply saying they didn’t know how to help me. Most of the options pushed my way were the typical pain medications which I was always apprehensive to start using due to a family history of addiction. I eventually was prescribed gabapentin while slightly giving me pain relief… this quickly gave me memory loss and suicidal thoughts- a horrible side effect of the drug. I realized what was happening and took myself off it right away.

I then switched to amitriptyline. This helped me a decent amount for a few months to at least keep my pain flairs under control and not as severe. Unfortunately I had fast weight gain even though I had been eating a ketogenic diet for over 2 years at that point and eventually it stopped working as well but I continued taking it.

During this time I went to a doctor in NJ who specialized in CRPS and under his care had a series of Stella Ganglian Nerve Blocks. This gave me pretty decent relief for about 3 months. In December I got pregnant and I came off the amitriptyline because the risks didn’t outweigh the benefits I was receiving. I was miserable with pain flairs during the 12 short weeks I was pregnant – unfortunately I miscarried and it sent my body into a horrible, long flair.

I struggled for a few months on nothing but high potency CBD which has actually been one of the best non addictive pain relief remedies I have ever come across – however its short lived relief of only a few hours and was very expensive to buy made it not a great option for me long term all the time. I was desperate for pain relief so I made an appointment to schedule more nerve blocks with my Dr in NJ (I live halfway across the country btw thanks to being a military spouse).

Unfortunately before I could get on a flight out there, COVID-19 happened and I was left with canceling my appointment, restricted from travel, and my procedure deemed non-essential. At this point I was extremely desperate. 

Two years earlier I had dabbled a little in the Carnivore Diet due to my long time practice of Keto in our house and my love of nutritional science. I tried it for about a month and then went back to Keto because I liked my freedom of eating a variety of things and it managed my endometriosis just fine even though I felt really great during that month. Well about 6 months ago I decided to give the diet another look.

I already knew some foods triggered pain flairs for my CRPS and I have read hundreds of testimonials of people finding relief, remission, and regression of diseases doctors have deemed a hopeless cause on Carnivore.Diet. I decided to give it my all because I had nothing else to loose. Well folks im (almost) SIX months in and I am happy to report I feel, for the 1st time in almost 2 years, I have finally gotten my life back!

I will not go and say that I’m cured. Because I’m not, I still have CRPS and I always will. But I have gone from having an average NON-FLAIR pain level of 7 every day to having my average pain level being a 0-1. I have been having flairs on average 1x a month with a pain level of about 5 and it usually only lasts a day or two because I was doing something that was really straining my body. CBD oil normally helps me get that in check quickly and continue on my day.

Before Carnivore my pain was flairing to a 8-10 weekly. If that benefit wasn’t good enough for me, I feel good enough now I was able to go back to work again and keep a full time job. I’m slowly starting to be able to exercise again, my anxiety has lifted, my skin is clearer, I’m losing weight, my hair is growing back thicker, and I’m no longer depressed.

As of right now, I don’t see myself going back to eating Keto and certainly not a Standard American Diet. I feel too good to change what I’m doing. My CRPS is going to be apart of me for better or for worse so I want to keep doing what I can to make every day just a little bit better.

God bless!!

I pray that my story helps someone out there looking for alternative pain relief.