Eight years ago, I was diagnosed with the “suicide disease.” CRPS. If you don’t know what CRPS is, you are not alone. There is a great documentary “Take Care of Maya” that is all about it on Netflix that you should check out. CRPS is considered the world’s most painful incurable disease. And when they call it the suicide disease it is not an exaggeration.
All my life I wouldn’t say I was responsible when it came to my physical health. I have had rock climbing accidents that landed me in the hospital with 8 broken bones. I have broken my ankle and ACL jumping off roofs when park core was cool. I have shattered my nose-diving into the shallow end of the pool. Overall, I have broken 12 bones and had multiple surgeries in my life and never taken pain pills or skipped a beat for any of them.
CRPS traumatized me to my core.
I was on a little bike ride in Saint George with my new bride Maddie. We were coming down Snow Canyon on beach cruisers and I was going way too quick for my impulse decision to bunny hop a speed bump. I did not stick to the landing. My foot came off the peddle and onto the ground. My knee hyperextended and I popped my ACL for the third time. As I fell, I reached out to catch myself and jammed my thumb extremely hard. I was already familiar enough with my ACL to know immediately what had happened and my hand, it would heal itself I thought.
The doctor told me there were a lot of people who never fixed their ACLs and lived healthy and active lives. So I decided I would withgo the opportunity to pop it a fourth time. A decision I still don’t regret. The doctor agreed and extended his hand to shake mine. I bashfully extended my left in an awkward fist bump. “He also hurt his hand,” Maddie informed the doctor. The doctor said we should get a quick x-ray and I grudgingly agreed. I am so glad I did. It turns out the corner of the thumb that connects to my muscle had broken off so it would not have ever healed properly for me to use that hand well again. We got scheduled for surgery to pin it back in place. Keep in mind the surgery went great and I experienced little to no pain during the healing. A few months later we were back to get the pins pulled out, and same day, started to drive from Utah to Connecticut for a summer of pest control.
Life was great all healed up and headed off on an adventure with my best friend.
We stopped in Draper for a game night with friends, and to crash out their couch before really hitting the road. That night I woke up screaming. It was like there was a blow torch on my hand. Nonstop white hot pain. My wife got me calmed from screams to a soft whimpering as she held my head rocked me and sang me church hymns. She didn’t know what to make of this and neither did I. All the pain pills I had turned back into the doctor on my final visit. But I would have given anything to numb the sensation. I was managing a door-to-door team and my surgery already delayed my start date so I felt we had to continue on and the pain would go away in its own.
As we drove to Connecticut every bump, turn, movement of any kind had me overwhelmed with pain. I took Tylenol to try to sleep on the drive and Maddie drove us. It was the weekend so I told myself to wait until Monday so we didn’t have to pay for urgent care. I am an incredibly stubborn person at times, and Maddie did not know quite how to handle me in this kind of situation. We made it to Cheyanne that night. It seemed like night made it worst because again it was insistent pain and crying.
Maddie put her foot down she said get up we are going to the urgent care. I didn’t have the strength to be stubborn at that point and got in the car. When we got there, we told them what was going on and that I needed some pain relief. The lady behind the desk didn’t give me two looks. We waited a few hours before they came out and said there was not really anything they could do for us. I knew they just thought I wanted prescription drugs and honestly, I don’t blame them. We decided to keep driving and got to Deimos Iowa. Once again, we stopped at an urgent care. They were more sympathetic. They did some tests and told us that we didn’t have an infection but that they also couldn’t give me any pills. They said to get pills we would need to either wait till we got to Connecticut or go back to Utah. We pushed on. The torch on my hand never running out of fuel or pulling its punches.
When we got to Connecticut our first stop was UConn hospital. My hand was swollen and red. It was shiny and warm to the touch. And it couldn’t be touched without sending a debilitating amount of pain through me. UConn went above and beyond to make sure my needs were addressed. They tested everything they could for infection. They called in second opinions. Probably a dozen doctors looked at my hand and then would leave the room to talk amongst themselves. Finally, they came in almost with a defeated look “We believe you have CRPS.”
Like most people I had never heard of it. “Ok so what do we do?”
“We are going to refer you to a pain specialist. CRPS is not something we can test for, but this seems to have all the signs of it and there is nothing else we can find that is wrong.”
When they left the room, I googled CRPS. Nothing on the internet I found brought me any comfort. One article was all about the effectiveness of amputation to cure CRPS and how it’s not a guarantee because the pain may continue with phantom limb syndrome. Every article I read went from bad to worst. And the only thing I knew was there is no way I can spend the rest of my life like this.
CRPS is in short, a misfunction of your nerves. They send strong signals of pain even though there is nothing wrong. I am so lucky/ grateful that I was treated by a facility that caught it and recognized it.
I called my mom and dad to tell them what was going on. By some miracle my mom was working for a pain specialist and told him of the situation. The doctor being familiar with CRPS and told my mom I needed to be on the first flight back. This was one day before I turned 26. The doctor said he would do the treatments for free but said we need to start now because if not treated early enough the effects are often permeant. I bought the first ticket back leaving my new bride in Connecticut to hold down the fort until I got back.
I researched and did absolutely everything that had any chance of working. The doctor gave me cortisol shots in my neck, I received multiple religious blessings. I changed my diet to eliminate sugar and carbs that said they were inflammatory. I did acupuncture and took up meditation, mirror therapy and even contacted a hypnotist. Nothing was off the table. I am so incredibly blessed that over the following months I was able to gain back most of the function in my hand. No stone was left unturned. No option was to ridiculous or difficult.
Because we caught it so early, I was able to make a nearly full recovery. Realizing that I could have lost my hand I know have a hyper awareness for my mental and physical health. And that of my employees. This experience also influenced my whole plumbing career and now company. Plumbing is one way I remember how fragile my health is. Working with my hands every day to fix peoples problems. Knowing the fear many tradesman have that they “cant do this forever” or “my back wont always support plumbing” the fear of not having insurance is a trial I no one should ever have to go through. That’s why when we started to get employees it became my number one priority to make sure that their bodies were kept safe. When my first employee informed us his wife was pregnant I knew that we had to make my dream a reality. My dream was to be a place to work that gives our plumbers full health insurance. And we made it happen.
All my employees have full health insurance they don’t live in fear of getting hurt on the job. We rarely get a price objection but when I do, it’s easy for me to have confidence in our pricing because we do more! We do more for our customers. And we do more for our employees. And because we do more, you can expect more from our company. They are proud to give it their all because they know they are not a number they are part of the vision and belief that we have the responsibility to elevate everyone we encounter. Lundberg Plumbing is the company plumbers want to work for. Lundberg Plumbing is the kind of local company I want to support.
Going through CRPS I had the opportunity to meet many people that didn’t catch it as early as me. I met a 24 year old girl that sprained her ankle when she was 12 and never has walked sense. I met an older man that only wore special sandals for the rest of his life because they “hurt less.”
Just last week I got a message from a, in his own words is “just a broken plumber who misses working so bad.” It may not be CRPS but it’s the same concept. As plumbers our health is our livelihood. And the plumber’s slogan is “to protect the health of the nation” so we better start with our own.
Now when I am plumbing there will be random times that it’s almost like I hit my funny bone but it only affects my hand and I will drop whatever tool I am holding. But that is rare.
We are the plumbers you can trust. We are here for your most desperate times. To not leave any rock un turned. We will get to the root cause of your problems and help you ever step of the way.
Rare Breed Plumbing
The Herd you can Trust!
Personal 385.244.5153
Business 385.308.7471
