NEW WASHINGTON  - Amy Miller is just trying to get back to a normal life.

The 36-year-old history teacher at Buckeye Central High School has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome also known by an older term, Reflex Sympathetic Dystropohy Syndrome, or RSD.

The cause of the disorder is unclear but is usually characterized by sensations of pain, swelling and hypersensitivity. Miller said she was diagnosed at 17, after a cyst on the top of her right foot exploded after being injected with cortisone. 

"My doctor, his exact words were, 'Dammit Amy, you have a choice to make. You can either get on disability, join a support group and complain how bad it hurts, because it does, or you can learn to live with it,'" she said. 

Despite the pain, Miller knew she needed to keep moving or she could lose the ability to move her foot all together. 

"I had nine doctors turn me down because he (her doctor) mentioned this diagnosis," she said.

After several spinal blocks, physical therapy, a spinal cord simulator and surgery on her foot, Miller thought she had taken her life back from the disorder.

She had gotten a teaching degree from Heidelberg University, owned her own home and loved her job teaching elementary school students with disabilities.  

Then in 2010, she twisted her left arm, her dominate hand. A delay in treatment caused the disorder to settle there as well. 

"I can't wear short-sleeve shirts because if I move and the cuff hits my arm, the pain is intense," she said. 

Miller sought the same treatments that had worked for her foot; nerve blocks and therapy. She had her simulator replaced so that it could control pain in both her leg and arm. 

But it didn't work. 

"Literally my life is work, go home and go to bed and try to rest ... I don't do family functions. It's been a long time since I've been to a Christmas," she said. 

Miller was left unable to do most things for herself. She had to carry her arm around on a feather pillow to avoid any sudden movements and only found relief through sitting in the hot tub that she purchased on a credit card. 

She ended up having to move back home with her parents because she was unable to work.

Unwilling to go on disability, she switched jobs, upgraded her simulator and went through more nerve blocks. Miller had wrist surgery, a rib removed, had pain relievers run into her spine through an implanted pump. All with no real relief.  

"My sleep is very compromised ... if I sleep with the simulator on ...  my brain never relaxes, so I don't enter REM. If I turn it off, I sleep with my arm on a feather pillow, and I move and it hits something that isn't the feather pillow, I jolt awake," she said.

While watching the show Mystery Diagnosis, Miller discovered a treatment she is hopeful will finally provide her with relief: Hyperbaric oxygen treatment. The problem: It's is not currently approved by the FDA for the treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. 

"The thinking behind this is new nerves will generate faster than they will degenerate and I will be able to get ahead of this disorder," she said.

Patients are dropped into a chamber equivalent to 40 percent below sea level and wear a special hood that allows a higher than normal level of oxygen to be taken in. The treatment lasts for about two hours a day. Miller would need to have 60 of these during her first round and then five in a row to maintain afterward.  

Miller is seeking to have treatment in April in order to limit the amount of time required for her to take off work. Miller currently has a GoFundMe account set up for the treatment, seeking to raise for $8,000. As of Friday, $4,945 had been pledged. The account is at

"The hardest part is putting on a fine face," she said.


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