Real life. Real pain. Questionable jokes.
Pain is part of my story.
It is not all of it.
I live with CRPS. I also fish, build weird stuff, chase rabbit holes, and occasionally argue with my own nervous system. Welcome to the adventure.
The difficult chapters are here too. No magic cures. No pretending the pain just disappeared.
A different kind of CRPS website
The diagnosis is real.
So is the person.
There's serious information here, because chronic pain is serious. But life also includes dogs, projects, lakes, stories, good people, bizarre inventions, and days when the best medicine for my mood is a truly terrible joke. This site has room for all of it.
Choose your rabbit hole / 01
Where do we wander?
Five ways into the same life. You can start with the science, the stories, the lake, or a bit of each.
My Story
The real journey, including the highs, crashes, hard chapters, and moments that mattered.
Follow the storyThe Pain Lab
Infrared, sleep, gadgets, research, and the things I keep investigating. Lab coats optional.
Enter the labLake Life
Fishing, the docks, being outdoors, and why getting to the water can be enough.
Head to the lakeWhat Helps
An honest record of treatment experiences and everyday adaptations, without miracle claims.
Explore the toolsReturn on Pain
What did an experience give back—and what did it cost? A different way to remember a day.
Meet ROP
Where it began / 02
The original message still matters.
Injury in 1997. Years of learning to navigate CRPS. A streetlight that became a milestone. Every part of that story deserves a place here, including what I originally wrote and what life looks like today.
We'll keep the historic artwork and the difficult truth behind it. We're just giving the rest of my personality some space on the page.
Go back to the beginning →The original graphic is preserved from the earlier website. The lake sunset above is a new illustration, not a photograph of a documented event.Touch the water. Then see what happens.
Some days are hard. Some days are better. Sometimes getting to the lake is the victory.
Hope without hype. Curiosity without pretending. Life beyond a pain score.
Why the water matters