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Women in Fire

One Firefighter’s Battle to Heal Herself

By: Martha Chapman

January 27, 2025

You have the most painful condition in the world. And it’s incurable

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2021 issue. View the full issue here.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2021 issue. View the full issue here.

Every day, hundreds of patients undergo knee surgery.  There’s some pain, some recovery time, and – all being well – the patient goes back to leading a normal life, a scar or two the only souvenir of the event.

But Kaylin Marshall wasn’t so lucky.  In August 2017, the Indianapolis firefighter was injured during a call and told she had “blown out” her knee.  The problem, fairly routine it seemed, could be fixed with one or two surgeries. “I’ve been an athlete all my life – working out, soccer, basketball, and I even made the Junior Olympics in power tumbling at age 10  –   so I’ve been hurt a hundred times. Normally I’m supercool with pain,” she recalls today. “But that first surgery knocked me down hard.”

Self-pity doesn’t seem to be part of Marshall’s make-up.  Yet what she has endured during the years since that surgery would bring tears to the eyes of even the toughest athlete. 

The Onset of CPRS

Within two weeks of the surgery she was experiencing extreme pain that no medication could ease. Perplexed, her doctors concluded she had complex regional pain syndrome (CPRS) and there was nothing they could do for her.

And so Marshall’s journey to become pain-free began, with her acting as captain, co-pilot and navigator, as it seemed she had to be in control of her fate. 

“Of course, the first thing I did was Google CPRS. I was shocked to see it described as ‘the suicide syndrome.’ I went into a deep dive, I couldn’t sleep to the point where I was suffering from severe depression, nausea and chronic sleep deprivation which in turn brought on hallucinations.” Marshall visited doctor after doctor and was prescribed medication after medication.  “None of it helped even a little bit. I was wondering where my life was headed.” 

Searching for Relief

“Finally it was decided that a spinal cord stimulator would help, and one was implanted, but even that didn’t work and actually caused huge edema spots in my back.  Nothing, but nothing, would go my way.” Desperately wanting her life back, Marshall’s ceaseless pain continued and even six visits a week to various medical professionals didn’t make a dent. At one point, she begged the doctors to cut her leg off.

“Finally, in June of 2018, my wife and I decided to just take a break and went to Washington, D.C. to visit friends. For some reason, that break in routine gave me a fresh mindset and I decided to start training myself to work through the pain. We built a full gym in our garage and the training started to help.” 

But not without more sacrifices. 

The Long Road to Recovery

“I tried a new procedure – day surgery to freeze the nerves in the leg.  I was on five different pain meds and valium and still I never slept.”

But slowly, slowly the self-imposed training schedule started to work. Marshall had decided that no matter how hard the struggle, she had to get her life back. “I decided nobody else could do it for me.” Nine months later, she celebrated when she could at last crawl on one knee. 

She cannot say enough about her wife Courtney Reed, currently a probationary firefighter with the Indianapolis Fire Department. “Courtney never let me give up on myself, and more importantly, she never gave up on me. She had more than the weight of the world on her shoulders every single day, between her career, the house, our dogs and me. I was helpless a lot of the time, and I was not easy to deal with. But she loved me through it every single day, even when I couldn’t love myself.”

Returning to Work and Finding Acceptance

She also speaks with gratitude of a number of people who helped her through what must have seemed an endless battle, including Chief Ernest V. Malone of the Indianapolis Fire Department, her physical therapist Matt Thomas and Doctors Klootwyk and Swofford.

Marshall has been back at work two years now, riding the back step, and while still dealing with a sympathetic nerve issue, is proud that she was able to take her life back. She works out five or six days a week for 60 to 90 minutes, concentrating on strength and circuit-like training.

Clearly emotional as she describes what CPRS has cost her, Marshall says the one message she’d like to share with others who are dealing with daily pain is that: “Today’s not final. The way you feel today is not final.”

And she adds: “I will never not have CRPS, but this is me not letting what I have a define me.  This is acceptance.  This is my life, my story, and I’m going to find a way to be me again, only better.”


What is CPRS?

According to the Mayo Clinic, complex regional pain syndrome is a form of complex pain that usually affects an arm or a leg and develops after an injury, surgery or heart attack. It’s rare and the cause isn’t clearly understood, but the pain is out of proportion with the severity of the initial injury.

Symptoms vary from patient to patient but can include continuous pain in the limb; sensitivity to touch or cold; swelling; stiffness; spasms, tremors, weakness and atrophy; and decreased ability to move the affected part. 

CPRS may also spread from its source to, for example, the opposite limb. 

In some people, the symptoms may go away on their own; in others they can persist for years. 

The Clinic recommends that if you experience constant, severe pain that affects a limb and makes touching or moving that limb seem intolerable, see your doctor immediately. Early treatment is important.

This article originally appeared within the Spring 2021 issue. View the full issue here, or browse all back issues in the CRACKYL Library.

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