What you are going through sounds way too familiar. Mine started with a fall, on a tiled basement floor at work., I can't imagine the trauma of a fall from stories high. Makes me shiver just to think about it. Your details describe me almost to a T, during the first several years. When a car next to us at a red light pulled up, blaring loud music, I would get nauseous and my pain would flare in just that short of a period of time. Air moving, would light a fire on me. I can tell you that I can offer suggestions as to why but I don't know for certain, but the intensity of my pain in general, is down. I still have it and have it every day. It affects my balance still. I have fallen 4 times in the last year, broken a rib and bruised myself very badly doing so. There is so much and so many ways that this disease affects you. It's not just about the pain.

As far as advice, I have never spent the day in bed. More days than not I haven't done much besides get up and go tot he restroom and sit in from of the Tv with my legs elevated to lessen the constricted pain and swelling. But when I was able to manage, even though I seriously did NOT want to, I made myself do stuff around the house. If that meant a load of clothes in the wash and nothing else, so be it. put a few things int he dishwasher, do it. Walk up and down the driveway, do it.

After my first PT appointment I could not move my arm and I had barely a speck of movement in my fingers. My PT told me to go home and peel potatoes. I could barely hold the potato, much less the knife, but I stood in the kitchen with my husband and I peeled two of them. Most of the potato going down the drain with the peel. I was really proud of myself. The next day I told my therapist, rather boldly that I had peeled not just one but two potatoes. She replied very sternly to me, good now you go home today and you peel two hundred. She was exaggerating of course but she was serious about the use of my arm and hand. She had already told me what a battle it was going to be for me to balance use with too much use. I trusted this woman because she had been my PT after a knee surgery just 6 months prior and lucky for me, she already knew me, who I was how much I worked, etc. She is actually the one who saw the RSD the second I walked in the door, when my Orthopedist had missed it two weeks earlier. It wasn't until two years later, when I attended a pain symposium that I met a woman easily ten years my junior, who came up to talk to me. Her dominant hand and arm were curled up in front of her chest, like a little bird with it's wing tucked to it;s breast. it was atrophied and I actually thought at first that she had had polio. She had gone nearly 4 years improperly diagnosed and had not used her limb because of the pain. She had not had a tall blond Dutch woman to read her the riot act about how intensely important movement was. No one had told her she had to work through the pain if she wanted to maintain her mobility. It broke my heart and it ticked me off. I had been encouraged to replace the pottery throwing and stained glass I used to be able to do, with anything else that could inspire and distract me. I took a tiling class, I learned how to bead, both had me using fine motor skills picking up and manipulating tiny things I could barely pick up to begin with. Adding that to the therapy exercises I had 6 times a week for over a year is why I firmly believe I was standing there next to this young woman, with a useful arm, while she hadn't had for years and never would again have use of hers.

As my RSD spread to the other side and then to my feet and legs and so forth, I have have moved several times, but Ike has come with me and I done anything I could think of, stopping of course or trying to when I knew I had done enough, enough for right now or enough for the day. It's a constant fight, negotiating activity and pain, but please do what you can to not just lay down in pain. The ore active you become, I believe the more you are able to wrestle with the pain you feel physically in your mind, and find a place to put that pain, knowing that gentle movement is not harming you. I know it feels like you are but gentle movement with consistency is healing and will with time put you in a place where you have more control and can beat the sensitivity to some extent. When this first started for me, I would literally crumble when anyone even stood near me in public, the fear that someone would graze me was more than I could manage. I couldn't stand to touch my husband's arm or hand. The hair on his hand was so offensive to me It made me sick to my stomach. I was determined to not allow RSD to cause me to continue to be sickened by the presence of people and especially to not sicken me against contact with my husband. It is certainly not easy, a mind over matter problem, but it is possible with determination and keeping at it. Some things are harder, some or easier and some are more important. Figure out what is most important to you, that you do not allow RSD to take away or for you to lose and work toward that goal. If it's your relationship with someone, if it is a task, a hobby and work towards it. I know it's hard, I can attest to that. It took me, with my injury and the level my RSD was at, 6 months to hold and raise lip balm to my face to put it on. I still couldn't open the little tube but I could put it on myself. I could brush my teeth myself. I could finally pet my soft and sweet dog. 6 months I couldn't stand to have her sit by my side or even with her right next to me, I couldn't stand to move to barely pet her. It was repulsive and painful to touch the things I loved. I have never gotten a full range of motion back and I am still limited in what I can lift, push or pull, but I can do a lot more than I ever thought I was ever going to be able to.

I know it's hard, but trust me, it gets better. I have read a lot of peoples posts in forums that their pain changed too, so I have to believe that if you don't let RSD take or keep everything, you will be able to get past some of that pain and get some of your life back. Even two years ago, I would not have been able to type all of this or had the energy to share with others in this manner.

warm wishes and soft hugs, Sylvia