I do have flare ups that come and go but am also ALWAYS in pain. Flare up pain is the worst and very debilitating. I often describe my pain as 3 types of pain.

1. Burning pain that radiates outward...I can best describe it as my bones being hot pokers and the burning radiates out from those pokers. This is my all the time pain...and it can intensify during a flare.

2. Burning pain on top of my skin...like someone running a blow torch on my skin whenever anything touches my skin. This can intensify during a flare where I just cannot stand anything touching my skin at all.

3. The bone crushing pain. This only comes during flares and it the worst of the three. It feels like someone is literally crushing my bones...grinding them down to dust. If I feel this in my hands they actually claw up or freeze in a fist and I cannot bend my fingers back without help. I cannot function at all when this happens.

My RSD came from a work related injury so I feel your pain with that whole process as well and am sorry you have to deal with that on top of everything else. As far as physical therapy...just remember to keep moving. You need to be careful not to over do it but immobilization will actually make the pain much worse. Flare ups can happen to me in my hands if I am not moving them regularly...like if I am holding something and forget to flex my hands. I do easier, smaller exercises when I am in a flare up but even then I have to make myself move or the flare up will get worse.