at first my rsd was just fingers to elbow on left arm... after about a year of being dx i did the trial stim, which pretty much masked all my pain, so i went ahead with the perm stim. at this point i was 21. once i had it perm implanted i never got the pain coverage like i did with the trial, and it spread up to my neck area. no matter how medtronics tweaked the settings nothing helped. my pain was worse than before, not to mention in my whole arm vs the lower half... my doc refused to put me back on pain meds and told me to get over it and go back to work.... i eventually moved back to cali and found a new pm team. and i had it removed about 18months after having it implanted. not just because it didn't help but with a battery in the back of my hip and the lead up my back to the base of my neck my back also began hurting, not to mention it'd shock the hell out me sporadically. from the research i've done (for a research paper for school) i found that its about a 50/50 shot at getting positive results. like all treatments for rsd it just depends on the individual person and how they react to it... if i had been older, 40-50, i def would have tried a pain pump before a scs. even after having the scs i would have gone for the pain pump. my doc refused to have that as an option for me since i'm still in my 20's. just make sure ur ready for the possibilty that it may not help and the possibility that it can make the rsd spread.