Finding great PTs (as well as doctors) is a fight onto its own. I keep telling people who ask me to go see a pain specialist. They at least know what RSD is and are able to know it when they see it, and can help with treatment. Additional specialists can help. In my country, it takes an orthopedist to prescribe PT for RSD, otherwise it's not refunded. The government somehow believes that only orthopedists know about RSD (and that brings about a whole set of disastrous problems when they look you over for disability). Well, in those (almost) three years that I went undiagnosed I saw lots of different orthopedists who just didn't notice! It took a neurologist to notice. So there you go... what can you do? It takes a whole slew of doctors, and it's so hard to even get help in the first place. Those years before treatment were hell! Applying for disability with the doctors they have looking you over is like a lottery! Many don't even know RSD when it hits them in the face.

The spreading is horrible. I don't even know how it spread to my arms/hands. Last year, it suddenly kicked in, just like that. I had RSD for 13 years then, and after all those years, my arms and hands just somehow got affected.