i severely sprained my ankle in Dec. and went to a local clinic, ( i live in a very small town) was told i had a tendon about to seperate completely from the bone and was advised to visit a specialist. I have no medical insurance, but luckily i had made friends with other office managers when i lived in Houston. Saw DPM, immediately he told me i was developing RSD. Had a MRI, found bone fragments and a significant ligament tear. Cashed in money from my IRA and scheduled the surgery, was told the bone fragment may be impeding on my nerve and had to be removed regardless as well as the ligament repair. Had the surgery 3 weeks ago. My doctor " nerve blocked the hell out of me" -his words, i felt no pain at all for almost ten days. Woke up on the eleventh day or so to the most unimaginable burning, heat pain on top of my foot, the right side below my toes to above where my sutures were. My skin was like an elephant skin and very bright red. I was hoping, and still am that the surgery somehow affected my nerve roots and were traumatized by the surgery. Three weeks later, i have no pain from the surgery sight, healing great, regaining slight movement, but the burning pain is sometimes unbearable. My last follow up, the other day the doctor confirmed, " yes, sweetie you have RSD" And I'm like, o.k. what now? The doctor performed a $30,000 surgery for $5k and follow ups, injections, walking boot, etc. I try to adress the RSD with him, but his area is the surgery, which is actually too soon to tell if has helped. One thing for certain I have a lot more pain now than before, a burning hellish pain, not the dull, achy ligament, floating fracture piece pain. I have a TENS, which i cant even bear at this time. I cant drive for another month, because of the surgery. Should i even be trying to do ROM exercises, or is this exacerbating my RSD pain. The surgeries and follow ups were all i Houston, now I am back in my small town with crazy pain and a little depressed. Is it too soon for me to be scared because I am only 3 weeks post op from a pretty significant surgery or is there anything i can be doing to alleviate some of this pain. Not a big Vicodin taker, but it seems to be there answer for everything.