I think you'd best visit a pain specialist, they are most knowledgeable about the condition. Knowledgeable neurologists, rheumatologists might help too. I wouldn't personally recommend going to orthopedists, they seem the least knowledgeable of all.

I had a dashboard injury, and consequently had constant swelling in both knees, redness and pain (burning, hot) that was out of proportion to the injury. I had to let it rest, because it could initially just as well be inflammation and a normal healing response, but I was told that if it persisted after 2 weeks, that I needed a specialist ASAP! This was good advice. So I went to an orthopedist after about two weeks, who then dismissed all the signs and symptoms of RSD and my complaints and told me that yes it's painful, yes it will last a long time, but that I needed to give it a year at least, a year of minimal pressure and mostly rest (no running, sports, just cycling, as cycling would be very good). He only caught the cartilage damage. As I got worse, I lost all faith in the first orthopedist. The next orthopedist put me in a cast, operated on me (while my legs had discolorations and my feet had turned blue by then), which made me get worse, and the third orthopedist described symptom after symptom as both my legs by that time slowly waisted away. It wasn't until I went to see a neurologist that RSD came up (that was amost 3 years into it), but yes the signs were there from the very beginning, and the pain and problems only got worse over time. I was later diagnosed by a neurologist, rheumatologist and 2 pain specialists from separate hospitals.

RSD can look like an inflammatory response in the very beginning, that doesn't mean you have RSD, but if it persists after that there's more to it than just inflammation.

If that first orthopedist had caught it, I could have been treated within 2/3 weeks!!! I probably wouldn't be in this mess now. I often think about that. I was 23 at the time. My life could have been saved.