I too am sorry you have to deal with all of this pain at such a young age and face the emotional details that go along with it. But I have to share with you because I too most recently faced this dilema. First and foremost, you are young and still in the time frame of complete remission. I nearly severed my foot off of my leg nine years ago, I have no motor units functioning in this foot, causalgia, total posttrauma and disfigured, it serves no purpose and creates alot of pain in my world. I have had nine surgeries to repair all of the damaged areas but still have the pain. About six months ago my doctors and I discussed amputation and I even went to counseling on prosthetics. At this time, I have decided to not take that road. The risks are high and the stats are low. I talked to one guy who was 35, he said it was the best thing he ever did, but he had trauma to his leg no RSD. All others still had phantom pain and as the article states most people could not wear the prosthetics due to the rsd and/or phantom limb pain. I can get up in the morning or the middle of the night and walk on my foot, yes some days a little rougher than others but it does get me to where I am going. If I were to take the risk and amputate and still have pain I think emotionally, that would be more than I could bear. So...I say keep what you have, you are young and resilient, many people especially young do have spontaneous remission. And what is normal, everybody walks different, maybe you are unique and have character. Build on the positives, try not to get to washed up in the negative forces of this illness. Denial works great for me, I have never once believed that I have this illness, I just do the best I can with what I have, I really don't care what they call it, its what I believe that matters. Find a way that works for you to focus on what you can do and build on what you have and each day strive to move forward. Best of luck!