Last year my RSD spread after I had a block and the pain got so bad that I was vomitting 7+ times a day...I know what that feels like and it was so awful. I would hurt so bad that I sould sick up and then I would hurt even worse from sicking up. It took many months of me being bounced around from one doctor to the next until I found one that helped me get a handle on all of this. While all this was going on I had to be off of work and I felt some of that guilt. I love my job and wanted nothing more than to get back to it...but I could not do it in the condition I was in. The best I could do was to focus all of my energy into getting myself better because once I was healthy and able to function then I could get back to work. Once I got the right doctor and the right physical therapist...things began to really turn around. Don't get me wrong...pain is still awful and reaches the 9-10 level almost every day...but I have been able to find through trial and error a whole bunch of things that all help me to get through the day, to function, to either reduce the pain or increase the effects of other things to reduce the pain. Meds have not been very successful for me so I am not on many of them and nothing for the pain itself other than lidoderm patches.

So my advice to you (and this is advice that my dad gave me that helped me through some of my own worst moments) is to not worry about the things you CAN'T control and focus on the things you can. That's not to say you ignore the things you can't control of course...as you still have to react to them a lot of the time...but your focus should be on how you react to something not on the problem itself. Not saying that it is always an easy choice...but in most situations you DO have a choice to one degree or another of what you can do in any given situation.

I don't know the details of exactly what you have tried...but from my own experience most of my relief has come from a lot of little things I do and use throughout the day to make me able to function. And all of the function has come from physical therapy...which I know you said didn't help you but it makes me wonder if perhaps it was not the right kind of therapy (everyone's different and responds to different treatments and some physical therapists I have met think there is a one size fits all physical therapy routine and don't take the individual into account at all). But really...even with physical therapy...as much as I pushed through a lot of pain...you NEED to have at least enough relief from the pain to do it even if you are starting small.

I really do hope that you are able to find some relief soon. Last year I was a real mess as I just kept getting worse and worse and worse, until I found the right doctor to work with me and then gradually started to get better and better. I still have limitations...still have pain and other symptoms...but I am happy and feel ALMOST normal sometimes despite these things. I am well enough to return to work (though...ironically they don't want me...but that's a seperate issue) and that was a great milestone for me when I was given the okay to go back to full work duty. Hang in there and don't give up.