Thanks for your input...both of you. I also don't want others to be influenced by my experience or not to seek medical help for their pain.

Thankfully, God seems to have blessed me with a high pain tolerance, but I also have a high tolerance to medications. I think I deal with pain differently than a lot of people. I have had back and leg problems for as long as I can remember, so I don't really know what it's like not to have pain of some level. I was born with this weird condition (not sure what it's called) that is basically a non-union of the shin bone. Mine never grew together completely...left one did most of the way, but the right has almost an inch space. Didn't find that out until I was in 7th grade, after years of telling my parents my legs hurt. By that time, the muscles, ligaments, veins, etc. had moved between that area. Needless to say, it caused all kinds of issues. Like RSD, it's rare so many doctors don't have a clue if I talk about it. When I was a few weeks old, they found out I had double hernias. Back then they didn't really operate on babies, so they waited until I was 8 months old, when I almost died because they were "strangling" me to death even though they were in the lower region. My family said they couldn't even hold me normal and I would writhe in pain and scream. My uncle, a PT, said he believed all the writhing and twisting I did as a baby were the beginning of my back problems. I stayed active growing up...I'm quite stubborn Now as I get older and the RSD gets worse, all my old injuries are coming back to haunt me. Oh, did I mention I was always dubbed "an accident waiting to happen?" LOL

I think some of my main concerns about going to a pain doc are them telling me there's nothing wrong and the fact that I want nothing invasive. Are there really any pain meds strong enough to take the fluctuating levels of pain without knocking you out? Plus, the walking problem isn't the pain, it's the weakness. I swear it feels like my knees and left hip are all having their own little ongoing cataplexy attacks!!