Just my personal opinion...but I honestly don't think you are making things worse. Do you have RSD (CRPS type 1)? If you do (that's what I have) you have to remember that while we experience the pain there is no PHYSICAL injury in (for example) your hand. It's your nervous system that is damaged and sending those pain signals to your brain. So taking the meds is allowing you to do the therapy and movement that you need. It's generally takes a long time to learn your own body and what the signals are that tell you that you need to stop or take it easier. You have to learn your own tolerance level and at what point the pain reaches a level where you cannot function afterwards. THAT is pushing too far. Do it to the point where, after some rest, you will be able to do it again. Doing a whole bunch at once but then taking a day or more off will not do you any good.

Constant movement, in my opinion, is the key. I don't necessarily say move so much that you are pushing past the pain in the sense that you are overdoing it...I've paid the price for that many a time. But constant movement might be just flexing your hand (not holding or touching anything) or it might be doing puzzles or it might be doing some other hand held task or it might just be typing. If it hurts too much then rest but after some time move again. When I say pushing through the pain I tend to mean don't let the pain stop you or prevent you from moving and exercising because immobilizing is a vicious cycle of much worse pain. It took me a good 6 months to reliably get on my feet again after being in a wheel chair and that was with DAILY physical therapy exercises. I never took a day off BUT when I was having a bad day I would revert to the very early exercises (simple stretching ones without any weight bearing). By doing this I was able to keep up the constant therapy and movement but not set myself back by overdoing it. I also started out doing one exercise, then resting for an hour, then another, and then rest, etc. Gradually I was able to do a couple exercises at one stretch before resting, and so on until I was able to go through them all without taking a break.

Again...these are just my opinions based on my own experience and I know we are all different. I worked with a physical therapist at my home who came at the beginning twice a week and then went down to once every other week so we could make my physical therapy last longer (because insurance only allowed so many visits in a year). Doing it at home meant no fancy equipment and no weights or anything. It was all gradual and easy. She was a wonderful woman who didn't know much about RSD when we started but was willing to learn and really did amazing things to help me reach my goals of where I wanted to be. I will forever be grateful to her.