Sarah, I am wondering if you have RSD... the severity of your pain response, is more like them. Also your feet and legs turning purple and swelling? Also a sign of RSD.

Here is a thread from the RSD forum showing pictures. Some are mild, some severe.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread16167.html

A metabolic PN would be affecting your hands too I would think.

And your history of back problems and arthritis, are perhaps adding to your foot issues.

RSD can be hard to diagnose. So posting over there may get you more information about this disorder. RSD and PN can co-exist in the same patient.

I don't know. A family friend just asked me last night if I had RSD. She had read a story on Fox News about it, and wanted to know if that is that I had had. I told her that I had PN, but that I'd talk to my neurologist about it and see what he thought. I researched RSD last night and it doesn't sound like what I have. I relate to some of the symptoms, but not a lot of them. I did look at those pictures on the thread, though, and it is very different. My legs no longer turn red--they turn dark purple.
I don't have any problems in my hands... just in my feet.
I am still going to ask my neurologist, just in case. The website that I was reading last night listed some tests that are done to check for RSD and a few of them are tests I have already had for PN, so I would think that they would have caught it if I do indeed have RSD.I don't thnk I have enough of the symptoms fo have it.