Thanks once again all. Jenny, you are right - I'm in for quite a lot of rehab regardless.

I saw the physio today, and I was very impressed that she'd already seen some background material the surgeon had sent through, and she asked to keep my collection of xrays, scans, and records so she can look at them more closely between my appointments. She also was quite knowledgeable about CRPS so that was a win. She thinks it is only a "maybe" that I have it but that it is best to proceed as if it is, and that I have an excellent chance that physio will be effective. She concurred with my surgeon that my pain tolerance must be very high, though I did make much more of an effort to tell her about stuff that does hurt. She advised physio once per week, ROM exercises at least three times a day, hydro 3-4 times a week, no ice, light compression, not to try to ditch my crutches yet, and to avoid surgery - which concurs with all your great advice.

So I guess I am feeling a bit more positive and informed now, so I wanted to report back, to thank you all again, and I also hope this might be useful if someone in a similar position stumbles upon it.

There's much more to RSD than just pain. 3% of RSD patients don't experience much pain and even more don't consider pain the most serious symptom.

Therapy can in some cases (especially if caught early) be a cure for this disease but excluding this you'll want to find what things trigger your symtoms and avoid them.

Good luck. There's life after RSD but perhaps you'l learn that RSD isn't your problem.