This has been my big problem since I first realized that the pain is a result of activity. It leads to fear and the fear impedes doing things. We have to keep moving and exercising or we'll go down fast.

My best bet is to avoid things that cause the most trouble and years of experience say that in physical activity that means working with my left hand over my head. It also means grasping repeatedly or strongly.

This will sound crazy but since I've gotten the RSD I've come to believe that many of our parts are conscious and re fully aware of their function and some of the activity in the brain. This is part of what is called "muscle memory" but goes well beyond this. We aren't conscious of these parts because the brain has far too much to worry about without having to screen out an "angry" stomach or a "screaming" hand. RSD seems to break down this barrier a little and I'm vaguely conscious of my hand. At least there does seem to be some little signals that I pick up on now and didn't before. It usually "tells me" when I'm overdoing it. It feels a little like a moment of pseudoparalysis or just an inkling that it's had enough. Stretching the muscles frequently seems to help.

If you put your hand straight out to your side with the palm open then twist your thumb up and to the back it ill stretch the median? nerve. This can be surprisingly intense so go very easy at first and don't do repetitions. If it helps then dip your head to the opposite side and you'll get even more stretch. It doesn't sound like much but it really gives the nerve a stretch which helps me a little.

Cold and temperature change are really hard on the hand so I have to wrap it.

I always sort of "ask" the hand to do something before I do it. If it says no then I'll use a different method to do the job. Doing little easy jobs that require the hands will give me terrible trouble the next day if I forget there's a problem. As long as I remember it seems to help a lot. The hardest things are when there is no choice. Giving first aid or something like this which has to be done and then I'm more likely to forget and more likely to be stressed. I find if I do what I can, I do a lot more than I do what I must.

A lot of overdoing it doesn't even involve the hand. I can overdo things with the hand in a cast now since my limitations are greater. I suppose the RSD is spread enough that anything I do can be too much. Diet and avoiding stress are critical.

It's so frightening since it's not getting better. I keep getting better at handling it while it mostly just gets a little worse.

You really touched a nerve with this thread since this is the basis of my predicament. It's probably similar for most of us as far as that goes though. If the dang thing would just hurt when I ate too big a piece of cake or touched something it would be easy to avoid the stressors. But it usually just waits until 24 or 48 hours later to give me hell.

Sorry for all the rambling.