I  have lived with RSD for ten years now. It all started with an injury to my knee.  The physician who repaired my knee referred me to a pain specialist.  After meeting this physician I started with treatment that same week.  The treatment that I was receiving  was LSB's(Lumbar Sympathetic Nerve Block's).  These would help with my pain for about 8-10 hours at first.  Then eventually they only worked for 2-4 hours.  I then stopped having these and just tried to tolerate the pain.   As well as having the blocks I was also on a lot of medication.  I really did not like the affects of the medication but since it was helping, I was taking it.  The final straw for me to not taking any more medication was what happened:  I was with my husband and two young sons.  My youngest had to use the restroom and so my husband took him so that I could place our order.  By the time he came back, I still had not ordered.  Why?  Because I could not find the words to order - I did not remember what I had to do!  This was becoming a very frequent event.  So, my husband talked with me about this and then we went to the pain specialist that I had been seeing.  He had to wean me off the medication that I was on.  This took about two months.  At this point, we started looking into other ways of treating my pain.  I tried acupuncture - for me it was not very effective.  So, we went back to PT and I used a TENS unit as well that the physical therapist had prescribed.  During this time, I was told that there was not much else that could be done for me other than having a spinal cord stimulator placed.  I did go for further evaluation to see how severe my RSD was.  It was determined that it was very severe and I was told that if I ever fall into a cold/frozen river or lake, I would not survive.  The only option that I was given, was to have the spinal cord stimulator.  My husband and I went home.  After this appointment, we gave it much consideration.  The decision was that I would have the stimulator placed.  Now, the first step was to do a trial stimulator to see if this is something that would work.  Well, the result was phenomenal!  I had not been able to walk hardly and after the trial was placed, I went and walked the mall.  The following day, I walked several blocks.  I could not believe it!  My pain was so minimal!  I called the physicians office and told them that I needed to have this actually done permanently.  It was about three months later that I had the permanent stimulator placed.  It has been a life saver for me.  Without it, I would have been in a wheelchair by now.  Do not give up!  There is help out there!