I was taking tramadol as precribed by my pain doc. The neurologist put me on diazepan, 5 mg, Diclofenac potassium, 50 mg, and gabapentin, 200 mg. Three times a day. As I said, the first couple of days I was kind of dizzy and unsteady, But in a couple of weeks I was back on my bike, cycling 30-40 miles a week, something I had not been able to do in a year and a half.
Not saying it will work for everyone, but it sure helped me a lot. Pain dipped down to about a 2 or 3, occasionally revving up to a 5 on a n occasional bad day.