@pegsj3
About opioids for pain; by "max out" maybe you mean they would stop helping? Because I know there is such a thing as tolerance, the same dose that helped, after time stops working. I go to a pain management clinic where I'm followed every month. The medications are just a small part of what I can do for pain. But this helps me cope. I wonder if you could find a doctor at a clinic like this. They are experienced in helping with long term care.
In my experience there is a stigma and I am private about taking a small dose of hydrocodone. Also, the original Rx I received is the same amount I take after several years. So I've been fortunate without tolerance, and also fortunate that I found a doctor who sees me for who I am. Not as a sick person.

I have been on hydrocodone for 10 years and it does seem a bit weaker now. I am sick of the side effects, so I am going to have a major back surgery soon. You get tired of living on pain killers.

Thank you for responding and understanding my pain.
Any pain medication will eventually build up a tolerance and stop working, but then we have to try something else.
I would give anything to even have my pain reduced by 50%.
My pain doctor is working with me and I know she cares about me, but it seems I’m always trying something and waiting for results that never arrive.
I know there are many things I haven’t tried yet, and I’m hopeful that soon I can be free of the total pain and have some comfort.

Dear pegsj3, Wow, without introducing myself yet, This is my attempt to respond: My personal experiences with pain is related to periodic attacks of kidney stones over 50 adult years that became so severe at times that I had to be hospitalized. The last time, two years ago, kidney stones lead to sepsis and the doctor asked me if I wanted my last rites because he was unsure if I would live. The pain was so severe I couldn't respond to him. Nine days of exquisite pain. But that pain was "come and gone". They used everything you can name from Oxy to morphine.
About twenty years ago arthritis began to develop in my left hand. Over the last two plus decades it further developed in my hips where it became severe and acute and then in my neck. The difference is, this arthritis pain comes to roost and it doesn't end.
Somehow I feel lucky that I don't have the pain that others relate in this forum.
Experience only suggests to me that the morphine type medicines like Vicodin, Oxy, and morphine don't have long lasting effectiveness. If you are like me, "doomed" as said in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," then after two or three years on those medicines they won't be working for you. They are better for short term pain like kidney stones.
If a person is writing the last chapter in the autobiography of their life, then maybe those meds are ok. that would include fentanyl patches.
Best of luck to you and more power to you.