What's up with the pain medication

@ichbindck I do aquatherapy, tens unit, massage and acupuncture.

Ive tried all three, with acupuncture helping a bit. They were expensive and not I would think the insurance ( an advantage plan over medicare )
would cover some of them. The insurance companies deny prescriptions , and procedures that could help with my condition. I agree ,the medical field is broken. It needs to change with the times

I might as well jump in. My pain stopped being intermittent in 2004. I had a bad landing from a parachute jump in my 20’s. The initial injury was repaired but from 1982 till 2004 my back would “go out” from a bulged disk and I’d be hunched over forward and to the right. Could last an hour or a month. In August 2004 after I was re-injured the neurosurgeon sent me to his part owned pain management clinic. They filled me with copious amounts of every pain medication there was. By Christmas I was emaciated and still in severe pain. A good friend couldn’t bear to see this and got me info on a different doctor. He said he would have operated on my when it first happened, but wouldn’t say that in court. He did a laminectomy at L4 & L5. It worked, but I was now an addict. Glad I don’t remember the withdrawal when my wife at the time pulled me out of the hospital 2 days early. She lived through it and was almost arrested at the pain clinic begging then screaming for help. No rehab would take me because of the recent surgery. I Had to relearn how to walk and function properly. I got off the fentanyl patch, dilaudid and oxycodone. I was still taking 10/325 hydro’s. 10 months later I had a double AILF, anterior incision lumbar fusion because I started toe dragging with my left foot. He said it would become permanent if not addressed. It was November 2005. And turned out to be my last time at work. I was 48. At the pinnacle of my lucrative career and had the rug pulled out from under me. By 2014 I was fused from T10-S1 and was developing thoracic kyphosis, a hunchback. In order to repair the kyphosis my straight lumbar spine had to have the hardware removed and my boney spine surgically broken in 2 places. They actually use a hammer and chisel. It was now 2015 and they did the same on my Cervical spine and did a 360°. Plate in front, pedical screws and rods in the back. The surgeries were a physical success but I now had Failed Back Surgery Syndrome of the thoracic and lumbar spine and in chronic moderate to severe pain 24/7. Aside from the drugs prescribed I had my first spinal cord stimulator implanted. It provided minimal relief to thoracic area and kept me on oral opiates as well. And the dosage kept growing as I acclimated the meds. They were no longer working. And despite the “O crisis” I never had trouble getting the new set of copious meds. Finally in 2017 my pain doc felt I was a candidate for a morphine pump. I had to go cold turkey off all meds for 6 weeks to reset my brain’s pain receptors. It was a nightmarish hell. The Lennon song “cold turkey is a perfect depiction of the withdrawal hell. First withdrawal then the pain returned. But I surprisingly made it through it(despite numerous suicidal ideations. The day of the trial I was injected with 250mcg of morphine directly into the intrathecal space that houses the central spinal fluid. I was out of bed dancing in the hallway like gene kelly. The next week the pump and catheter were installed. My doc was very conservative and maintained the pump staying within micro dosing guidelines. I was pain complaining for the next 2 years. She sent me to a friend that checked the catheter integrity. It was fine, he felt I was under medicated and doubled my dose +15%. Finally down to a beautiful level 4. Something I could live with. Fast forward to 2024 and an out of state move Took place and I lost the best healthcare provider I ever had. I hadn’t had a pump increase in over a year or my annual series of lumbar facet ablations. Spent most of the year horizontal. Finally this last summer I flew back to DFW to my old pain doc 2x to get 2 series of 4 level bilateral lumbar ablations(because I was told TN Medicare wouldn’t pay for ablations) then a month ago a new pump was installed because my battery was about to die. This time I got the 40ml pump, had the 20ml all along. And a 15% increase. It got the pain down from an 8 to a 6+ if it wasn’t raining. But I longed for the level 4 I could easily live with, even with a fully fused spine. But it never happened. I stayed at the top end of level 6. And that’s where I am today in October of 2025. Only taking 800mg Motrin and tizanidine muscle relaxers for breakthrough pain. So I live at the mercy of the weather and how much physical activity I need to do daily.

I might as well jump in. My pain stopped being intermittent in 2004. I had a bad landing from a parachute jump in my 20’s. The initial injury was repaired but from 1982 till 2004 my back would “go out” from a bulged disk and I’d be hunched over forward and to the right. Could last an hour or a month. In August 2004 after I was re-injured the neurosurgeon sent me to his part owned pain management clinic. They filled me with copious amounts of every pain medication there was. By Christmas I was emaciated and still in severe pain. A good friend couldn’t bear to see this and got me info on a different doctor. He said he would have operated on my when it first happened, but wouldn’t say that in court. He did a laminectomy at L4 & L5. It worked, but I was now an addict. Glad I don’t remember the withdrawal when my wife at the time pulled me out of the hospital 2 days early. She lived through it and was almost arrested at the pain clinic begging then screaming for help. No rehab would take me because of the recent surgery. I Had to relearn how to walk and function properly. I got off the fentanyl patch, dilaudid and oxycodone. I was still taking 10/325 hydro’s. 10 months later I had a double AILF, anterior incision lumbar fusion because I started toe dragging with my left foot. He said it would become permanent if not addressed. It was November 2005. And turned out to be my last time at work. I was 48. At the pinnacle of my lucrative career and had the rug pulled out from under me. By 2014 I was fused from T10-S1 and was developing thoracic kyphosis, a hunchback. In order to repair the kyphosis my straight lumbar spine had to have the hardware removed and my boney spine surgically broken in 2 places. They actually use a hammer and chisel. It was now 2015 and they did the same on my Cervical spine and did a 360°. Plate in front, pedical screws and rods in the back. The surgeries were a physical success but I now had Failed Back Surgery Syndrome of the thoracic and lumbar spine and in chronic moderate to severe pain 24/7. Aside from the drugs prescribed I had my first spinal cord stimulator implanted. It provided minimal relief to thoracic area and kept me on oral opiates as well. And the dosage kept growing as I acclimated the meds. They were no longer working. And despite the “O crisis” I never had trouble getting the new set of copious meds. Finally in 2017 my pain doc felt I was a candidate for a morphine pump. I had to go cold turkey off all meds for 6 weeks to reset my brain’s pain receptors. It was a nightmarish hell. The Lennon song “cold turkey is a perfect depiction of the withdrawal hell. First withdrawal then the pain returned. But I surprisingly made it through it(despite numerous suicidal ideations. The day of the trial I was injected with 250mcg of morphine directly into the intrathecal space that houses the central spinal fluid. I was out of bed dancing in the hallway like gene kelly. The next week the pump and catheter were installed. My doc was very conservative and maintained the pump staying within micro dosing guidelines. I was pain complaining for the next 2 years. She sent me to a friend that checked the catheter integrity. It was fine, he felt I was under medicated and doubled my dose +15%. Finally down to a beautiful level 4. Something I could live with. Fast forward to 2024 and an out of state move Took place and I lost the best healthcare provider I ever had. I hadn’t had a pump increase in over a year or my annual series of lumbar facet ablations. Spent most of the year horizontal. Finally this last summer I flew back to DFW to my old pain doc 2x to get 2 series of 4 level bilateral lumbar ablations(because I was told TN Medicare wouldn’t pay for ablations) then a month ago a new pump was installed because my battery was about to die. This time I got the 40ml pump, had the 20ml all along. And a 15% increase. It got the pain down from an 8 to a 6+ if it wasn’t raining. But I longed for the level 4 I could easily live with, even with a fully fused spine. But it never happened. I stayed at the top end of level 6. And that’s where I am today in October of 2025. Only taking 800mg Motrin and tizanidine muscle relaxers for breakthrough pain. So I live at the mercy of the weather and how much physical activity I need to do daily.

Holy cow, that is so much to go through over a fair bit of time. Seems like you've learned a lot too. Thanks for the details and mishaps info. Quite a journey. I hope you won't ever be addicted again. Hang in there. All the best to you.

@bilt4pain