I came by scoliosis late in life as the result of cancer surgery. I have an intrathecal pain pump. It's a small pump surgically placed in my tummy with a catheter running up my spine. It leaks about 4 mg of narcotics directly into my spinal fluid over 24 hours. I can also take another milligram of Narcotics in 10 doses over 24 hours by means of a remote control. Narcotics delivered in this fashion are one two three hundred times more effective than drugs that you swallow and have to run through your digestive system.

I don't know if your insurance will pay for this but it is the ultimate solution for this kind of pain that's just unrelenting. The volume of narcotics is so small there are no side effects, no constipation, no drowsiness. Search under my handle, wshh66, I have written extensively about my experience with the pain pump and my experience with pain clinics. I was treated and mistreated for 20 years plus by a series of doctors who were willing to treat me and a lot more doctors who are not willing to treat me. I was accused of being a drug addict, I was treated like a criminal and I was made to feel guilty for being in pain. I became a patient of the pain clinic at the University of Minnesota. There was a process I had to go through. I had to talk to a psychiatrist I had to talk to a psychologist, a neuropathologist and a palliative care doctor. Once I cleared those hurdles I was given very large doses of Narcotics. The side effects were tough and the relief was not complete. When I had cancer I had chronic pneumonia and a lot of infections so I had to wait for one year to pass infection free before they would give me the pain pump. I've had it now for more than 3 years and have the best quality of life I've had in the last 25 years.

I would encourage you to read up on the intrathecal pump and see if you think it might be right for you. If you can find someone who will put it in for you, it's much safer than pills and you cannot overdose, you cannot get high, and you cannot give your drugs away. I hope you find an answer love and blessings.

I should explain that originally I had pain all over my body but mostly on my right side due to pinched nerves. When I had my cancer surgery they remove so many lymph nodes that I got a thing called dropped foot. All of a sudden my left leg was an inch longer than my right leg and it was causing me to fall down but after that ended basically the extra leg hammered the spine to bend out to the right which fixed the sciatica I had but created it even worse on the left side.

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