Hi @trip17, I extend my welcome to you as well. I can identify with about 98% of your story and frustration. The only difference is I did not have a nerve block device implanted.

I had my gallbladder removed in 2007 and didn't find relief until 2010 when I traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester to be a part of their Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program. Up until then I, like you, had every test done that they could think of, all that came back as negative or normal. I was on hydrocodone for pain, Lunesta for sleep, phenergan for nausea, 2 blood pressure medications, and an antidepressant. After spending 3 weeks in Rochester, we learned what was going on. It was hard for me to understand at first because I had trusted that the only way I was getting relief was through the medication I was taking. My doctors explained that it was Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia. Certain people, depending on their genetics, develop a "tolerence" to pain medicine, while other people can develop Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia. They are not the same thing. After your body has been on a pain medicine for an extended amount of time opioids can produce the opposite reaction in the nervous system causing hyperactivation, which leads to an increase in the pain a person feels.

They were able to taper me down and eventually off of the medication and several others that I took because of my pain, like my sleep medicine. I added a link about what this is. It may not be what is happening with you, but when I read your post it sounded all too familiar. Have they tried you on any other type of medications for the pain or only the Hydrocodone?
https://www.hss.edu/conditions_opioid-induced-hyperalgesia.asp