I too am a gastric bypass patient since 2004. I have major back problems from 3 car accidents and a serious slip and fall. I have been going to Pain Mgmt since 2012. At first I had Epidural shots. They worked great the first time and for 8 months I was out of pain. When the pain came back, I went back in and had them again. Unfortunately not only did they not work then, but I tried them a 3rd time and they did not work again. I ended up on Oxy and after a very short time I told my doctor that I could not funtion on them and to try something else. For the next 11 years I was on 30 mg of Moraphine ER which is a time release capsule. It worked very well. It never made me feel high and I was able to continue working. I took Diluidid for break thru pain but did not have to take that very often. After 11 years, I just recently decided to get off Morphine because I noticed, as did others, that I was having short term memory loss. It wasn't fun getting off the meds but if you do it slowly, you can do it. I've been off all meds for 2 weeks now and hope to have a procedure called Radiofrequency Ablation done on my back soon. This is where they use hot radio waves on the affected areas that burn the nerve endings so they won't send pain to the brain anymore. Sure hope it works!!!