hey Mark,
I did not know what thalamic stroke was so looked it up and found this q&a and thought it may interest you:

http://www.caring.com/questions/post-stroke-symptoms

Also, I think I have mentioned in the past, Elavil aka amitriptiline works for my bad neuro pain. I have very weird neuro pain from untreated Lyme Disease and at this point there is no fixing it. Some days I can do quite a bit but when it flares up, I'm kind of a mess. I take Elavil to tamp down the head/neck pain when nothing else is working but it does render me mentally spaced out but it does help the pain.
I also take Esgic which is
Butalbital/Acetaminophen/Caffeine or sometimes the imitrex for what we rather loosely call migraines.

I sometimes finds docs amusing in their need to label what you have when so often the pain is often inexplicable or has multiple sources. I know they have to code it for insurance but I am blessed with a pain doc who just gets it. He trusts me enough to load me up with all the ammo I need and knows, I know what will work for my current pain.

Am I making sense? I feel like I am blabbering.Sorry Mark....I just feel for you. Trying to think of something that will work for you. Bring in NY I would imagine you have a host of really good pain specialists at your disposable or does insurance make things difficult?

Thinking of you, Diandra