Hi Pat,
Welcome to the forums.
I am sorry about your dog....it is tough to lose our buddies.

Please talk to your pain doc about using something other than Ambien for pain. Ambien is prescribed for sleep and obviously that is why they only give you 30 a month. Have you tried a muscle relaxer like Soma or for neuropathy Neurontin or Lyrica or pain meds Hydrocodone.,I have been going to a pain mgmt doc for 11 years and he let me try all kinds of things until we found what worked best. I used to take Ambien a lot but with better pain control, I rarely use it.

Do pain medications not work at all for your pain or is it side effects that are the issue?

It does take a bit to learn your way around the forums but everyone was new once and we all have patience with each other and everyone is happy to help.
There are great moderators here and they are very helpful.

Welcome,
Diandra