They have to understand that the pain isn't like normal post op pain!!! And Dilaudid wears off before 4 hours.
I agree you need Neurontin/Gabapentin in high doses to handle the nerve stuff. My doc also added Tylenol to the Dilaudid which did help (seriously, it did) around the clock. And they gave me 6 mg of Dilaudid as well. And while we don't want to rely on the narcotics (I got the lecture too) we also don't want to keep building and reinforcing those pain pathways. I feel for you having also recently been in the hospital trying to explain this pain.