So far I have only one serious pain (aside from chronic migraine) that can't be helped by meds. I have trigeminal neuralgia on my right side, and now its starting on the left. At times it is quite severe-I'd say a 10+.

Maybe because of my long experience with migraine (30+ years) where I have developed a tolerance of pain. (None of the migraine meds work for me.) I am (most of the time) able to basically ignore it until its at a 10 for 3 days at a stretch. That's when I can't take it anymore and have to resort to actively meditating. It takes practice, but it helps.

I think that's a bit what Dave is saying here. Since the pain comes from the nerves and even meds can't always fool the nerves into believing there is no pain, you have to go beyond them, deeper into your brain.

You might consider meditation sort of like self-hypnotism or praying. You accept the pain on the one hand, and in accepting it, it becomes easier to manage. Of if you think of it as praying, you give up your pain to a higher power or take assistance from that higher power to give you the ability to withstand the pain, therefore diminishing it. Just as believing in the meds, though, you do have to believe in meditation/prayer. And just as meds sometimes take time to work, meditation takes some practice, and you will need a few quiet moments to concentrate in order to gain relief.

I can only tell you it works for me. And if you're desperate, couldn't you at least try?