I have been on pain med for 6 years. They make it more manageble, but definitely not gone. I have no quality of life, but without them, I couldn't get out of bed and get to the bathroom 95% of the time. With my pain meds, I do have some decent moments and occassional drop below a 5 on my pain scale. Pain is definitely a constant part of my thought process in all that I do so that I don't push too hard and make it much worse - which I've managed to do too many times.

I'm curious, what are you considering the "highest dose" for the narcotics you have been on? I'm assuming you tried oxycontin and ms contin as long acting???

I have a three page double column list of meds I tried over the years for my migraines and 3 years ago, my doc hit on a combo with relative success which is much better than the NO success I had to 22 years! Don't give up.

Good Luck,
Suzanne