Sorry for being late to respond. I'm back on the Oxycontin and much better for it.

My pain doc. is one of the best in California, and I've had an excellent neurologist as well, although he is in the process of retiring, so I'm looking.

One thing I've learned from this experience is how different we are when it comes to meds. By example, Pete and I had virtually opposite experiences with both Methadone and Provigil: a "wakefulness-promoting agent" with cardiac effects somewhat but not - at least compared to the effects of most ADHD meds on adults - greater than the controls, e.g., Tachycardia appeared in 2% of the test subjects taking the drug, as opposed to 1% for the controls. http://www.provigil.com/media/PDFs/prescribing_info.pdf

Maybe it just in our hereditary profiles vis-a-vis drug metabolizing enzymes, but I suspect it's more than that, where I've been told that there are a number of pairs of drugs that share identical enzyme breakdown paths, yet I can tolerate one and not the other. Then too, when it comes to Xanax, most people use it to relieve anxiety - and some people abuse it - yet I can't even feel it: it just stops the shooting pain in my feet. (There was one study I came across some time back that attempted to explore Xanax's effect on neuropathic pain, but didn't come up with anything statistically significant.)

I guess that's why I have a difficult time condemming the off-label use of drugs, so long as they are prescribed by experienced clinitians.

And to Isabel, I would love to try HBOT, but for the cost factor, where one apparently has to do them more or less in series and they're not covered by insurance (at least not by mine). So with discretionary income going toward our kids' educations, there's not a lot of room for treatments that aren't going to be at least partially covered by insurance.

Finally, a note of thanks to Mrs. D: I went through your link to methadone and drug interactions carefully. It was excellent.

And my thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to this thread. Your information (and concern) was greatly appreciated.

Mike