I was prescribed nucynta for failed back surgery. For my experience at least, I'm not impressed. I had previously been on vicoden then darvon. Neither of those worked very well, but the nucynta was useless for me. It seemed to have an effect of making me seem as though I suffered from major ADD without any pain relief. Gratefully for me I'm now on morphine. Not that I want to be on anything that addictive, but it seems far better than the nucynta. I would have been happy to just go back to the vicoden. I certainly can't speak for your fiance, but if it's not working....ask for something else. Let the doctor know it's ineffective and go back to the hydrocodone or something else. Don't waste time horsing around with it either. Don't suffer if you don't have to. I wish you both and all of us the best of luck.