Today I went to see my new doctor, establishing him officially as my "pain management" doctor and 'authorized treating physician' for work comp.
In the beginning, I was very impressed with his listening skills, and bedside manner, as he seemed to understand my concerns, and was quite compassionate about my pain levels.
The fact that I used and brought in a pain journal I printed out from the American Pain Foundation (Thanks a board member here- though I forget exactly who- thanks, though!!) helped a great deal.

He explained how my hydrocodone was a short acting med and that it was inappropriate for my long term chronic pain condition, and pointed out, without me saying it, how my life is/ has been dominated by my pain levels and the medication for it- needing to take a pill every few hours and then wait for it to kick in to allow 1-2 hours max each day of decent pain control...

So, he had me sign a pain contract, which I have NO problem with at all, and prescribes me Morphine 15mg extended release tabs twice a day, 12 hrs apart, and Ultram 50mg twice a day for the breakthrough...He compared my 7.5/500 hydrocodones 5x daily to this morphine dose, and said he expected it to be better than my current pain control without the peaks and valleys.
And I was ecstatic! I thought finally I'd get some relief!

BUT THEN>>>>> total letdown....
My last hyrdrocodone was taken at about 2:30pm, about an hour before my appt.- I was hoping to not hurt too terribly bad if he needed to poke and prod and stretch me around in exam...The pharmacist said to go ahead and start the morphine tonight, and usually my daily hours are sleeping from 6am to Noon-ish, and I am awake from Noon to 4am ish- the two hours from 4am-6am are generally spent fighting in my chair or my bed on the floor to get comfortable and pain reduced enough to sleep...
Anyway, so I was at about a 9/10 pain wise by 9pm, so I went ahead and took the morphine, figuring I'd get up again at 9am to take the next dose...but NOTHING. My pain did not go down AT ALL. Not a half a step. NOTHING.
I took an Ultram and two tylenol to give it a boost around 10:30pm and the pain went down to an 8/10...but thats where I stayed. Now it's almost 2am, and its going back up to 9/10. I signed this stupid pain contract promising that I would not take anything other than this that he gave me, and I don't want to screw this up because I think he will genuinely help me deal with this...but there is no one I can call, and nothing I can do through the night but suffer. (And vent to everyone here. )

My next dose of morphine should be at 9am, and the doctors office opens at 8, but idk if I'll be awake then...hopefully not!
Does anyone know about morphine dosing? From what I have read online, this 15mg is the lowest dose- is it pretty common? Is there some sort of conversion ratio between the hydrocodone and the morphine? Do I need to give it time to build up in my system? And is it ever going to work better than it is now????
It feels like I haven't taken anything- it is not even touching the pain at all, let alone relieving it. HELP???