Dahlek,
Your links are great thanks for the heads up - both articles are well worth a slow read particularly the AARP piece. It's a very sad commentary when physicians are afraid to prescribe narcotic pain killers for fear of repercussions, losing their license or even jail time because of the "laws of the land".

Fortunately, my neurologist is an old school doc who told me he used any and all means available to him to provide pain relief for his patients - up to and including narcotics - his opinion - if prescribed and used properly the danger of abuse and addiction is minimal vs the potential for pain relief. I may find out sooner rather than later since no combo has worked yet.

Now completely off the subject but truly absurd, the Mexican authorities just raided a posh residence suspected to be a meth lab - their 1st clue was 19Tons of pseudoephedrine, the precursor to methamphetamine, awaiting delivery to the residence. More importantly however, was the stash the authorities uncovered, no less than 2 1/4 Tons, that's right Tons of $100 bills, calculates out to ~$205.6M dollars.
Want to take bets on how much jail time these people serve as opposed to the 25yrs Richard Paey is serving in FL - makes you wonder sometimes.

Thanks again for the links - took my mind off the pain for a little while
Ever longer pain free times to you
Alkymst