Hey! I feel your frustration to a "T". I suffer from chronic neck, shoulder and arm pain daily/nightly for the past 9 months. I won't go into it but I will talk about my struggle with pain control. There is nothing I hate more than popping pills, NOTHING. I feel guilty and I'm scarred of becoming dependent and building up a tolerance and fear what it is doing to my liver. Up until a couple weeks ago I would only take my pain meds when the pain would become unbearable, but then I would find myself reaching my max dose b4 a 24hr period would be up (to get control of it, and back to a comfortable level), and then I would be all oh I feel fine so I wouldn't take anything then the vicious circle would repeat itself. I did this over and over, can't tell you how many times. My Dr finally put me, two weeks ago, on Morphine slow release capsule 30mg 2 to 3 times a day. This is all I take now. One tiny pill in the am, one at around 4pm(this one I only take if I'm being super active and my pain is worse) and then one b4 bed. As long as I stick with it I feel good enough to function (takes the edge off but never takes all the pain away)...except I made the mistake yesterday of thinking "oh I feel great, maybe my neck is getting better" so I didn't take any yesterday and boy I'm paying for it now, but I'm sure you catch my drift...and I'm rambling...sorry. I'm sure you know all this as per your line of work.

I'm sure you will get control of your pain, just (as hard as it is) keep working at it and stay strong! Only you know how you feel and you need to make your Dr listen to you and if he won't, go find a new one!! . I've learned this the hard way, and I've been through 3 GP's over this last year but I've now got one that is working for me and who cares. I wish you the best of luck, this is a real shitty situation that we are all in, but if you truly believe "I will get better" you/we all, will! You also need to BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

** also want to say that I had a CT done (it showed some things,mild, but definitely the cause of my pain) then went to see the neurosurgeon (waited anxiously for weeks) get there, then he tells me that my CT looks completely normal! I said "but what about the two bulging discs and the one herniated one and the stenosis and the this and that...he looked at me and said "that's just one persons opinion, I'm the specialist and I'm looking at your CT right now and I'm telling you your neck is fine"........what a douche bag...anyways, I started crying, my husband got embarrassed and it was just one big stupid appointment...lol. I am now searching for another specialist...hard when you live in a small town. I wish you luck with pain treatment and with finding a cure! Pls keep posting as to how you're making out!! Hugs, Cali