If you are young, there is a proper reluctance to prescribe medications that you will effectively be on for the rest of your life. There is also a greater chance for abuse among younger patients. Do you have test results that indicate the severity of your neuropathy? My experience has been that while you can indeed be in severe pain without clear test results on a skin biopsy or EMG, doctors are more reluctant to prescribe heavy pain killers. I know that I am fortunate to have tests which indicate the progression and severity of my neuropathy, which is hereditary.

Is the Lyrica helping? I have constant, debilitating pain in my legs and feet. It would wake me up at night. I am currently on 15mg of time release morphine (ms contin) twice a day, and 7.5 mg. oxycodone as needed. I take two a day. This is a fairly moderate amount but I no longer wake up in pain and the morphine makes the oxycodone much more effective. Our doctor was very careful to explain to my husband and I that I would probably be on this medicine or something like it for the rest of my life, but that is different at 51 than it would be at 25.

You may need a different doctor or a pain management specialist, but the fact that your neuropathy seems to move around may be what is causing your doctor concern. That is pretty unusual and there isn't really a protocol for him to follow.

The more that you insist that you need the oxycodone, the more red flags he is going to see. You must be careful how you talk to doctors about pain medicine. If it really helps you in your daily functioning, calmly stress what you are able to accomplish with it vs. without it. It is all about restoring function, not just relieving pain. You must not expect to have all of your pain eliminated, that is not the goal of pain management. You may be able to get him to agree to restore your oxycodone if you try his other ideas and they do not work, but you must appear to respect his opinion as to your treatment in order for him to respect yours. Good luck.

Edited to add, in response to your last question, most doctors want to help, but they all want to "cover their butt" even if that means untreated pain.