Ouch...well, I was going to make a suggestion, jen, but...without insurance. I have major chronic back pain that began when I fell in the mountains hiking in Colorado, and snowballed over the years with falls, car accidents, and age. Finally, within the last two years, it accelerated into major sciatica like pain where I couldn't walk down a hall without having to stop and literally sit down every 20 feet or so.

I was taking the equiv. of 300 mg. morphine/day (duragesic and morphine breakthrough), then found out about a Medtronic Pain Pump, intrathecal. It doesn;'t take 100% of my pain way, it might take 70% away and I still use breakthrough pain meds, but...I no longer have to hobble down a hallway and stop every 20 feet. I do at times have to lean on something when standing for too long to let the pain ease up, or sit down, etc. I have a rolling walker for longer jaunts to help my back (I also have a potentially terminal lung disorder called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis - up until recently COPD was the diagnosis, until the latest pulmonary function test, which showed restrictive rather than obstructive disorder). and to help my lungs.

Gina-MI