Hi Karen. I'm very sorry to hear that you're going through this. I feel for you,m truly I do.
I don't think, in your situation, that you're going to be able to avoid becoming dependent on pain medication if you are in that much pain. You might just need to take them until you can fix the problems. AT that point, if it ever comes and i hope it does, you would probably need to talk to your dr to find out a safe and relatively painless way to taper down, which would proably work for you since your addictionis more physical than mental and you're not taking them to get high as fasr as I can tell.
You can keep opsting here. There are a lot of caring people here who deal with chronic pain and physical dependancy.
Good luck to you!
- T.
"Use" is staying on what the docs prescribe, Abuse is when you take more than is prescribed and addiction is when you can't stop and maybe supplementing with doctor shopping and street meds. When you are healed a good doctor will bring you off of these meds gently. Hey, if you need em you need em.... However, get healed and get off as soon as possible maybe with some discomfort that is liveable. For me I took them long after I needed them because I liked the feeling the meds gave me...Until that stopped working.
Best
Jim