Pinched Nerve

[MarkNoone]

I have a woman in her 70s. For the most part she can't leave the apartment during the day. She is always in pain. This is from what she tells me she thinks is trapped nerves. She tells me that the amount of medication they have her on for the pain just doesn't work.
I need advice on the general ways these things go. Google says just rest, or use ice, and other treatments that most likely will do nothing. One option on the list is surgery. If it comes to that with her, what is the procedure?
What scans need to be done to check it is a trapped nerve and if so what surgery is needed? Google says that a whole vertebrae is taken out but I doubt that. She has had this pain for a long time and any advice I am grateful for.

[MarkNoone]

She has already been in the hospital.
She kept talking about her pain but they didn't pay much attention. There was a problem with her lungs at the time so they were more interested in that. She says she has been there 5 times.
She paid for some medicine and it never turned up.
Any advice on how to approach the medical professionals with this?
She doesn't even want to go back to the hospital, she'd rather live with the pain... Or so she says.

[SassyLassie]

Hello, if it is nerve entrapment, then seeing a chiropractor would be worthwhile. MRI and CT scans would be the best to determine exactly what is going on, some chiropractors can order them, but if they can't, then she would need to see a GP.