tchair

katkat,
I checked your older posts to see if you were in the same boat that I was. So first let me save that this isn't a dental situation Secondly, after years of taking Ultram I had no withdrawal problems when I stopped.
I had a nerve damaged in my foot and went through the same routine. Nortriptyline and others made me sick, Neurontin and others didn't work. Also tried nerve, nerve root, and infusion blocks. The first thing that was any help was Klonipin which worked at night when I was in bed but not when I was on my feet. I Dilantin helped but with the side effects I didn't come out much ahead. Ultram (which replaced the Vicodins) worked well but only as long as each dose lasted. Your post reminded my of how I used to make myself a lunch in the morning so that I could eat later in the day when the preperation would be to much time on my feet and worse, sitting on the bottom of four steps leading into the house wondering if the nieghbors would be looking if I took the easy way and crawled up.
First I'd say that amputaion is too drastic and not garaunteed to work. (That's what my doc said (every time I asked and begged.) I also asked about cutting nerves and was told that the result is often increased pain regardless of which technique is used (physical, chemical, freezing, etc.) I was given the option of exploratory surgery but was told that the resulting pain levels could be the same , better or worse.
There are a lot of medications to try and different dosages. One person can have the opposite results of another so you don't know unless you try them. The same dose doesn't have the same result for everyone. When everything else has been tried there are infusion pumps, spinal stimulators, and peripheral nerve stimulators.
From what I've read the pumps can be successfull at avoiding or eliminating high doses of opiods but you have to be aware of possible complications. From what I've heard the spinal stimulators give 'up to' 50% relief 'up to 50% of the time. I'm told that the peripheral nerve stimulator does better than 50% more than 50% of the time. I have one and it works and works well. I'll be happy to answer questions, but I don't want to sound pushy or like an advertisment.