Hi SoS, I’m so sorry for your pain — I understand how rough that can be. While I am pulling together the updated version of The Driscoll Theory, and recovering from my hospital stay, I have limited time to help, but wanted to suggest a couple of things. I believe that some pain can be misdiagnosed, and objective measures are important to try to find the root of the pain, right? I experienced something similar, but was (very) reluctant to be labelled with the vague “chronic pain syndrome”. Tramadol, morphine didn’t even touch the pain. I strongly believed I had some tissue destruction causing the new onset pain, but this is a new concept for most physicians. Tissue destruction causes inflammatory cells to come to the site of destruction and can magnify the pain, but is tricky to measure. I asked for an MRI, and the extent of inflammation was easy to document. With some objective testing, you “may” be taken more seriously, and pain may be better targeted. For many of us, opioids make things worse (and interfere with cognition). We are working on addressing the pain focally now (topicals, mild steroid, Epsom salt baths, antihistamines for a week, Ketotifen, ice/heat) while I try to measure the inflammatory agents. I will keep you posted, and we’ll announce potential testing for those of us with this type of pain (hopefully soon). Big hug,