I understand what you are saying about being leery of pain meds. It sounds as though you know yourself well enough to be cautious.

My husband (27 years chronic pain guy) has an implanted dilauded pump which delivers the stuff straight to his spine. In addition, he takes morphine for the pain that the pump doesn't handle. (Breakthrough pain)

Here is what my H says about addiction to pain medication. He says that as long as you take the medication for pain, it is incredibly unlikely that you will get addicted. Its when you start taking the medication when you are not in pain that you will get addicted.

Another thing my husband says is that caffeine is by far more addicting then pain meds. (And yes, he's stopped both numerous times in his life.)

So, that's just some stuff to think about. I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to push you do anything in particular, but I hate seeing people in pain when there are ways to take care of it. If you are interested in talking to my husband at all, I'd be happy to give you his e-mail.