I had unbearable pain for only a year (not much compared to some of the posters on here (7+ years of back
pain, how do you do it?)). Throughout my year of
pain, my doctor prescribed me hydrocodone (from 5's to eventually 10's) and tramadol 50mg (which I took with tylenol 50/500 - making it basically generic ultracet). As surgery neared, I was taking 3 hydrocodone 10's and 2 "ultracet" twice a day - making 6 hydrocodone and 4 ultracet/day.