I understand your feelings about the pain medicines. I watched a young woman in her 20's go through the misery of withdrawal from doctor prescribed pain medications when her behavior became so bizarre her husband threatened to leave her and take the children. She stayed off almost a year, but is back on the meds with her doctor's blessings. I never gave in to the stronger pain meds and steroids that my original doctor wanted to prescribe. I do take Ultram when necessary and Ibuprofen, but for the most part I try to stay away from pills unless the pain is too severe to function. I have compressed vertebra in my neck and a bulging disk (the doctor says it is not herniated)in my lower back, I cannot remember where and I keep forgetting to ask the doctor. I use a Chiropractor who is also a drug free pain management specialist. He does ultra sound and diathermy therapy on my spine. He also suggests using hot and cold treatments on localized pain. My favorite cold pack is easy and cheap to make. Take two freezer strength zip lock bags, 3 cups of water and a cup of rubbing alcohol. Pour the water and alcohol into one bag and close tightly, place that bag inside the second bag and place in freezer. This will freeze into a mush instead of a solid block of ice. It can conform to the contours of the body. Just be sure to put a towel between your skin and the cold pack. This pack can be reused for years. Make several. For the heat a hot water bottle or heating pad works well, once again be careful not to burn or damage the skin. Alternating hot and cold stimulates circulation and reduces swelling and inflammation.
You can get a good inversion table for less than $200.00 through Walmart.com. An inversion of 60 degrees is supposed to give traction equal to what hospitals give. It really helped me until I developed problems with my knees. My Chiropractor told me that regular use of the inversion table "might save my life".
I also suggest you research and use natural anti-inflammatory supplements. Turmeric, cinnamon and ginger are all good spices, you can put the ground spice in empty gel caps or just use these spices in cooking. Fish oil or other Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids is another good supplement to use. There is a supplement from Swanson Vitamins called Mobility Essentials that contains a lot of anti-inflammatory herbs. Regular use has helped me a great deal. For more information you can check out http://www.swansonvitamins.com .
I was greatly improved with my back problems until a large deer hit my car in November. I did not take proper care of myself even though I knew something was wrong. I kept on working long hours and eating a lot of bad foods through the holidays. I was also under a great deal of stress. Things went from bad to worse until March of this year when I tried to get up and go to work; I found I could not stand up much less walk. It has taken months of Chiropractic therapy, but I am very slowly getting better and able to go much longer periods without pain medication. I was never in to them as deeply as you, and I agree that you need to get off of them as soon, and as safely as possible. The natural way is very slow, but I am looking for a cure, not just the masking of symptoms. Surgery would be my absolute last resort.

I don't know anything about getting off the pain medication but I do know about managing the pain. There have been a lot of people who have eliminated their pain using the Lakhovsky Coil. Most were shocked at how something so simple could possibly work. It cost less than $5.00 to make and even a grandmother can do it. My site gives full free instructions or you can just search for the Lakhovsky Coil. There are also yahoo groups talking about it recently one person said that she put one on her husband who had been in pain for years and in 2 days the pain was gone another said she had a 82 year old friend who had a bad wrist not only get rid of the wrist pain but was dancing in the kitchen pain free.

Just so you won't think this is just an advertisement you can go directly to just the instructions at http://www.copperhealth.com/coil_printable_version.htm and bypass my web site but you may want to read more about Georges Lakhovsky and the work he has done.

Anita