I am truly frustrated with insurance

To keep the story up to date, I attend a group of doctors on a monthly basis for pain. They try to help manage my pain with medicine and then they try to come up with solutions that will work better in the long term. Their latest plan was to install a spinal cord stimulator into my back. That is extremely appealing since it will interrupt the pain signals before they ever reach my brain and, unlike all the medicine I take, it will not fog my brain or dull my senses.

The problem is insurance...they denied it. They claimed that a note in my chart made them feel that I was not a candidate for the stimulator. The doctors changed that note and insurance was unswayed. That sent me through the first level of appeals with a letter to insurance asking them to reconsider along with copies of the changed chart. They remained unswayed. During this time, the doctors brought me to the weekly meeting they have to review cases and decide what to do. So five doctors at the clinic came together and decided there were two options for me. Either the stimulator or an intrathecal pump. The intrathecal pump would be nice to stop the pain, but what that means is I carry around a reservoir of morphine implanted in my body that is pumped directly into my spinal cord constantly. It feels to me more like a life sentence than anything else and it scares me to death. I would then be stuck with morphine and refills for the rest of my life. I definitely want to try the stimulator first. If only I can convince insurance of that...