With the pancreas,with cancer or after pancreatitis, some people have terrible somatic pain, not from usual pain fibers but the "sympathetic nervous system". This type can respond to a block of the sympathetic plexus (I had one woman addicted due to the pain after her pancreatitis...she got off narcotics after we blocked it).
The patient I mentioned on 300 mg morphine IV had a morphine drip into his spinal cord to control the pain, and lived like that for three months. When he was terminal, we removed it and it took the huge dose that I mentioned to relieve his pain. They also can cut the spinal cord: An old treatment that if done wrong can paralyze you. I haven't seen this done in 30 years. They also can do local nerve blocks and numb it if it is a limb etc.
Sometimes anti seizure medicine can help nerve pain, or anti depressant medicine.
The main problem is metastases, i.e. so many areas hurt that you can't block them all.
Wesley Smith's book is a good guide to pain. Power over pain
A very intelligent man. He's right. Now, if this point could be made in the political debate. Ideological liberals don't care about these concerns, since they see man as simply an animal and care only about our physical well-being. True conservatives need to take up the argument. No one else will, because no one else cares about our civilization.
Thanks for your detailed reply. I'll check into Smith's book, too.