Oxycotin helped manage back pain

I am writing concerning the article in your October 5-11 issue named "Sussex County residents focus on solutions to opioid epidemic".
In this article you named a "panel of experts" which included a Emergency Department Medical Director, a State Senator, another Director, this one of Clinical Services at the Center for Prevention & Counseling, an advocacy coordinator with the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence — NJ and a Sussex County Prosecutor. Nowhere was there a mention of an actual patient requiring opiods for a "decent" standard of health status.
I am such a patient. I went to an orthopedic surgeon in 2001 because I had continued lower back pain that I was treating unsuccessfully with Tylenol. I was directed to have an MRI. The results showed an L5S1 spinal disc "of an 80 year old man". (I was 46).
The surgeon recommended physical therapy, which failed because it did more harm than good. I was then prescribed non-narcotic pain relievers. You name the brand, I tried it, without good results. Finally, the doctor said I should consider surgery. I had surgery in October of 2001 and came out the other end in worse shape than I went in. At first, I was prescribed narcotic pain meds (oxycontin, an opioid). This gave me relief from a 10 on the pain scale to a 5-6. When I asked for stronger meds I was dismissed. So, I saw another Orthopedic surgeon in March 2002 and after another MRI, he performed the exact same L5S1 fusion using chips of bone from my hip. His first words entering my hospital room after the surgery were "I did the best I could with what there was to work with". Words every patient wants to hear, right? I again tried physical therapy and non-narcotic meds. they both failed for the same reasons. Now I was in worse pain then ever, literally a 12 on the 1 - 10 pain scale. My surgeon said I would have to see a pain management doctor because he was "uncomfortable" prescribing more opioids.
The pain management doctors saved me. They prescribed, over time, the proper dosage of oxycontin so I would not have to spend my days in bed, in excruciating pain.
My point is this: There are actual chronic pain patients requiring opiod prescriptions to live a "decent" standard of health-life. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. I feel for the families who lost 36 persons due to opioid overdose, but that is probably due to those that think oxycontin is "fun" (I only see it as a pain reliever). There IS a problem, but cutting off the chronic pain patients, including those with cancer, is not the answer. Medicare says I'll have to live with pain in the 4-8 level despite an MRI showing my L4 disc is now degenerating too (which explains added pain). They keep lowering the dosage allow. Meantime, my pain increases. HELP!
Richard Phillips, Sr.
Vernon