I live in southwestern West Virginia, a region that is home to several counties high on the list for annual opioid deaths. In the city where I live, we once had 30 opioid overdoses in a single day. Suffice to say I'm sensitive to the damage opioids can do. When I had spine surgery, the doctors sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin. I took one, and it worked. When the pain got bad again, I tried Tylenol. It worked, too. From then on, I took Tylenol and threw the rest of the Vicodin away.

Two years ago, I was in the hospital recuperating from a stem-cell transplant. I got a searing headache, and asked the nurse for some Tylenol. She said she couldn't give it to me because of a potential interaction with some of the other meds, but she could give me Oxycodone. I passed and told her I'd just suck it up. That's how scared of that stuff I am.