I am 73, and one of those people on pain meds who could not tolerate living without them. I had to resign my job as a professor at Buffalo State College in 2002 because sitting or standing for periods longer than half an hour was intolerable. That was a sad day in my life because I was only 58 and loved my job. I had recently received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and was at the top of my profession. I did not want to retire. But chronic pain made it a necessity.