I just finished reading Marilyn Heise’s July 31 letter to the editor, “Overprescribing fuels opioid deaths” (Page D3), and had to chime in with my own experience.

I had minor internal surgery over a year ago at Maine Medical Center in Portland. I awoke feeling really good. The doctor gave me all the usual post-surgical advice, and a prescription for oxycodone. I told him emphatically that I did not want them, nor would I take them.

He kept pushing it because I might need them after getting home, and I again said “no.” When my daughter picked me up, I had a paper bag in with my belongings that I didn’t notice, but you guessed it – a bottle with 10 pills in it!

I am still irate just relaying this. Think of the costs for every patient routinely getting these unnecessary and dangerous pills! I then had to find out a safe way to get rid of them. When will the doctors hear and respect the patient?

Rosemarie Fitch
New Gloucester