My husband is 73 years old and retired after 47 years of employment. He was a tractor-trailer driver for 40 of his 47 years, so he sat in the cab of a truck for more than 10 hours a day.

He began feeling ill in the fall of 1991. Initially, his illness was attributed to fatigue but, finally, he was seen by an infectious disease specialist in the spring of 1992. After an examination and specific blood tests, he was diagnosed with stage 3 Lyme disease. He was hospitalized and, upon discharge, received IV antibiotics for several weeks at home.

Stage 3 Lyme disease can cause long-term joint inflammation, called Lyme arthritis, along with other complications. My husband developed severe arthritis in his knees and hands. It hurts his hands to grip things. While working, he often had to unload freight. He developed callouses on his inner wrists. When I asked what caused them, he said he was unable to unload the freight by hand so picked the boxes up using his wrists.

Yet not once did he complain. His dedication and strong work ethic was beyond reproach.

Shortly after moving to Maine, he started seeing a rheumatologist for the arthritis. He received injections in his knees which initially worked but, as time passed, the effect didn’t last as long.

His rheumatologist prescribed Vicodin, which he only took on the weekend and then only if he couldn’t stand the pain. When he retired at age 66, he was finally able to live the kind of life most of us take for granted. Yet even with lifestyle changes, his knees and hands continued to steadily worsen.

He filled the Vicodin prescriptions monthly, even if he had leftovers, because he didn’t want the doctor to think he didn’t need them. They were prescribed to be taken four times daily, as needed, but he rarely took more than one or two a day and some days none.

He went to his appointment in March 2016 and, upon arrival, had to give a urine sample. When leaving, he was given a paper saying to bring his Vicodin bottle with him at the next appointment. Given the drug related issues in society, that was understandable.

In early April, the doctor’s office called to say the test indicated there wasn’t enough Vicodin in his system so it would no longer be prescribed. We were glad he had leftover pills, because when the Vicodin was stopped, nothing else was prescribed. My husband didn’t see the rheumatologist until August so he would have been in horrible pain for five months.

During the August visit, the doctor said that he wasn’t allowed to prescribe Vicodin, based on the urine test; that it wasn’t his policy but, rather, that of the hospital whose umbrella he was under. He prescribed a different medication which has been completely ineffective.

It pains me to watch him struggle to get up from a chair, limp when he walks and wince in pain when trying to open a jar.

Every week, I read of more drug-related arrests and indictments, many for trafficking. If a 73-year-old man with arthritis so severe and painful that it is adversely affecting his life can’t get a prescription, how do they?

As to the hospital’s policy, did they consider that not every person with chronic pain is a potential trafficker? Not every senior citizen is supplementing their income by selling their pills? Why do doctors assume everyone who complains of severe pain has nefarious motives? What gives them the right to play God with someone’s health? A person who has been their patient for 15 years?

With no doctor to help and pain severely impacting his quality of life, my husband has decided to try medical marijuana. I researched cannabis and was surprised because it is definitely expensive. An initial appointment with a doctor certified to prescribe ranges from $150 to $300 and the annual recertification is about $50 less. The cost of the cannabis is approximately $300 a month. My husband will try a concentrate that can be added to a cup of tea.

So let me recap.

A senior citizen with a long, well-documented history of Lyme disease and arthritis and no history of drug or alcohol use. Yet a hospital’s inane policy is forcing him to turn to an alternative source in an attempt to obtain pain relief.

He will be spending several hundred dollars a month of his retirement income — money that could be spent enjoying life.

Maine is seeing the tragedy of the nation’s prescription opioid and heroin epidemic, but it is also seeing an increase in people with chronic pain, especially as baby boomers age. Chronic pain affects more than a third of Americans, yet getting help from a physician is impossible.

No one should have to suffer as my husband has, or to have treatment stopped based on not taking as many pills as they think he should when, in fact, he took them as ordered.

Dottora Quick is a resident of Avon.

Dottora Quick