The fentanyl Lynette Killam was administered after her colonoscopy last week is not the same as the street pills - manufactured and pressed illegally - that have been responsible for an overdose epidemic in Metro Vancouver in recent months.

The prescription version Killam took is intended for pain relief, but it’s still a powerful opioid.

“That first day was not so bad, but the next morning when I got up I was tense, agitated, depressed,” Killam said. “I was not in a good way at all. It felt awful. I don’t have a good clinical word to describe it.”

Killam didn’t realize she had taken the drug. It was administered intravenously after the procedure, and she didn’t notice it written on her discharge forms until after her bad reaction.

“I didn’t know that,” she said of the prescription. “I didn’t ask. That was my foolishness.”

The problem is that pain management remains an inexact science. Gender, age, weight, and tolerance all factor into an individual’s reaction to pain relievers.

Each case is different, but opioids such as fentanyl and morphine remain the go-to drugs for severe pain relief.

For Killam, the concern is that her pain didn’t need to be managed with a drug so powerful. She wasn’t in the market for “severe pain relief.”

“I would not choose fentanyl,” Killam said. “I’ve had pain. I’ve had children. Pain is not the end of the world. Dealing with a strong opiate that could do more harm than good, I would not choose to take it.”

Indeed, the overprescription of opioids has been a source of growing concern and controversy. Earlier this week, the province of Ontario announced it would stop paying for high doses of such drugs, including morphine and fentanyl.

The total number of opioid prescriptions in Canada rose by nearly 25 per cent from 2010 to 2014, according to research published in Pain Physician Journal. That number represents more than 4 million additional prescriptions.

Killam believes there are alternatives to allowing that trend to continue. She has been urging patients to talk with their doctors about pain relief options, while sharing her fentanyl fears on Facebook.

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Tom Popyk