First of all, welcome to SR. This is definately a resourse you didn't have available to you in '77!! Lots of good knowledge here. Do plenty of reading, no doubt you will find your story repeated by many other's here. See what they have done to help themselves, and note where they had problems.
How'd you get clean 30 years ago? It's still probably much the same process. I don't know how much of a factor NA (Narcotics Anomyous) was back then, but lots of folks find that to be helpful in their recovery.
It's good that you let you wife in on what's going on. She can be one of your best resources. I don't have any personal experience with pain pills, but there are many here who do. You might also want to check out the Substance Abuse forum here. You'll find lots in common with the folks there probably. Wish you all the best on your journey. Take care.