WeedPress: The Paper Trail

Iowan With Chronic Back Pain: “Cannabis has felt like a second chance at life. I just don’t want to feel like a criminal.”

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by

Jason Karimi, WeedPress Contributor
in

I received this email the other day:

My Story

February 2007

I just turned 17 when had my first lower back surgery from a massively herniated disk. I started experiencing upper back pain a couple months later.

From that moment on my life went spiraling downhill. I would have to lay on the floor during class because of the pain. I missed out on graduation because I couldn’t sit that long. My parents took me to specialists, chiropractors, etc. I tried everything possible to ease the pain and help lower my opioid medication so I could function like a normal 17 year old. I tried acupuncture, natural supplements, t.e.n.s. unit, ultra sound, injections, and the worst part — prescriptions.

By 19 they had labeled it Chronic Pain. With all the pain and lack of function, I became severely depressed with bad anxiety. I would cry myself to sleep ever night to be woken up by pain. Over those years my opioid medications got upped and upped. It just made things worse. I wasn’t my self any more. So what I thought was my last option was the 3 month chronic pain rehabilitation program through Mayo Clinic. They got me off some of the opioid medications and taught me some great pain management skills. After the program i was still struggling with pain and mental stability (I was attending a therapist regularly). Then I got another back surgery from another herniated disk in my lower back. They put me on more pills again. My upper back pain was still terrible.

I was not achieving anything in life because my pain was stopping me and I soon became hopeless. That’s when I decided to see if cannabis would help. The answer: Cannabis saved my life, giving me hope and control over my life without being completely out of it on pills.

When I started using it [cannabis] regularly, my medicine cabinet started to become smaller and smaller. Today, the therapist visits less often. I’m happy with my life. Super motivated. When my parents found out they were completely against it. . . Until they saw how much it has improved my life. It eased my pain, anxiety, and helps me focus because I’m not consistently thinking of pain. The past years since I started using cannabis has felt like a second chance at life. I just don’t want to feel like a criminal for using a medicine that makes me live life like a normal human not a chronic pain patient. I would move to a legal state but its too expensive and my family lives in Iowa. I will continue to medicate in Iowa no matter what. I would be more than happy to pay the tax for regulated medical cannabis. This is a very short version of my story but i want to help as much as i could.

From: Chronic Pain/Anxiety/Depression Patient saved by cannabis as medication.

(Anonymous Please)

Follow WeedPress on Facebook. If you’d like your story heard by legislators this next session, email me at jkarimi2007@hotmail.com, or write to me on the Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana Facebook page. You can remain anonymous if you’d like. I’ll publish your story here on WeedPress and make sure politicians see it next year.

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Keokuk Man With Epilepsy, Chronic Migraines: “I Turned to Marijuana, And It Seemed To Be The Best Form of Medication”

Father of 11 Year Old Autistic Boy With Brain Tumor to Iowa Legislature: “As a Parent, I Would Have Much Rather Had The Option of Trying Cannabis First”

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Another Iowa Family Looks To Move To Colorado To Get Cannabis Treatment For Two Year Olds Epileptic Seizures

Iowan With Muscular Dystrophy: “If Medical Cannabis Were Legal I Would Have a Better Quality of Life”

Chronic Pain Patient’s Anonymous Testimony: “I Need Cannabis to Live my Life Without Pain…These People in Office in Iowa are Cruel!”

Iowa Crohns Patient To Iowa Legislature: “Cannabis Could Help Me and Thousands Of Iowans Live a Better Life”

Comments

One response to “Iowan With Chronic Back Pain: “Cannabis has felt like a second chance at life. I just don’t want to feel like a criminal.””

  1. Angel Avatar
    Angel

    I was 29yrs old when I had my first back surgery cause of degeneration disks, herniated, bulged and slipping disks. The day I came of surgery they had me sitting up. I had horrible pain in my hips so bad I couldn’t stay sitting no matter what. I told the doc and he just kept telling me its the healing process so suck it up. Not even 5 months later I asked for an MRI of my back cause my pain was still so bad. Found out that there were broken screws (2). They went back in replaced the hardware. I still have unbearable pain it is now almost 3yrs later. Found out that I have herniated and bulged disks in my neck as well. I can not stand for more than 5 min without my legs going so numb that you could slice my leg to the bone and I wouldn’t know till I saw it. Opitis do not work for me I feel I could take 10 or more of my 7.5 hydrocodones, 5 or more tramadols, and 2 or more robaxins and still have the pain so bad I can hardly walk or move. I have tried cannabis a few times and it works wonders. I feel a little pain but it is a pain that I can handle and live with. I too live in Iowa. However I have a child so cause it is illegal in Iowa I don’t use it cause I don’t want to not have my child live with me. So I live every day in horrible pain and my 11yr old understands that I can not do everything. She hates it as well as I do. The docs to this day have No answers for me as to why I have all this pain that I have. I have seen so many specialists I have lost count. I would Love for cannabis to be legal in Iowa so that I could live a better life and be able to have fun with my child like I should be able to at this age, and not feel like I’m 100yrs old.
    My husband also has diabetic neuropathy. He has tried all kinds of “wonder” pills. Not one of them works all they are doing is adding in killing his liver more and more as he takes them. He has tried cannabis a few times as well. When he has he can walk normal and move with No pain. He could OD like me on all the opitis and still have pain, they just do Not work for chronic nerve pain at least not for everyone. He refuses to bring an “illegal drug” into our home cause of my child. So he too suffers every day of his life with pain. The pain that we have and deal with on a daily basis is enough that many “normal” people had to deal with for as long as we have would kill themselves over it. Then to have docs tell you that there is nothing they can do for you, you have to live with this the rest of your life. He is only 30yrs old as well.
    We are so depressed that yes there have been days we thought about killing ourselves and cause of the pain being so high. Yet with cannabis we didn’t feel that way at all, we were in control 100% of ourselves. Cannabis is an amazing herb that grows naturally yet it’s illegal. Yet the doc are trying to make us take all kinds of drugs that are killing our livers, kidneys, and other parts of our body and only making us sicker in the long run. Please help make cannabis legal so that loved ones do not have to suffer any more and can live a better life. Thank You!

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