Personal Stories

Hi my name is Renee I was hit as a pedestrian when I was 39 years old. Told I would be fine went back to work after 2 weeks….. Mean while my spine which was fractured, continued to worsen….. 1.5 …

Hi , I dont know if this is posted properly but we will see . My name is Erin Walter. Im 19 and from New Zealand. I have suffered with LPHS for five years now .

I’ll try an make this as short as I can. I was receiving a lumbar epidural steroid injection. I’ve had three different kinds of pain shots over the years – so I know what to expect.

I am a 34 year old married mum of 3 children. I have suffered depression and pain for as long as i can remember. About six months ago i was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I honestly wish i still didnt have a name to put to my condition. It’s like i’ve hit a brick wall i know what is wrong with me but none of my health workers can give me any advice on how to manage.

Hi,

I am in London, England and this has hit me too. On June 6th last year I had an episode of frank haematuria and went to hospital, they suspected a stone but after many tests and a ureteroscopy, I was diagnosed with LPHS and sent home with painkillers…practically written off.

My name is Ivy Goss. I am a 37 year old mother of 4.Recently I was diagnosed with a disease that is very uncommon; Loin pain-hematuria syndrome. Not much is known about this condition. There are no known cures. Once known as idiopathic hematuria, LPHS simply means you have blood in your urine, and pain in the kidneys and, or lower back, with no known explanation.

My mother and sister have the same symptoms, yet no diagnosis for the condition. They live in Pennsylvania. I live in Washington State.

I was diagnosed with LPHS at the age of 16, I am now 18. Luckily I didn’t have to go through a lot of doctors, my mom also has LPHS. She knew exactly what needed to be done. LPHS has changed my life so much. I can’t do the things normal teenagers do. Because of my age my doctor won’t give me any pain meds that work, just tylonol 3.

Besides my mom, I don’t know anyone who has this. When I found this site today it made me feel less alone. Less of a freak.

Well here is my personal story. Im 36 and a single mother. I was in a car accident back in august 2008. Ever since then it has been down hill. Well after the accident i seen my family doctor n she said i just had soft body tissue bruising or something like that. She prescribed me some vicodin.

About six weeks ago, I found this wonderful site, it was and is still so very helpful to me. I’ve read so many of your story’s, if not all, of what you have said about LPHS. I was diagnosed almost 2 months ago. I’m 58, but now have realized that I have had this disease for many many years. I can’t count how many doctors have told me “there’s nothing I can do for you.” Or MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE “Maybe you should seek some phychiatric help.” Knowing now that I actually have something wrong with me is a relief, but for it to be a rare kidney disease, only confuses me more.

Hi, my name is Kat. I’m 34 and was diagnosed with LPHS a couple months ago after a biopsy revealed thin basement membranes — and seemingly every other test known to medical science showed nothing more telling than “hey, there’s lots of blood and stuff in your urine.”

My name is Tania, I am 16 yrs old and my doctors believe I have LHPS (although they are still checking for other possible diseases). I live in a private athletic boarding school miles away from my family and am finding it extremely difficult to get through this health issue by myself. Although I know my parents don’t know what I’m going through neither does anyone at my school, my friends, my roommate, or any of the staff members. I feel very lonely and alone at school. The pain is so unbearable and I am always scared for it to return.

I have survived cancer! I can not be happier and I fought with ALL I had inside me to beat cancer. I had only been engaged to the love of my life for four weeks and I had two children ages 7 and 10. There was no way I was leaving any of them.

My parents moved in as I was a single mom at the time and took care of me 24/7. They were the best they cooked and cleaned and got me to every single doctor’s appointment I had.

First of all, I have been the one to encourage and reach out to other pain sufferers on other sites always. I felt a strength as long as I could hang on to a sliver of hope. Without it, I have often said, “we will fall into the deep, dark depths of despair”. I have been falling there often in the last 6 months. I have no energy to describe all the pain, all the reasons, all the loss, becoming dependent, no money status, continual denial of SSDI, the conditions, diseases and types of pain right now. I just want to let it out, I do not feel I can cope with this anymore.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;

xxx

I’m 16 yrs old and I’ve had this strange back pain since a few years ago, it always returns after 1 yrs or maybe 6 months later.. it hurts a lot.. is in the middle of my back, i think, i’ve been to the doctor, gotten ray-x, etc etc .. but they dont find anything wrong.. NOTHING, and it goes away after maybe 5 days, i take pills that the doctor told me too, and they work… but it always returns.. the last time (well, not actually LAST) i had it, was in june this year.. it was stronger, and it gave me nauseas,, i threw up like 3 times.. and yesterday, i had it again!

My Name is Craig Silko. I have been suffering from LPHS since I was 12 years old. I was actually diagnosed when I was 17 because it took so long to rule out every other possible medical reasoning behind the constant pain and blood in urine. I have been treated with many medications but none actually rid the pain completely.

Back in May 2002 I was involved in a bad motorcycle accident. I was fortunate to survive, but now I’m left to deal w/ the aftermath of what happened to me that day. Due to all the fractures in my left leg,and all the hardware that is left inside,my problems now extend to the rest of my body. My hips on both sides are starting break down. My lower back has been severely painful. And also my neck has been a huge problem, causing severe migraines and shoulder pain. I wish there wasn’t such a stigma placed on pain medication. It seems so far the only thing to help me through a long day.

I am a 43 yr old female with a long history of kidney stones going back 18 yrs. 2 yrs ago I started having chronic left sided kidney pain with the same type of symptoms as the stones however no stones. It has taken me the full 2 years to convince the medical community I am not a drug addict nor am I suffering from a mental disorder of any kind. I am currently being treated by the pain clinic in my area and along with oral narcotic medication I am getting injections into the nerve area around my kidney with long acting anestetic medication.

hi I’m 21 years old and 5 weeks ago i was diagnosed with lphs. it took the doctors 5 years and 17 ops to finally diagnose me.

i don’t see how doctors can leave a human being in pain as its against there Hippocratic oath. if i was an animal they would put me down as I’m a human i have to live with the pain but i dont think i can.

i am looking for people who know what i am going through because i need to talk to them . right now there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

I have been in Chronic Pain since a surgery done when I was 4 and I am currently 20 years old and going to the University Of Michigan pain Clinic in Ann Arbor

i have been in constant chronic lower back pain for five years going now. Until recently the doctors have not had any set plan for me. My doctor s don tknow whats causing the pain, although my OBGYN suggests endometriosis and I have already been diagnosed with two congenital spinal fractures that are worsening. I would try to stay active but even having sex is causeing inflamation and pain the next morning. my fiance is scared for me. I spend a lot of time crying because no one seems to understand the pain i am going through.

This is an introduction video of me talking about my experiences with Chronic Daily Headaches. Please give me advice. Kristi

Today is November 20, 2007. Here is the latest installment of “Fibromyalgia Coffee Break.” Today we answer some fan mail, (or un-fan mail, as the case may be.) We talk about cycling, and the effects on the back. We also talk about fibromyalgia in the hands, and how it affects guitar playing. The end of this edition also includes a demonstration of how fibromyalgia limits mobility in the hand, when trying to fully arch and stretch you hand, as is required for the more complex chords of guitar playing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Please note: I do not sell anything.

Russ hllywdruss

The musings and commentary of a brilliant mind gone bad. Chronic Pain. I’ve been diagnosed with severe clinical depression. I also suffer from anxiety because of my chronic pain. It permeates all aspects of my daily life. Luckily my wife helps me deal with a lot of the day to day, and she is comfort to me at night. It would be quite a trial to face my illnesses all alone.

OH, COME WEEP WITH ME. PAST HELP. PAST CURE. PAST HOPE!

Brief run down of how the inversion table is effecting my screwed up back.

Chronic pain states may stem from the emotional impact on the brain at the time of the original trauma which can be alleviated with things other than drugs.

Hi my name is Brian and the severe chronic pain has been a part of my life for seven years. I worked with a moving company. We were moving a family into a very large house they had built and was now compleated.

From dedillon (not posted here by her)
“An introduction to my life
What it’s like to be living with migraines since age 5. Rasing a child. Living in a world where no one seem to understand the gravity of this.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5361YJgEg

Hi, my name is Helene and I am 48 years old.

I have been in constant pain since September 25, 2003 and have gone through numerous tests to find out why I have so much pain on my right flank and have gross hematuria.

It took my going to another city to see a nephrologist who cared enough to take the time to ask questions and not look at me as if I was a nut case and it was all in my head.

The nephrologist in my home town basically told me that I would not bleed to death and that I should consider pain management counselling. My last visit with him was dibilitating in itself as he accused me of letting other doctors know that he had suggested some possibilities of what I might have but he had never followed up on any of them. He was more concerned about his reputation than my health.

I am relieved to have a name to my pain and suffering, which in itself will help me in dealing with the pain. It is hard to live everyday not knowing if you are causing yourself further harm by what you ingest or the work you do. I was able to put those thoughts to rest. I have been advised by the nephrologist that I should continue to live my life to the fullest and eat/drink what ever I want.

Provided By: Jessyca423
Someone asked me to do a video on Chronic pain. This is my simple attempt to do so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3at-Q1F1c

After one year of pain medication …
COME AND TAKE A LOOK!
Home made

What is Endometriosis?

A short film about my experiences of Scoliosis. This clip shows the first time I wear my brace, getting home and shows my scars after surgery.

My name is Joy and at 39 my life is far from a joy. Amoung a multitude of other health issues, about three years ago I began to have blood in my urine and a nagging constant pain in my right loin region. I was sent to many specialist and endured many tests to no avail. Having a history of major depression and bipolar many of the doctors seemed to allow themselves to write it all off as an extension those somehow.

I wasn’t part of the government-funded studies on back surgery for herniated disks in the lower spine, mentioned in Saturday’s “Editorial sketchbook” (“Watching and waiting for answers on back pain”).

But I can report that after two years and two hospitalizations for increasingly debilitating symptoms of a herniated lumbar disc, including chiropractic care that offered only temporary relief, I finally underwent back surgery. The immediate relief of the pain and all symptoms was wonderful and has lasted nearly nine years.

I know not everybody has the same results, but I wouldn’t hesitate to include surgery as an option for dealing with herniated discs.

After numerous surgeries, including 4 cervical spine surgeries, it got to the point that the only way to reduce the pain level was to take large doses of narcoticts. Not long ago I was taking 96 mg of Dilaudid and 100 mg of Methadone daily plus about 8 others Rx’s. Got a morphine pump and soon added prialt. It took months to get off the oral narctoics and my brain is still not producing certains chemicals which cause many different problems. Got the Prialt level too high and had lots of side effects. REduced the prial to about 3.8 and mixed it with dilaudid.

My name is Tara and I am from Ohio. I am 29 years old. I have a daughter that is 8. Everything she knows is mommy being sick.

I have Lupus and Loin Pain Hematuria Syndrome. It struck me in 2000. I had several kidney stones and had to have surgery to remove them. Ever since I have had dibilitating pain. I went to many urologist and they all told me the pain was in my head. went on antidepressants and began thinking maybe it was me! I met a wonderful urologist who said I was the first patient he had diagnosed with LPHS. That’s when all my medications started being prescribed. The pain was not being taken care of. I could barely get out of bed. I was vomitting every other day. I had lost 30 pounds in 4 weeks. I slept 20 hours out of everyday. How could I take care of my daughter? My pain was not my first worry but my daughter seeing me that way and worrying what kind of chances she will have in getting these diseases. That thought just killed me. My depression sunk even lower and I was going through a divorce. I noticed I was a totally different person and hated it.

I started physical therpay Monday. They showed me them exercises. I have alot of pain when doing them. More on the right side. Its always the right side. I can do them. I have been told at this time, chiro care is not good. Until I get a MRI.

I was in a serious car accident 10 years ago. Shattered the bone in my right arm. Had a rod, pins, wire put into the arm for six months. For bone to grow back. Took a year to get use of the arm back. Since then, downhill. Not the same since. I am lopsided in posture. The right side of my body is taller by 2 inches. Chiroprators have tried to straighten it. My hip is also not right. I most likely got a pinched nerve. I have also scars that took quite a time to accept, but have now.

Banker hopes to help others get off drugs

Kristi Metzger had it all: a job she loved as a bank vice president, loving family and friends, community activities, a house to shelter her at the end of a productive day.

And a secret.

Metzger was addicted to the prescription pain reliever Vicodin.

After 10 surgeries in 15 years in a fruitless effort to relieve chronic pain caused by endometriosis, Metzger had almost quadrupled the maximum number of Vicodin she was allowed. And to keep her secret, she had turned into a liar.

Now, after two stays in chemical dependency treatment centers, Metzger, 31, has decided to keep that secret no longer. She has begun talking to civic groups about her addiction to painkillers and the resources available.

Help i am on methadone 80 milagrams a day witcch i cut back to 40 a day cause of not working with pain iam also on codene 50 milagams sulfate witchalso dosent work much my dr wont precribe the fentanaly patches till i have a pain management consult is there any other way of taking methadone or codene sulfate other than thaking pills like can you snort it for the pain anything will help pain level hasnt been below a 7 in over a month thanks and god bless.

WARNING: This video is long:
This is the first video in which I talk about Degenerative Disc Disease, my back surgery and various things relating to it.
This might provide some further insight into me…
***Ok YT got very screwy on me and the 2nd video uploaded and was posted but the first one was not, sorry about that! So for all the confused people here’s the first one!

part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JVoCfkqftI

part 2

Having chronic pain means many things change, and a lot of them are invisible. Unlike having cancer or being hurt in an accident, most people do not understand even a little about chronic pain and its effects, and of those that think they know, many are actually misinformed.

In the spirit of informing those who wish to understand …
… These are the things that I would like you to understand about me before you judge me…

The sports doc told me NOT to do anymore running. NONE. Not until I get some PT, then maybe a steroid injection (worst-case scenario, surgery). My last vertebra is out of jelly — no more shock gelatin in there, I have a herniated disc, blah blah.

But I gotta run! It kills me watching everybody running around, and seeing all the lard-asses taking their sweet time walking in the middle of the track no less when I’m out of commission!

So should I just go ahead and jog anyway? Only jog, not run. Well, maybe that last lap or something (which is what killed me in the first place two years ago — thought I pulled a hamstring…turned out to be, according to the MRI, “referred pain” from the lower back!).

My pain started when i was 17 with a little arhritis,now i’m56 and ihave migraines when since i was 25 they are very debilitating I don’t have a life because i am bedridden I have heen to several different dr’s & they won’t touch me.Is there anyone out there who suffers such terrible pain?I am on 75mg duragesic pathes.Has anyone ever had the pain take over their body 24hrs a day? you can write me at Russell452@webtv.net

Two men suing physician Dr. Robert Harned, claiming he over-prescribed painkillers, causing them to become addicted. Each suit seeks $1.5 million for the plaintiffsí pain and suffering. Also named in the suit are Chatham Medical Associates, where Harned practiced, and Stop & Shop Pharmacy, which filled some of the prescriptions.

I had back surgery 4 years ago with no relief.I am in constant pain. I cannot sit or stand for more than 20 minutes at a time because my legs go numb. It’s not too bad if I am sitting down (unless of course I need to go to the bathroom), but if I am standing, all of a sudden I just fall over. Sleeping, that’s a joke. Maybe 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours at a time, before I cannot stand the pain any longer and need to get up. So far, I have been on 15 different medications, with the latest being Methadone and still no relief. The doctors just do not seem to understand what a person is going through. And of course there are those that just plain do not believe you.

This review is by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

The most frightening thing about Paula Kamen’s “All in My Head” (Da Capo, $25) is that what happened to her could happen to any one of us. While putting in a contact lens one day, she was suddenly stricken with a horrible pain, worse than any headache she’d ever had. More than 10 years later, she still suffers from that very same headache.

At 13, I teamed up with my best friend Jill on Halloween: She was a nurse, and I dressed as an injured person. Though we wrapped my body in white gauze and Ace bandages, some of my outfit was not part of the costume. I was in my second month on crutches then, for a painful knee problem that had lingered since August, a case of bone outpacing muscle as it grew.

I am post spinal injury to L1/L2 20years, and have for a number of years been relativly stable. Following road traffic accident 5years ago i have suffered what is now described as chronic pain, having been on diazapen 10mgnocte up to 30mg nocte for approx 4years, i have been withdrawn from them since December last. The pain has now come to a constant burning feeling through my legs, and my Doctor hasnt made any suggestion what can be done.

PLEASE HELP

Great article written by Jacob Sullum on Reason

I have to admit I’m impressed by the achievement of the federal prosecutors who call McLean, Virginia, pain doctor William Hurwitz “a major and deadly drug dealer.” Although the evidence they presented in his trial made it clear Hurwitz was not a drug trafficker, they still managed to convict him of drug trafficking.

The prosecutors did not dispute that Hurwitz had helped hundreds of patients recover their lives by prescribing the high doses of narcotics they needed to control their chronic pain. Instead they pointed to the small minority of his patientsó5 to 10 percent, by his attorneys’ estimateówho were misusing the painkillers he prescribed, selling them on the black market, or both.

Christine Doyle hears the plight of sufferers of chronic pain and examines possible new treatments

Sharp pain, such as that suffered when accidentally touching a hot oven, is acute and unbearable.

A speedy reaction is a basic survival instinct. Imagine the sensation lingering for months, even years, and you begin to have an idea of what people with chronic pain have to endure.

More than one in 10 people in Britain live with long-term pain, and many feel that their plight is largely unrecognised and under-treated. Despite the increasing number of pain clinics offering a mix of physical, psychological and complementary approaches, surveys suggest that only one in four patients sees a pain specialist.

It’s not something that others can easily see

by Shannon Leidig

The author is a chronic pain sufferer who lives in Washington County. She wrote this as part of the educational component of Pain Awareness Month.

Who would ever have thought that my life would change forever on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1990? Until then, I was a normal college student, majoring in music therapy and piano at Shenandoah Conservatory.

That morning I awoke with my hand in severe pain and very swollen and waxy looking. The pain was so intense that I could not finish my piano practice. A nurse gave me ibuprofen and said if it didn’t improve, I might have to see an orthopedic surgeon.

Fifty years ago in Puerto Rico a 33 year old American Lieutenant and his 40 year old island beauty begot a little boy with Spastic CP, with hemiplegia. He was exercised, pushed, embarassed, deprived and beaten through a College degree in Physics. The boy got married, had two children, retired, and now sits at home broken and in pain because his most powerful tool for making it was always satisfying others and playing the role. Now, he sits alone in pain from years of physical abuse to his body from pushing too hard, wondering if parents have the right to demand so much. On the other hand, would there have been anything to look back on if they hadn’t pushed?

It all started as a normal TMJ problem. My jaws would pop & click w/ wide opening, yawning, etc.
Over about 2 years it progressed very quickly into “internal derangement w/out reduction”. I’ve done physical therapy, bite splints ( soft & hard ), biofeedback, imagery, soft diet, liquid diet, Advil, Tylenol, Aleve, about 10 different RX NSAID’s. After all the O-T-C Nsaid’s & Rx Nsaid’s, I now have an ulcer. Then I moved onto trigger point injections weekly, occipital nerve blocks weekly. Percocet 10′s, 3/day.

does any one get rebound headaches (migraines) as a result of taking chronic pain medications,

for my pain i am taking:
avinza 150mg per day
MSIR 15mg as needed (max 120mg a day)
zoloft 100mg a day
synthroid 50mcg a day

gabitril is one new medication i started (with a starting dose, i think it was 50mg) about 4 weeks ago, but stopped 4 day into it because of constant, but not very strong headaches, incidentally this last attack of migraines continued after stopping the gabitril.

i have been having headaches since then, with some days better and some days real bad, went to emergency room twice, done wide range of scans and checkups with out finding anything wrong with me or my head.

I have chronic neck & shoulder pain from an injury in 1987. I had to have surgery to fix part of it, but it’s still weaker and tightens up fairly rapidly.

One thing that really helps is using a Thera-band attached to a doorknob. Thera-Bands are the colored bands you often see if you’ve ever gone to physical therapy. You can get them from a medical supply store by the foot (or maybe inch), though. I do best with the green one (different colors indicate different strengths). I have wrist problems, too, so I have to wear a wrist brace when I use them. the ones I do are:

1. Stand at a sideways to the band. Keep shoulder-to-elbow close to your side and pull the band to the side away from the door.

Hi Everyone. I’m new to this wonderful site. Received an email from Vitali and have been encouraged and comforted to meet more folks and their loved ones trying to make a life IN SPITE of chronic pain.

I read Jana’s entries about her husbands experiences with Myelograms. I had my first AND LAST… in Oct.’03. It was terribly painful. I begged the doctor for even a little versed and he wouldn’t budge. WHY?!! The worst part was that the test only confirmed what we already knew WITHOUT the test!

Hi Everyone. I’m new to this wonderful site. Received an email from Vitali and have been encouraged and comforted to meet more folks and their loved ones trying to make a life IN SPITE of chronic pain.

I read Jana’s entries about her husbands experiences with Myelograms. I had my first AND LAST… in Oct.’03. It was terribly painful. I begged the doctor for even a little versed and he wouldn’t budge. WHY?!! The worst part was that the test only confirmed what we already knew WITHOUT the test!

Allow me to bore you for a moment, with a bit of MY STORY:
I was born with Spina Bifida which is a neuro-tube birth defect. But I was quite fortunate as a child and experienced much less complications than most children born with this. I walked, ran, attended school and was involved in everything from horseback riding to dirtbikes! I met the love of my life at the tender age of 16 and we were married. ANd then when I was 19, I defied the doctor’s predictions and had the first of our 3 daughters.

Author: Jana Christian

My husband and I were just sitting here discussing his worsening pain. Just saw the doc today who has FINALLY evaluated Donís latest MRI of his neck and lumbar spine. To quote the doctor, ìDon, I donít know if I can operate or help you, as you donít respond very well to surgeryî. Then he suggested another myelogram. My husband, Don, burst into tears.

Well, see ìChronic Pain from HELL!!î RE: the torture my hubby suffered during his last myelogram three years ago. My husband told his doc, ìthree years ago, I had to be held down by three bouncers the size of refrigerators in order for you to do the test because my spine was so full of scar tissue you couldnít even find a space to stick the needle. Your report said you sedated me. I was NOT sedated, no pill, no needle was given to me: not then, not EVER. At the time you told me youíd never subject me to another myelogram. And now today you donít even remember the procedure??! What theÖ?#@%^$$î.

At the age of seven, Gemma Quinn was paralysed in a car crash. Doctors said she would never breath unaided let alone walk again. Now, 11 years later, she has proved them wrong. Elizabeth Day hears her astonishing recovery tale

The television screen flickers into life. A beautiful blonde teenager in a red, velour tracksuit stands shakily upright and takes a single step.

The lounge room erupts in shrieks of joy, screams of disbelief, the sound of clapping hands and muffled crying. In the middle of it all, the girl in the red tracksuit smiles – composed and separate from the mayhem that surrounds her. Then the screen goes fuzzy.

Part V in My Never-Ending Quest to Get Medical Marijuana Legalized

Dear Doc Zombie:

Itís the day after my husbandís most recent brush with apathy at the hands of the UN-health system. Anyone following our story AND in Chronic Pain will relate, Iím sure.

My hubby, Don, had an MRI of his cervical spine (neck) and lumbar spine (lower back), which revealed ñ GET THIS..new ALERT. All discs in his spine are either ruptured, pressing on the nerve center of his spinal column, radiating pain down both arms and legs, to say nothing of the entire head and shouldersÖall but 5 discs in his entire spine are damaged and getting worse.

ìAdventures in CHRONIC PAIN FROM HELLî
Still MORE Reasons for Legalizing Marijuana ñ NOW!
Dear Diary: Edition One
Author: Jana Christian

So living in chronic pain CAN be fun after all. Except for when you try to do things normal people do, and find your pain is now up to a level 10 on that stupid scale the doctors always use (how can you measure pain using an analogy like that??? Most of the time my pain and my husbandís is usually beyond that flimsy scale, but I digress)Ö.and youíre in a place that now feels like prison and CANíT GET HOME!! Iím talking about the casino at Foxwoods in Connecticut, my God Ödeliver us from there.

(Still MORE Reasons for Legalization of Medical Marijuana)

Author: Jana Christian
Midnight(insomnia)

I watched Real Time with Bill Maher last night, and once again, his comments on marijuana just blew me away!

One guest was Jesse Ventura, the former Governor ofMinnesota. What a breath of fresh air. They were going ’round and ’round on this issue of WHY the government can’t get its head out of its butt when it comes to legalization. Well, Jesse made the most sense when he said that the only reason they won’t legalize marijuana is because the drug companies with all their high-priced bogus man-made drugs (that half of us don’t need in the FIRST place) keep oiling the palms of the politicians to keep pot under wraps and portray it as the Devil, when we all know differently. Well, DUHHH. And you can grow a pot plant in your own backyard for nothing. And wouldn’t the bottom of the ‘war on drugs’ fall out then?

By: Jana Christian

I met my husband, Don, over the phone six and a half years ago. At the time, I was living with a woman who was an old friend of Don’s family. Don had called this woman and left several messages. I subsequently called him back to tell him that his friend was out of town. We talked and talked. I read him my poetry. We shared our histories. We cried. We ended up talking for four hours and made arrangements to meet for breakfast the next morning.

A Chronicle in Pain Management

We’re BACKKK!! My husband and I ñ just sittiní here listening to Barry Whiteís version of Basketball Jones, and laughing our butts off. And smoking a fat one for the first time in a long time..and it suddenly occurred to meÖ

Maybe if I document our lives ( we both live in chronic pain 24/7 from ruptured neck discs, multiple surgeries, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and now migraine headachesÖsee ìChronic Pain From HELL!!î in Activism) ñ maybe if we share how we manage our pain with marijuana, we could make a difference on pathing a way to Washington with our ideas and findings, which weíve been documenting for months.

On January of 1991, at the age of 24, I was in a car accident that changed my life. A few months after the accident a MRI showed I had a L5-S1 herniated disc with a displacement of the S1 nerve root. I had a lot of pain in my back and down my left leg. Chiropractic treatments and rest did very little to alleviate my pain. Because of leg pain and weakness I had a microscopic laminectomy and discectomy. A few days after that operation the pain that had subsided came back and even worsened. I tried physical therapy for months with no improvement and finally a CT confirmed that the disc herniated again.

By the time Marilyn Bard finished telling her story at Montreal’s MUHC Pain Centre, the desk before her was littered with wet tissues. The 59-year-old grandmother had been pummelled by pain in her whole body for years. Simple tasks such as hanging the wash caused sharp pain to run along her arms. Her neck and head throbbed with an intense pain she never thought possible. When she visited her doctor, he told her there was nothing wrong. But the day she couldn’t even hold her newborn grandson in her arms, she knew there was.

Bard sought a second and third opinion. The final diagnosis: rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia and occipital neuralgia. The neuralgia required two separate surgeries to remove nerves from the back of her head. Doctors treated her arthritis with cortisone shots and painkillers. But the pain in her joints was never eradicated, and the neck pain returned.

“You are the expert of you,” says Krista Brecht, a nursing and chronic-pain specialist at the pain centre. “You come with a suitcase filled with things that can be helpful, like the professor who devised a way of working on a computer while lying down because sitting was too painful. We help you to identify those things and help you to become more self-reliant.”

Today Berardinucci undergoes physiotherapy regularly, meditates or relaxes in a hot bath about five times a week and makes a point of walking daily. Some relief came when surgery reduced pressure on her spinal cord. She’s also been given morphine and a drug cocktail that features a new anticonvulsant, a recent addition to the pain centre’s treatment arsenal. As her pain has become more tolerable, her interest in life has been renewed.

(The Case for Medical Marijuana)

By: Jana Christian
August 18, 2002
Published @ Marijuana.com

I’m a 55-year-old disabled baby-booming woman living in MESSachusetts (don’t ask). I live in chronic and constant excruciating pain from four ruptured herniated discs in my neck and one in my lower back. I also have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I’m a person who, up until three years ago never smoked pot…but I’m toking it NOW.