Traci - A Pharmaceutical Prisoner

My name is Traci and I live in Franklin Township, York County. I am currently one of thousands of people living in PA who suffer with Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia wasn’t recognized as a real condition until 1987 by the American Medical Association. FM, as it is currently called by patients, is a “diagnosis of uncertainty”! Doctor’s don’t know what causes it. There are no tests to confirm the diagnosis other than pressure point tests and some regular blood screening, however recently there has been a medical breakthrough with brain imagining. Most people have a regular functioning nervous system, but in patients like me, it is like the CNS (central nervous system) doesn’t connect.

My health issues involve:

1. Cranial nerve issues such as: loss of taste, speech disturbances (which is so severe it sounds like I have suffered a stroke), loss of balance, ear pressure, eye pain, ever-changing eyesight and visual disturbances, light sensitivity, blurred vision, disorientation, fainting, lightheadedness, nausea, carsickness, disorientation while riding in a car (made worse by simply passing an emergency vehicle with strobe lights on), dizziness, ears ringing/ buzzing, intolerance to loud sounds, hearing loss, inability to tolerate large crowds, one-sided facial pain, pain in your teeth, jaw pain and difficulty swallowing.

2. Cervical Spine issues such as: headaches/migraines, pain in the back of the head or skull, pain in the temples, “heavy” head, memory loss, neck pain/stiffness, muscle spasms, TMJ, nerve pain or numbness, finger pains, cold hands, swelling in both hands, pain in the wrist, arthritic fingers, weak grasp, tingling in any part of the upper extremities, leg/foot cramps, swollen ankles, etc. Sometimes even sheets touching my body brings great pain.

Due to FM, I am also plagued with suicidal feelings, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, nervousness, irritability, loss of time, memory loss, fogginess, forgetfulness, pain during or after exercise, increased pain when the weather changes, intolerance to heat, cold, and wind, skin rashes, hair loss, bladder pain, urinary incontinence, fullness of bladder, pain upon urination, etc.

I am currently on 11 prescription, however, at one time I was on a total of 40 prescriptions per day...literally leaving a bottle trail from the pharmacy to my home. Because of all of the meds I am on, my liver is not functioning correctly and I suffer from bile backflow through my kidneys as well as lung problems and AVN (bone death) of the long bones in both legs.

I am and have been a pharmaceutical prisoner for almost 20 years and I want this to stop. Medical cannabis helps treat every single symptom that is listed above. My body has enough to deal with let alone all of the pharmaceutical side-effects that are slowly killing me!