Arthritis by Matt Glandorf

Hello, everyone-- just wanted to get this off my chest once and for all. I am tired of feeling like a criminal. I have arthritis in both hands and my chest, but here is the real kicker-- I am severely allergic to aspirin.  I can’t even take a Motrin without breaking out into a rash. I was born with a chest deformity called pectus excavatum (funnel chest and encaved chest are a couple other names for it.) I had corrective surgery in 1976 to try to make my rib cage bigger In that surgery they break all the ribs and actually break the sternum in half, remove it, flip it over, and put it back together after removing most of the cartilage and muscle  Now I have arthritis along with lung problems and asthma. I usually spend two to three weeks a year in the hospital with lung infections and make numerous visits to the doctor  for chest pain. Needless to say, I have eaten a lot of pain killers and tried nerve blocks and so on.  All have had little success and  make me so stoned that I can’t even drive a car, So I started using pot and went from four Vicodin a day to one, ,and with watching my activities and a healthy diet I can go with no doctor’s meds for weeks on end. Six weeks ago I had a visit from the sheriff’s swat and nark team and was busted for growing marijuana. Since I was arrested I’ve been back on the pain meds and they make me sick. Puking with my ribs is like being hit with a baseball bat every time. and I am back to square one. So the wife and I have made up our minds that once this court case is over, if I still can’t find a doctor to sign off on my med case for the Colorado Heath Dept., I’ll have to move to Canada or California or Mexico.—some place where I can live what I have left in this life in peace and not feel like a criminal.