Pain by Shane
I'm 34 years old (male) and I have been smoking marijuana for the last 3 years. I started smoking daily to combat nausea. I was working construction, building residential homes when I was involved in a construction accident. I was hit in the back with a truss which fell about 10' and broke my back and ruptured two disks. At the time of my accident I weighed 215 pounds, all muscle, and was 6' 1." That was in June of `99; now I weigh 183 lbs and stand about 6' even. The ruptured disks have caused the loss of height.
The first day of my accident I tried to just shake it off. I continued working about two hours after my accident but eventually went home early because of the pain. After laying down at home it was almost impossible to stand back up. I had to crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom because I was constantly throwing up. I have been dealing with those symptoms for over three years now and the marijuana is the only thing that will stop my nausea almost immediately, within a minute.
I have already gone through two surgeries and will have my third on Sept. 9th. I use to be very physically active, I hated to just lay around the house but now that is all I can do without suffering from extreme pain. I have been taking percocet and oxycontin to help stop the pain, and when I have smoke available it cuts my narcotic intake in half. However, anyone that has been on workmen's compensation will know that there is not much money left for purchasing something that costs as much as gold per ounce. I will see on TV or read in a newspaper occasionally an article about medical marijuana and there are the one's who to this day still deny that marijuana has any medical properties. I just have to laugh. That's like telling a person dying of thirst that they really don't want a glass of water. It just doesn't make sense.