Nerve Damage

46 year old male patient with brachial-plexus syndrome in the left arm

The nerves in my neck were smashed in a gunshot accident -- the bullet went through my shoulder, through my neck, and came out the back. I've had five operations where they've tried to repair the damage, but nothing works. My brain tells my nerves what to do but it's like a telegraph with part of the message missing. I can move my arm, but I can't move my fingers. There is a kind of numbness from my left shoulder down to my pinkie. But there is also a burning feeling, like needles. I can't stand for anything to touch my arm -- if I accidently hit it there is extreme pain. It throbs 24 hrs a day.

I've been on numerous strong medicines, including Tawan NX, Vicodin 10 mg, and methadone 10 mg 4 to 5 pills per day. Some days I can take less, depending on how much I use marijuana. I don't smoke to get stoned, I smoke it for relief from thinking about my arm all the time and to take away the pain. When I smoke marijuana, I can get things done around the house, it gets me energetic, gives me an appetite. I don't have an appetite when I don't have marijuana -- I have to force myself to eat. The narcotics give you a state of mind where you don't eat -- I had to get off Vicodin -- I was taking too much -- it was hurting my kidneys. There's some kind of aspirin in it, 600 mg per tablet, 5-6 tablets per day -- we caught it just in time before it ruined my kidneys. So they put me back on methadone -- I didn't want to get back on that -- it makes me nauseated, not eat, sometimes makes me depressed. When I smoke, I don't have to take very much methadone and I have a better outlook on life.

I have a hard time finding marijuana and now the price has jumped up so high -- if we had this law, I could grow a few plants for myself.

Before this happened, I was a shipping supervisor for Seimans Energy and Automation in Georgia. I had a nice house, a family, five kids, and was a part of the community. After the accident everything went downhill. I stay at home a lot because I have to wear a brace -- my hand just lays there - I'm tired of people asking me what's wrong. Plus being on narcotics I can't get a job -- I think I'd be more employable if I could use marijuana for medicine. I wouldn't have to use it on the job, I usually only use it now in the evening depending on what I'm doing. Some days are better than others, and I think things are getting a little better.

My doctor said I would be one of the first he would write a prescription for if the law was passed allowing medical use, based on his knowledge of my damage to the nerves and the pain level I'm at. I've talked about my medical use of marijuana with my doctor over the last six years, so he has seen the benefit it gives me.