It’s great to be here and contributing so I thought I would start out by telling a bit about myself. I’ve been meaning to do it for a bit now and haven’t found the gumption, so I figured I’d just do it and see how it goes.
My journey with cannabis started in my late teens for more recreational/spiritual purposes and while I really enjoyed it a great deal I got to an age where I felt the call to service so I woke up one day and quit, and over the course of a few months got myself into shape and ready to sign up. Fast forward to 2009 on Fort Bragg NC, 82nd ABN DIV. We were getting ready for a deployment to AFG(my second by this time) and starting all our training to include some airborne operations as a requirement for staying current for the upcoming deployment. Usually this is a daytime “Hollywood” jump meaning no gear just a troop and a chute. For some reason my First Sergeant must have had two scoops of hooah in his Wheaties that morning and decided to do what’s called a night time Mass TAC which essentially simulates dropping into hostile territory at 800 feet with 75+ pounds of equipment, plus a rifle. The winds were particularly high that night, and somewhere very shortly after lowering my equipment which I’m guessing was maybe 30 feet from the ground my parachute had a partial collapse mid oscillation and I fell sideways at a pretty good pace.
Long story short I ended up with two ruptured disks in my lumbar, a badly fractured clavicle which would go on to star in such blockbuster hits as distal clavicle resection, and a labrum tear. I was medically separated in 2012, and only started using cannabis medicinally for 9 months give or take. I have largely been managing my pain for the last 5 years with several prescriptions. I’m still on some of them, but I’ve managed to get it down to an anti-inflammatory, and Ultram. I am hoping I’ll be able to get it down to just cannabis when I find the right meds. As I’m fairly sure most of you already know depression, anxiety, and sleeplessness are a pretty big part of chronic pain, and for me at least harder to cope with. These conditions I no longer take prescription medications for as cannabis works quite well to help me find perspective, and to see the good in life that can get clouded by the pain and frustration as well as to find sleep each night.
Anyway, it is really great to be a part of all of this, and look forward to contributing as time goes on. Thanks for taking the time to read my story, and I hope to get to know all of you better.