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By LARRY LECHUGA

Josh Goodman had various health problems while he was on active duty in the Air Force: he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, had surgery multiple times on his shoulder and elbow, and was also diagnosed with sleep apnea. Furthermore, he had back pains from a spinal tap surgery done incorrectly. We were able to talk to Josh several weeks after he first tried medical marijuana, which he says has provided him with pain relief and has helped him sleep better.

I had a variety of health problems while i was on active duty in the Air Force. in 2007, i was
diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Also, I had surgery on my left shoulder in 2001, 2005, 2006, and 2007, and surgery on my left elbow in 2007. And in 2006, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and sleeping problems as well.

But it doesn’t end there. In 2007, i went to the hospital for blurry vision and dizziness and the army doctor put a needle in my back doing a spinal tap. He did it wrong and, since then, i have had massive back pain and have had to walk with a cane to help me keep my balance — due to the injury, my back goes out every now and then.

I was on Percocet for 3 years during this time. But when i got out of the Air Force in 2008, I moved to Michigan, and the doctors from the Department of Veterans Affairs weren’t sure if Percocet was the best method of treatment for me. So i was sent to a pain specialist. I tried several pain medicines over a six-month span and we ended up settling on morphine. I was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder and severe depression due to my time in the military. i was put on different medications because of this as well.

So over the past year, I have been on morphine and it has helped some. i take 135mg of morphine a day. i would say my pain goes from a 10 when I wake up to about a 6 within an hour of taking the morphine. But the pain never gets better than that and, a lot of times, it’s worse.

I started doing some research on medical marijuana when i learned that Michigan had passed a law allowing patients with disabilities to use it. i talked with my pain doctor from the VA, and he said that it could be useful. But, he said that he wasn’t allowed to sign off on it because he was employed by the federal government.

So I took all my VA disability ratings and findings and records with me to a doctor in Michigan who said he would recommend the use of medical marijuana if I qualified. After about 30 minutes of talking with him and going through my medical records, which said that i am 100% disabled due to my time in the military, he signed off on it. I looked around on the internet for some caregiver sites and I ended up finding one through some forums.

My hope was to slowly get off the morphine so I could stop destroying my body and get pain relief and sleep better. I had never done drugs in my life, and i don’t drink, so i was nervous about trying medical marijuana. But still, i was looking forward to a restful night of sleep for the first time in years.

Over the past two weeks, I have used marijuana almost everyday. There were three days when I didn’t use it and, on those nights, it took me over two hours to fall asleep. On the days when I used marijuana, i would fall asleep within a few minutes of turning my lights off. It’s amazing how well I’m able to sleep and how peaceful I feel when i lay down at night. It seems to work so well that i can use marijuana in the afternoon and still feel relaxed when i go to bed 10 hours later.

When I’m high, I don’t feel any pain. But the high only seems to last an hour or so and then the pain does come back. Maybe I need to try different strains — I’m just not sure yet. But being able to sleep and feel rested when I wake up is such an amazing feeling. It’s something that i haven’t felt in over three years. That alone makes this worth it and is reason enough for me to continue using medical marijuana.