Emily uses CBD daily to cope with the aftermath of a motorcycle accident which caused an opioid addiction. Today she is opioid free and an advocate of everything cannabis. This is Emily's journey with CBD...
My CBD Journey | Emily Piña
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Why do you use CBD?
“For my back pain, hip pain, knee pain, fractured shoulder and wrist. I was in a car accident in 2014. I was on my motorcycle and I basically T-boned someone who was making a wrong turn. I was in the hospital for 4 months after the accident, had a few surgeries but it triggered a pain in my back that I had already had before the accident. I noticed I was getting back pain from my back pack for school. I would weigh my backpack and it would be 55lbs. So before the accident my back pain was random and after the accident it was just all the time. I also have 3 screws in my hip and my left leg, the whole entire leg, is all held together by a metal rod and screws.”
Does anyone else in your family use CBD?
“My dad did before he passed away. I would give it to him randomly for some things so he could try it out. And then when he was passing away, over a 2-week period, he would have me get him CBD stuff. I gave him some RSO Full Spectrum CBD and gummies”.
Is CBD hard for you to acquire?
“Well, for my back pain, it’s expensive. I would like to buy it for digestion or heartburn. I wish I had it sometimes for that.”
How has CBD made a difference in your everyday life?
“When I do normal things during the day, I know the pain will go away after I use CBD. I only use it after activities. I don’t have to use my back brace at all when I have CBD. My brace is constricting, I can’t do anything in it. I can’t bend over wearing it. When I use CBD I don’t have to wear it and it’s like I never did the bending or anything all day. I hate bending over because it hurts all of my body --- any kind of bending. People will say, “Use your knees” but my knees don’t work. I can’t bend or squat I can’t hit them against anything either. I can feel the metal.”
How has it affected your everyday mood?
“When I use CBD the pain isn’t on my mind. So then I feel carefree. Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping… maybe if I had some CBD dabs it would help.”
Tell me about your life before CBD.
“Pain, just like pure pain, lots of pain. If I want to sit criss-cross-applesauce at the end of the day on my couch, I can’t until I use CBD. I can’t sit however I want. I can’t just go like do dishes. I can’t do anything looking down really until I use CBD.”
How has it affected your career?
"I quit my job at Subway because they had me bending down into a freezer and wouldn’t put me on the day shift, which didn’t make you do that so I had to quit.
Then, I quit my job as a caregiver. Right after my accident I was lifting people a lot at my job and I didn’t realize how much it was hurting until maybe a month later. I had already quit subway and went back to caregiving and realized how much it was hurting me. It wasn’t working out. I also had to quit a couple more jobs. Right now I’m at a call center and I’m like, ‘Give me that good chair. I need that chair.’"
Do/did you take any other meds?
"They had me on 20mg of oxycotton 3 or 4 --- sometimes 5 --- times a day. Four if I really needed but easily 3 a day. They just convinced me that I needed it. Like, ‘If you need it ask for it. This is all for you. You’re in pain, so you need this. You should take this.’ So when I got out of the hospital I was taking them as much as I could, all the time. Then even when I ran out I was getting really bad anxiety, even in the hospital because they started weaning me off. So I was having withdraws from oxycotton really bad. So I was just getting this crazy anxiety 24/7, all the time, unless I had it. So when I got out, I convinced a couple doctors in the hospital to give me some because I didn’t really have a normal doctor to prescribe them to me after the accident. So then I stopped and I started just buying it from people but it was hard to find and my anxiety went away so it just wasn’t working anymore. So thank God I was able to just wean myself off of it. Now I don’t take any. I maybe crave it every six months but I don’t act on it. I relapsed maybe 4 times after and it was just all throwing up and no fun so it makes it less appealing to start again. I don’t have an addictive personality, but the hospital got me addicted for sure."
Do you feel there is a stigma with CBD?
“Only dabs. Only with people who are confused on the legality, but it’s really easy to convince someone. Just show them something on Google. I’ve convinced a lot of people. Even my mom and my dad before he passed. But, yeah just dabs because it looks kind of like a weird substance if you don’t know what it is”
Explain your CBD journey in a few words.
“Non-psychoactive opioid for everybody and I will tell everyone about it all the time no matter how old or young they are. It’s a cure-all and it can help everyone who has just a little after-work pain to serious chronic pain. CBD is for everybody.”