A life where pain doesn't control me

I have chronic pain due to trauma, and I suffer every day of my life. In 2001, as a teenager, I cracked and over extended my back causing me to be in serious chronic pain that no doctor could figure out how to help.

It wasn't until nine years later that they found I have 8 disk herniations and degenerative disk disease. Then, in March of 2014, I got into a car accident which has immensely exacerbated my symptoms from my original injury.

My pain causes issues with my professional and personal life. It makes it extremely difficult to do anything. I am unemployed as a direct result from my chronic pain and confined to my house where I have to be close to my bed or bathtub.

I don't have anything in common with anyone because my back pain causes me not to be able to socialize with others and maintain friends. I miss holidays and get-togethers with my family. I pace in circles around the house because I always have to keep moving. I do everything in pain.

Sometimes taking a package to the post office will take me an entire day. The pain controls my life and does not respond well to conventional treatments leaving me with little to no relief.

Research has proved that there is a direct link between medical cannabis and pain management. I ask Governor Rauner to approve chronic pain due to trauma as well as the seven other debilitating conditions for medical cannabis treatment. Having access to this alternative and natural medicine will give me a chance at a better life where I can withhold a job or meet friends out for dinner, a life where my pain doesn't control me.

Steven Lloyd

Elgin