Meet Edmund (Ed), a Marine veteran, husband, father, grandfather, and patient at LeafLine Labs. Ed is a medically retired VA Field Examiner who enjoys hunting, fishing, gardening, and spending time with his wife and two dogs. Ed has been diagnosed with various forms of intractable pain, muscle spasms, and PTSD.
For decades, Ed lived with excruciating pain from a service-related injury (USMC 1979 to 1993), in his neck (cervical spine) and his lower back (lumbosacral strain). In the past, he was only able to sleep four to six hours a night because of constant neck pain or numbness in his arms—which started as radiculopathy and progressed into serious pain over time. In addition to his pain, he began to develop knots half the size of a fist on either side of his low-back which was extremely uncomfortable and painful.
Ed decided to undergo neck surgery in 2008, which was not a success, and had a subsequent cervical fusion in 2015, which was also unsuccessful. Ed also had surgery on his lower back in 2012, to no avail. Treatment that followed was conservative, including pain meds when needed, anti-inflammatories, and physical therapy – but these all simply masked the pain, rather than address the underlying reason for it.
With his traditional methods of treatment not providing relief or the results he desired, he decided to research and then enroll in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program. Since his first appointment at LeafLine Labs, Ed has been able to drastically improve his quality of life with the help of medical cannabis. Edmund says that he has found 70-80 percent relief from muscle spasms in his back and that, “As for my back resolution, with regards to pain, that’s all gone! I’m able to get up and get around and do things I couldn’t do before. There is a benefit [to this medicine]. I’ve seen it. I feel it. What more can I tell you?â€