Lilliana Massimo worked in the low income housing sector for many years when she suffered a horrific accident that left
her with lifelong spinal injuries and a traumatic brain injury with occasional seizures from almost nine years ago.
She had just given birth to twins a few months earlier. Through the assistance of her doctors and pain clinic, she was on opioids for seven years. Eventually, she was diagnosed with “fibromyalgia,” ongoing various spinal and
disc issues, dercum's, epileptic myoclonus, cognitive difficulties, and a slew of other illnesses along with the daily regimen of 13
medications.
After years of telling her doctors that she was
no longer benefiting from the opioids, she decided to get a DNA health report to figure out why she was still so very ill. Although the health information she received was shocking, her DNA report also revealed that she has at higher risk of opioid overdose than the average consumer. She made all her doctors aware of the findings - which included a litany of other health risks associated with medications doctors prescribed to her. Unfortunately, they disregarded it and informed her that she was not the kind of person that
could manage without pain medication. Mrs. Massimo may be currently undergoing ill effects of those prior unwarranted medications.
Finally, after the pain clinic’s history of not listening to her or her husband's concerns and her primary caregiver not wanting to get involved in prescribing opioids; she informed the pain clinic that she only had a 30 minute window in her day where she felt minimal pain and she wanted to taper down to eventually stop. Again, she was informed that she was not the kind of patient that could manage without opioids.
Doctors told her she became hyperalgesic. They then took her husband in a different room and said she was going to die if she didn’t get on suboxone. Instead of tappering her off the opioids, they sent her home with nausea medication for a week to transition off the opioids and wanted her to return in a week for a suboxone infusion. Undergoing many seizures as a symptom of withdrawal, Lilliana realized that enough was enough.
In the summer of 2017, she dumped the pain clinic and began traveling out of state to visit Cannabis caregivers who could help her with pain management and withdrawal symptoms. She is now off the opioids however, her trust in doctors and humanity have plummeted. Mrs. Massimo has been quite active in Washington and North Carolina fighting for safe access, patient rights and the right to try.
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