Nov 7, 2018

The Opioid Chapters: Chapter 3 - Michael

Healthy Debate: The Opioid Chapters
By

Healthy Debate

Fifteen years ago, Michael suffered a back injury while working as a cameraman. Opioids are the only treatment that gives him some degree of pain relief. 

I was working for a company that does commercials for Disney. I was standing there with my camera and the pain really got worse—I could only stand still for a few seconds before I’d need to shift positions because of the pain. By the evening, I was lying on the sidewalk. I drove home, got out of the car, went down on all fours, and I didn’t walk again for probably a week-and-a-half.

My doctor made a house call and saw me in such a state that he gave me something for the pain. I suspect it was OxyContin, but I don’t know. I started a long procession of my body healing itself to a degree, but maintained the opioids that my doctor had started me on.

About six months after I had the initial episode with the back, I got rear-ended. I was just at the point where I was kind of getting off of the drugs, and that didn’t help. I took a little time off, but unfortunately as a freelancer, you don’t have a lot of opportunity to phone up the boss and say, “I won’t be in for a month.” 

Read Michael's story on The Opioid Chapters

The Opioid Chapters is a collaborative project by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN) and Healthy Debate: Faces of Health Care. This project was created to release a special edition series of interviews and multimedia content with individuals across Ontario who have lived experience with opioids, as well as other perspectives from physicians, community workers and family members.