From the Frontlines of the War on Kratom: Testimony by Kim Libby Evans

In 2002, I was employed as a credentialer in a hospital when I was diagnosed with CRPS -- also known as "the suicide disease." It quickly spread throughout my body and, by the end of 2003, it was systemic. I was in debilitating pain 100% of the time. I had two spinal cord stimulators and an intrathecal Dilaudid pain pump implanted and was also taking huge quantities of prescribed narcotic pain medications, which got me by for many years. But I was confined to my motorized wheelchair and/or bed full-time, and had to wear continuous oxygen. At the same time, my children were growing up and, I'm embarrassed to say, I missed out on huge chunks of their childhoods as a result.

Over the ensuing years, I was also diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia and Chronic PTSD. My life was a complete mess, and I was a non-participant. I suffered greatly but went on the best way I knew how.

Life passed me by.

I was one of those people.

My physicians forcibly began stopping my pain meds, afraid to risk their medical licenses. Over a 2-year time period, I went through forced drug withdrawal three different times and ultimately ended up with nothing but crippling pain and through-the-roof anxiety. I thought that the suffering I had experienced during the previous 15 years had been brutal, but it was nothing compared to what followed after it all stopped. I really believed that death was my only answer.

In my search for alternative methods of pain control, Kratom kept popping up. At first I was very leery of trying it. Then I came across videos of people like Andrew Turner, and I made the leap and ordered from a vetted vendor, one that exclusively tests their products for contaminants. To say that my life changed overnight would be the understatement of the century. I was truly astounded. I found that my pain levels were decreased, my anxiety was reduced and -- perhaps best of all -- the breathing difficulties that I had encountered with the use of narcotic pain meds simply disappeared. The oxygen I had been using on a daily basis was no longer needed. The elevated liver enzymes in my routine blood work disappeared. My life did change, vastly for the better, almost immediately. I still have intense pain and anxiety issues, and I am certainly not cured and likely never will be, but I am able to cope so much better. I am no longer suicidal. I no longer use my wheelchair or walker. I no longer use oxygen. And I have successfully stayed the course with Kratom ever since then and without it, I will be permanently back in bed and no longer able to participate in my own life and the lives of my children.

#IAmKratom

-Kim Libby-Evans Woodsfield, Ohio