I have arthritis in both hands and my chest, but here is the real kicker-- I am severely allergic to aspirin. I can't even take a Motrin without breaking out into a rash. I was born with a chest deformity called pectus excavatum (funnel chest and encaved chest are a couple other names for it.) I had corrective surgery in 1976 to try to make my rib cage bigger. In that surgery they break all the ribs and actually break the sternum in half, remove it, flip it over, and put it back together after removing most of the cartilage and muscle. Now I have arthritis along with lung problems and asthma. I usually spend two to three weeks a year in the hospital with lung infections and make numerous visits to the doctor for chest pain. Needless to say, I have eaten a lot of pain killers and tried nerve blocks and so on. All have had little success and make me so stoned that I can't even drive a car. So I started using pot and went from four Vicodin a day to one, and with watching my activities and a healthy diet I can go with no doctor's meds for weeks on end.

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