Passion for Compassion –
SEPTEMBER 19, 2018 – “There’s three times that much still in there,” says the Gig Harbor woman, who used to be a bank branch manager. She has a hereditary degenerative condition where the bones in her spine are crumbling away and doctors built a metal cage around her spine. Higginbotham says her pain is nearly constant. And while her doctor has tapered down her meds to 40 percent of where they were, she’s afraid new state regulations that might come in the next year will make her pain meds to be tapered off even more. “A lot of people want to be out here,” says Higginbotham, who was diagnosed more than a decade ago, “but some of them are in so much pain they can’t even get out of bed. I’m one of those, but I forced myself — I dragged myself to be here.” The hope at this rally and others across the country during Pain Awareness Month happening now is to get people to contact their state and federal legislators and the CDC to roll back some of the harsh restrictions people in chronic pain are enduring.
