Founder - Doctor Patient Forum/Don’t Punish Pain (opinions are my own)
Providence, RI
Joined December 2017
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Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
I have Crohn’s disease and inflammatory arthritis. I do everything right. I eat healthy, consume very little sugar, exercise, drink a gallon of water a day, and take my medications. Biologics, methotrexate, prednisone when needed.
For nearly a decade, I was mostly in remission.
Then, two months ago, everything changed.
Out of nowhere, I developed a fever, ended up hospitalized, and had surgery the next day. I still need another surgery. After a decade, my biologic stopped working. I'm starting a new treatment this week.
And right now? I'm in pain.
Some mornings I wake up and can barely walk. I can barely use my hands. Crohn's is flaring. Inflammatory arthritis is flaring. Despite doing everything "right."
Because that's the reality of chronic illness. You can do everything right and still get incredibly sick.
I can't take NSAIDs because of Crohn's.
Yet somehow, we've reached a point where the prevailing narrative would have you believe that opioids don't help chronic pain, and conditions like mine shouldn't require them.
I'm here to tell you that Crohn's HURTS. Inflammatory arthritis HURTS. And opioids absolutely CAN help.
I cannot believe how far off the rails we've gone. Patients are suffering, losing access to medications that help them function, and there are STILL people pushing to restrict opioid prescribing even further.
How much more do chronic pain patients have to endure? How much more access needs to be taken away?
When will it EVER be enough?
I will never stop fighting for patients like me. Because I know firsthand what it's like to live in a body that hurts despite doing everything you're supposed to do.
And I refuse to let anyone pretend that pain isn't real or that relief doesn't matter.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Massachusetts has some of the strictest Opioid policies on the books, its prohibition in motion 💊 and the thriving Black Market shows
But @MassGovernor needed the lawsuit 💰 for illegals
Many suffering patients are praying this changes under @mikeminoguema
@BrighamWomens and a cess pool for pain management.
They will kill a patient before they will order pain medication
I have eyes and ears and all 50 states and I am well aware of what’s happening in these hospitals
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
First, they took away our opiates that we were not addicted to, and now they want to take our Kratom powder. It's just a plant! 🌿
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Claudia, I live in agonizing and debilitating pain every day of my life since suffering a severe TBI nine years ago in a very invasive spinal fusion in 2021. Shortly AFTER MY WIFE of 16 YEARS andTHE MOTHER OF MY SIX CHILDREN GOT UP AND LEFT ME.
Now I’m limited to work whereas previously I owned five companies (3 of which were award winning)and made lots of money to support my family of six children and now ex-wife and myself. Now because I am limited in my abilities and on state insurance, I have been refused pain management and pain medication’s altogether from over 33 doctors, clinics, and anyone else I could possibly see. I am in excruciating pain every day of my life, but because I have PA state insurance I am refused pain medication‘s from every door I go in. Opioid based pain management works end of story, look up the article that my old family practitioner doctor Ira Cantor published on opioid pain Management) the DEA closed his office since…BUT if you are careful enough, and responsible enough as I have been, opioids can be the absolute healthiest option of all. The government knows it!!
Yet they will hand out massive amount of gabapentin, which will rot your brain and all the nerves in your body just like it used to be called Neurotin…. Get it? Then lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s…And they will give you insane amounts of Motrin, which DO NOTHING but will destroy every organ in your body until none of them can even function.
TRUTH IS, opioid based pain management causes the least harm and does the most benefit, YET is denied to all of us suffering in such severe, agonizing debilitating pain.
And I am a single father of SIX with an ex-wife who pays ZERO child support and I have NO HELP from anyone.
I just work harder and harder and then will surely work myself to meet an early grave to support my family because I would never let them down.
God bless kratom, a real natural pain reliever, and life saver, albeit a partial opioid agonist, when used respectfully and responsibly there’s no harm at all. Take organ support ancillary’s and you’re good.
And I know more about Kratom than possibly anyone else besides Dr. Chris McCurdy himself because I have been an addiction recovery coach for 27 years, saving lives and getting them off the streets while I live my entire life at only 47 years old expected to function in horrific amounts of pain.!!!!
THIS, is the real tragedy, and THIS is what should be illegal!! I fight for the people suffering!
Look me up,
Coach HardgainZ
Healing 2gether
aka Adam Neely
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Because of you and DPF I knew instantly he was grifting me and I was livid. All the red flags were flying and I was taken aback bc I don't know him to be that kind of dr. He was very off the whole appointment. Thankfully it only happened once and I was educated!
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
VA IS HARMING & MAKING PHYSICALLY
#DISABLEDVETERANS🎖️SUFFER IN PAIN.
THOSE WHOM HAVE PERMANENT PAINFUL DAMAGES
THAT CANNOT BE FIXED.
THIS IS THE BULLS#IT THE VA PUTS OUT TO US !
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Fascinating that "experts" keep saying opioids aren't needed after major surgeries and then dismiss all stories of horrific pain as "just anecdotal." These "experts" are psychopaths and they congratulate each other for eliminating the need for opioids.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Beth Macy is a mass murderer. It’s really that simple, words kill just like knives or bullets.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Pain patients are demonized.
There are movies and tv programs depicting them, wrongly, as broken immoral criminal drug addicts whose lives are out of control and who seek drugs to feed their addiction. There are tens of millions of pain patients, 99% of whom have never become 'drug addicts.'
Facts do not matter. There is a sensationalist, lying narrative to push for profit and expanding budgets, prisoners, the surveillance state, and patiets/livestock for the corrupt silly 'addiction' industry.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Why is everyone up in arms about deaths from Kratom and 7-OH, but nobody gives a single solitary shit about all of the most sick, most injured, most disabled patients being systematically killed off by unscientific, unnecessary, I humane opioid restrictions?
WHY THE DOUBLE STANDARD WHEN GETTING ALL UP IN ARMS ABOUT DEATHS, AND WHY IGNORE THE DEATHS CAUSED BY THE OUT-OF-CONTROL DE-PRESCRIBING AGENDA?
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
I'm 13 years clean from opioids.
I've taken them as needed for surgery when I had my wisdom teeth out, then quit. No issues.
Only developed a real problem when I had a major personal crisis in my life many years later.
I've seen both sides of it. The side of a legitimately injured patient with real pain that needs treatment, and the side of someone just looking to drown out all their sorrows.
This buprenorphine trend is so crazy. It makes NO sense to me. Pharmacologically so much more problematic, and not as good for actual pain. I don't even think it's good for helping people get off of other opioids quite frankly. Everything about it is terrible.
If I ever got seriously injured and needed hardcore pain medication, I would rather just get regular opioids, and then quit again.
If I get chemically dependent again, so what? If my injuries never heal enough to get off the opioid pain meds, I have bigger issues than opioid dependance to worry about. And if my injuries heal and then I can quit? Then I will.
Quitting opioids is much more physiologically straightforward and has fewer complications than a lot of other things you can be addicted to. It hurts real bad, then it's over. Much cleaner than alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence.
No long-term maintenance with methadone or buprenorphine necessary, none of that garbage.
I'll ride it out with some CBD-heavy cannabis, loperamide, Eleutherococcus root, 5-HTP, apigenin, and magnesium glycinate.
Even better, just find a decent ketamine clinic and put me halfway under for the worst stage of the physiological withdrawal and put on a constant stream of Monty Python movies.
I'll get through it just fine, I promise. Body hurts? Not a problem. Literally not even in my body right now.
That's about how I dealt with getting off opioids. Those tricks actually work pretty well. Well, minus the apigenin and magnesium glycinate, because I only found out about those later.
Since ketamine is all the rage with psychedelic therapists right now, why don't they put it to use here where it'll actually do some real good?
Then once it's all over, I'll eat some freaking mushrooms and figure myself out, and it'll be fine.
But hey, that's just one crazy lunatic's success story. Don't listen to me, or anything.
But if you want to see 13 years clean from opioids, though, that's how I got to 13 years clean from opioids.
You wanna see how ridiculous this all is? Look at this table. I would take the heroin withdrawal over the buprenorphine withdrawal or the methadone withdrawal any day.
5-7 days and you're done. One week of hell and it's over, you're over the hump. All uphill from there. You're seriously telling me buprenorphine is twice as long? Man I don't even care if it's not as bad, just get it over with.
All of this is stupid. The whole way they handle opioid pain meds and addiction is stupid. Buprenorphine is stupid.
I'm done ranting now.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
A lot of people die shortly after going to rehab.
What rehabs don't tell folks about is tolerance levels.
I have seen it time and time again.
They go in, they get clean, and are told to NEVER touch their substance of choice again. Abstenance is the only way.
But they do. AND they go back to their OLD DOSE not knowing their tolerance levels have dropped. The old dose is deadly now that the person is clean.
It happened to my neighbor. He died when he was supposed to be celebrating Christmas with his wife and 2 small children. Nobody told him about tolerance.
When I look back, I can see what happened to him. Wish I had had the chance to tell him.
These rehab centers need to be held accountable. They say it's bad to do just a little. They do not teach about tolerance.
Rehabs need rehabilitation.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
The FDA has never studied or approved of corticosteroids being injected into the epidural space of the spine. As someone who was further injured due to these injections, I strongly urge you to do your homework.
They call epidural steroid injections routine. These patients walked in and left with permanent paralysis.
There are documented medical-malpractice lawsuits involving paralysis or serious neurologic injury following epidural steroid injections.
* Lynch v. Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg (Virginia, 2014) — The patient became permanently paralyzed following an L3 transforaminal epidural steroid injection with Kenalog. A spinal cord infarction was attributed to particulate steroid entering an artery. The jury returned a $6.4 million verdict.
* Smith v. Surgery Center at Lone Tree (Colorado) — Robbin Smith became permanently paraplegic after transforaminal epidural steroid injections using Kenalog. A jury initially returned a $14.905 million verdict, although subsequent litigation and statutory damages issues affected the judgment.
* Dunston v. Huang (Virginia) — The plaintiff alleged that a thoracic transforaminal epidural steroid injection left her permanently paralyzed from the chest down. The lawsuit included allegations involving informed consent and the decision to perform the procedure.
* Blessett v. Keepers (Texas) — Connie Blessett alleged that a negligently performed epidural steroid injection injured her spinal cord and caused severe and permanent paralysis on the right side of her body. The case reached the Texas Court of Appeals.
* Geldersma v. Michigan Pain Consultants — A malpractice case involving paralysis/quadriplegia resulted in a reported $6.1 million plaintiff verdict.
* Michigan ESI case — $600,000 settlement — A woman reportedly developed acute lower-extremity paralysis, bowel and bladder dysfunction, and other injuries after transforaminal epidural steroid injections. The malpractice claim alleged that injection into a spinal artery caused spinal cord infarction and nerve damage. The case settled for $600,000.
* New York/Long Island case — $60.03 million verdict (2025) — A 65-year-old man underwent a lumbar epidural steroid injection in 2019 and subsequently suffered a massive spinal cord infarction resulting in permanent paraplegia, neurogenic bowel and bladder, neuropathic pain and impotence. A Nassau County jury awarded approximately $60 million in 2025.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
This is exactly what I mean by litigation interests shaping drug policy.
A lawyer from MCT Law testified to Maryland lawmakers about kratom while the firm was actively bringing kratom wrongful-death lawsuits. In North Dakota, the same lawyer submitted testimony supporting legislation, and the public witness index didn’t even list his law firm.
MCT’s own lawyers also help lead the AAJ Kratom Litigation Group.
If financial conflicts matter, then mass-tort lawyers and firms with money riding on the outcome should have to disclose that clearly too.
You can be concerned about Kratom while also wanting financially conflicted individuals to stay out of influencing drug policy.
We already watched this happen with opioids.
How many times are we going to let litigation become policy before asking who profits? @DrLizaMD @ChadDKollas
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Drug dealer too. Link to drug sites on American pains YouTube channel too. For a good 3 years he DM’s CPP on TikTok and says he can sell and it ships from North Carolina. These DM’s came from his main account
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
Here is a quote from a mass tort lawyer: “Go home, start—get a local TV station, buy an hour. Do something where you’re creating your own media. Do a radio show, create your own media… when podcasting came along, create your own media. When internet came along, create your own media.”
This is what we are seeing with kratom and media
The two Ole Miss students who were found dead in separate incidents on Monday have been identified as 18-year-old Aidan Hamilton and 20-year-old Robert Strang. While authorities are unsure how they died, similarly packaged kratom was found near both of their bodies. CBS News' @lilialuciano reports on what we know about the investigation.
Claudia A. Merandi retweeted
So we have been at this for over a decade now, with pain patients dying and killing themselves. The Federal health agencies continue to refuse to acknowledge or tabulate the patient harms and deaths directly caused by the unscientific, unnecessary, inhumane de-prescribing agenda even though their own data do not support the false claims about "prescription opioid medications" that are the basis of this agenda. Who will listen to the patients?
@SaraCarterDC @WHFraudTF
@AGToddBlanche @SecKennedy
@realDonaldTrump @drozcms
mtpr.org/montana-news/2016-0…
