Hi Lesley! Hi! thank you so much for talking to me today, and coming to Toronto. I know you live
in Montreal. yes I do. yeah, so tell me a little bit about yourself and why do you want to do this
interview? I think that it's really important for people who live with pain to see that it's
possible to live successfully with pain, even though you haven't always lived successfully,
oh wow, yeah. I talk about this all the time. I say that it is possible even if you have chronic pain.
some people don't believe that they can have a good quality of life and live successful. so you
are doing this? yes, I am. For how long? I think it's been 10 years now. I think I had 10 Years of Living
horribly with pain. it affected my whole life. took away my career as a physiotherapist. and it took
away a lot of my social. it took away all parts of my life until the point where I was rock bottom.
and now I can say I've turned things around. and I'm happy. So you will tell us. So, just so if I
understand, you were 10 years suffering from Pain, going down, reaching rock bottom, and now it has
been 10 years? yes, that you'd say that your life changed? yes, great so I want to know what happened
10 years ago that made such a big difference in your life? what was the biggest factor that
changed your life? made this, you know? rock bottom and now you are so active, and you are here at the
conference, and giving talks, and teaching other people, so what was that made that big difference?
I think for me I was on a lot of opioids. I was on a lot of medication, and I think
the conversation about where do you see yourself? do you see yourself staying down here?
where else can you go? you're at rock bottom, and starting to reevaluate, what are your, what are
your dreams? what are your, what are your beliefs? So you were thinking at that point, I just met
you recently, so I don't know how you were at that time, but were you saying that, you were thinking
about your future, you were at that point you said what am I going to look like in the future?
yes. what am I going to look like in the future? and for me it was a Crossroads. it was really. is
life worth living? or or am I ready to take that plunge and just try to to find the help that I
need to make life successful? and just one day at a time, kind of find what I love to do. I couldn't
do what I did before. I can imagine it was not like a sudden, no, it's like a change like one day
to another one your life just changed. how long did it take for this changing course to happen?
I don't really know. it was so gradual. I think I think. that I was offered the chance to talk
to speak about my life with chronic pain and to get involved with research, and I thought wow
maybe I can help other people, oh wow. and then I think when I started
to help other people, I thought this is fulfilling, this is good.
and I I had the help of a doctor, and a psychologist. okay. to run things by, to
you know? and I'm a person who reflects a lot, and so each time you take a step you
reflect on where you were, where you are, and for sure you have a little bit of dips down again.
it's not just a road like this it's kind of a road like this, but as long as you see yourself,
I don't know. for me the first day I smiled. I remember. you really? I do. I remember that I thought,
I wondered if anybody sees me smile, because I shouldn't be smiling if I live with pain.
and so I think, then you do smile, and you realize it didn't,
it didn't hurt anybody, it didn't hurt you, and I think that's just a small step but a big step of
course, and so I think it's the little things, like that. so I'm so curious to know, I think everybody
wants to know what were the things that you did like you said you were on a lot of opioids, yes.
I was. More than one opioid? 3. Three opioids. three opioids long-term for how many years? 10.
10 years, three opioid, high dose? High dose. very high dose. That's what made me stop being a physio,
because I started falling asleep driving my car. oh. and then I took Ritalin. oh. so that I
could, yes. so that I could be a physical therapist active, but couldn't work. couldn't work because I
was too drowsy, I wasn't able to concentrate. yes. it was too dangerous. and also I mean, I had
a lot of pain in my face, and people would say you know? what is that sharp pain in your face?
and if if it takes away from their story, it's kind of like you're not in a place, so you
had to stop working, you were taking many opioids, not functioning well, not hopeful for the future,
and then what were the things? the ingredients that helped you most to overcome?
and so you stopped all the opioids, now I have now yes, no, no opioids no for 10 years, none? none. so
it's possible. I tell people it's possible to have chronic pain, and you don't need
opioids, so you're seeing an example, yes, but what were the things that helped you most?
I think the things that helped me most were talking to different people, so talking to my
psychologist, talking to my doctor, pain clinic, um, I didn't talk to my family much,
because I didn't want to burden them, but you find a friend, you talk to. I mean for me
my psychologist was the one that I spoke to the most, the one that helped me at the time when I
was rock bottom, and so I used to run things by her and she was the one that said why don't you
get involved with the Canadian pain Coalition? I think it would be good for you. which is a group
of people with chronic pain Canada, right? that they help each other, right? they talk about how
they find Solutions, that's so important, yes, that was my first step actually, now that I think of it,
and getting involved there, and I think I don't say on the pretense of helping others, but
you go there to help others, but in fact you help yourself. yes. and so that was like. Wow,, I like
this, and being a physiotherapist, I like to work with people, I like, so it brought me back
into the social, slowly, slowly. And how is your pain now? how actually nearly these days? I live
with 24/7 pain, you know? hemifacial pain, I had a a back surgery, and so I live with
a post-op pain down the leg, but it doesn't run my life. okay. it's not the focus of My Life.
I have so many other things that have come back into my life, and I think that is
what is so important, yeah, thank you so much Leslie. anything else that you want to share
with our group? I do, I want to share that I'm not a lot different than you are, and so
I think I often hear but that's you, but that's that can be anybody, I really believe that it's
finding the key and never stop looking for that, you know? like talk to different people, there'll
be a spark somewhere, and what's important to you, and it might not be what was important to you
for one thing, I hear so many people say, but I want to be who I was, nobody is ever who they
were, nobody, and so stop trying to be who you were, and find out who you are now, oh, I love that, thank
you so much for sharing this, I think it will help a lot of people, thank you so much. I hope so. I hope so.