Show notes
Danielle, (Dani) McQueen, is a true champion in the cannabis world, business owner, who has been nominated with Best Cannabis Company of the Year, Maine Cannabis Activist, Business Leader of the Year, Champion in Corrupt Responsibility, Best Innovation: Hot Cocoa, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. While that, she is also a mother of a special superhero little girl that suffers from the same autoimmune disease as she does. Danielle demonstrates her rough path but also her strength to follow her instincts, and as every human being, with doubts and uncertainty but reaches an amazing lifestyle for her family while also helping other families. She shares a story of overcome but also the real struggle as a person who suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis. Danielle just really uprooted herself and moved to Maine to help her child and herself. I’m just very impressed with what I've learned so far. Danielle shares her story timeline with us on the next few quotes.
“I always knew I wanted to help people. At an early age, I also knew something was wrong with me too. I had gotten into a little bit of trouble at school. I love the gymnastics part in flipping and I thought I could do this. But I also started to realize that I was getting pains, you know, and everyone kind of chalked it up until I was probably around 16, when it really started to affect me. By 17 years old I started, you know, I've seen every doctor. I've been diagnosed with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, to everything. So, being diagnosed with so many diagnoses, it’s just because it was kind of unknown. It was a little by 18 when they had known that it was Ankylosing Spondylitis and I was put on oxycodone.”
“This next month, I'll be going into my third surgery, they'll be doing a full fusion from the cervix down. Just because I've had so many slipped discs and fractures that are kind of just deteriorating. So I'm a little nervous.”
“Every time something like this happens I think of my daughter, what her future might look like. Because like I was saying, when I was a teenager, they put me on oxycodone and it helps, of course. Back then, these drugs were just coming to market. These doctors were taught by the pharmaceuticals that these were lifesavers or they were for some people, I'm not denying that fact. But for me, being so young, I probably shouldn't have been put on oxycodone. Over time, it stopped helping. And at this point, I was in college and I was going to school to be a nurse and now at this time, after oxycodone, I'm put on the fentanyl patch and this I'm usingwith the oxycodone. The fentanyl patch and the oxycodone. So now I'm in school and I'm learning in the medical world. And I start to learn that maybe I shouldn't be on these doses. Maybe I shouldn't be on these medications. Maybe it's okay to question the doctors.”
“I was a manager of a Suboxone clinic a few years ago, and I thought to myself, I was no different than these people, except they went to get their drugs from the street; I just had to go to my doctor. She'd write me a prescription and I'd be on my way. I mean, there was no difference to me.”
“I just felt something was wrong. I feel really guilty saying this. One time I'd walked into my doctor's office to get a prescription. There were a lot of people in police uniforms and there are people carrying boxes and the nurse was really sneaky about getting me into a room. I don't remember seeing the doctor that day. I just saw my prescription. And I was in a haze. I feel like from 18 to 22 I literally feel like I don't recall a lot of how I managed to graduate school and do the things I did in that time period, still amazing to me. But that next day I read in the newspaper that my doctor was under investigation for overprescribing narcotics. There were a lot of overdoses in our town at that time. And this doctor was connected to them. Well, next thing I know I'm being called by the board of medicine because my...
“I always knew I wanted to help people. At an early age, I also knew something was wrong with me too. I had gotten into a little bit of trouble at school. I love the gymnastics part in flipping and I thought I could do this. But I also started to realize that I was getting pains, you know, and everyone kind of chalked it up until I was probably around 16, when it really started to affect me. By 17 years old I started, you know, I've seen every doctor. I've been diagnosed with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, to everything. So, being diagnosed with so many diagnoses, it’s just because it was kind of unknown. It was a little by 18 when they had known that it was Ankylosing Spondylitis and I was put on oxycodone.”
“This next month, I'll be going into my third surgery, they'll be doing a full fusion from the cervix down. Just because I've had so many slipped discs and fractures that are kind of just deteriorating. So I'm a little nervous.”
“Every time something like this happens I think of my daughter, what her future might look like. Because like I was saying, when I was a teenager, they put me on oxycodone and it helps, of course. Back then, these drugs were just coming to market. These doctors were taught by the pharmaceuticals that these were lifesavers or they were for some people, I'm not denying that fact. But for me, being so young, I probably shouldn't have been put on oxycodone. Over time, it stopped helping. And at this point, I was in college and I was going to school to be a nurse and now at this time, after oxycodone, I'm put on the fentanyl patch and this I'm usingwith the oxycodone. The fentanyl patch and the oxycodone. So now I'm in school and I'm learning in the medical world. And I start to learn that maybe I shouldn't be on these doses. Maybe I shouldn't be on these medications. Maybe it's okay to question the doctors.”
“I was a manager of a Suboxone clinic a few years ago, and I thought to myself, I was no different than these people, except they went to get their drugs from the street; I just had to go to my doctor. She'd write me a prescription and I'd be on my way. I mean, there was no difference to me.”
“I just felt something was wrong. I feel really guilty saying this. One time I'd walked into my doctor's office to get a prescription. There were a lot of people in police uniforms and there are people carrying boxes and the nurse was really sneaky about getting me into a room. I don't remember seeing the doctor that day. I just saw my prescription. And I was in a haze. I feel like from 18 to 22 I literally feel like I don't recall a lot of how I managed to graduate school and do the things I did in that time period, still amazing to me. But that next day I read in the newspaper that my doctor was under investigation for overprescribing narcotics. There were a lot of overdoses in our town at that time. And this doctor was connected to them. Well, next thing I know I'm being called by the board of medicine because my...
