MARQUETTE — Kimberly Robbins underwent a total hip replacement surgery in 2015 to address injuries she sustained while serving in the U.S. Army.

Like many who undergo an agonizing surgery, the Upper Peninsula native was prescribed medication to cope with the pain.

“Immediately after surgery, I was given a high dose of opioids that were continued to be prescribed to me for over a year,” Robbins said. “At the six-month mark, I had symptoms of what I believed to be withdrawal when I missed a dose.”

After calling her primary care provider with concerns that she might be dependent on the medication, Robbins said she was told it wasn’t possible. After continuing to take her prescription, she realized she had a problem and needed to seek help.

“When it comes to addiction, you put that drug above anything else,” Robbins said. “You need it to survive — more than air, water, food. People don’t understand that it becomes an obsession; you can’t get it out of your mind.”

Robbins said she called a few places in the Marquette area for help but couldn’t be seen immediately due to a large waiting list.

“I was told to go the emergency room when the withdrawal became too bad for me to handle, which I did,” she said. “It was one of the hardest conversations that I ever had to have, telling the staff that I was there because I was withdrawing from drugs.”

According to a report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, one in 15 U.S. veterans struggle with a substance use disorder.

Findings from a new Choices Matter status report, “Exposing a Silent Gateway to Persistent Opioid Use,” suggests that despite ongoing efforts to end America’s opioid crisis, patients continue to receive large amounts of opioids to treat post-surgical pain months after their surgeries.

Nearly 3,000 people in Michigan died in 2017 from drug overdoses, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and a report from 2016 states that at least five people in the state die of opioid-related overdoses every day, and four out of five of those deaths are accidental.

Data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that most of the deaths from prescription opioid overdose involve people between the ages of 25 and 54. Between 1999 and 2010, opioid overdose deaths increased by 265 percent among men and 400 percent among women.

For many, it’s difficult to seek help because of the harsh withdrawal symptoms, Robbins said.

“You’re torn because you want help, but afraid of the recovery process,” she said. “It was very scary going without pills in my body. In a few hours, I’d start to get clammy and sick and panic.”

Robbins said she wished she was more informed about the dangers of opioid dependency before she started taking them.

“I wish that my health care providers would have had a discussion with me about the risk of dependency, what other options there were available to me besides opioids post-surgery, and that it was normal to have some amount of pain,” she said.

After some time in recovery, it became Robbins’ mission to help others and educate the community on addiction.

“I recently started a nonprofit organization with my husband called Setbacks to Comebacks Inc. We are focused on providing free recovery life coaching services to those struggling with addiction and by bringing knowledge and awareness of the community around us,” she said.

For more information about Setbacks to Comebacks, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sbstocbs or its website: setbacks-to-come-backs.com. Interested individuals can also email Robbins at kim@setbacks-to-come-backs.com.

As the opioid crisis remains an issue throughout the country, the Marquette County Health Department recently implemented a project to address the epidemic at the local level.

Through surveilling opioid overdoses nationally, educating the public by expanding an overall understanding of the opioid problem and reducing the inappropriate prescribing of opioids by area providers, the overarching goal of the Reducing Opioid Overdose in Marquette County and the U.P. project is to identify safer opioid prescribing practices, and improve data collection efforts and accuracy regarding opioid overdoses in Marquette County.

“Other areas of the state are working on developing similar surveillance programs. They’re doing this as well,” said MCHD Medical Director Dr. Teresa Frankovich. “The goals of this project is to really serve as a pilot in rural areas to help other areas in the U.P. from our lessons learned. We’re trying to have an impact beyond the Upper Peninsula.”

For veterans who struggle with substance abuse, chapters of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provide a variety of services that include medication-assisted treatment, which applies to certain types of addiction, as well as therapy, groups, and evaluation and management of any other mental health conditions.

“The VA offers outpatient substance treatment at our medical center in Iron Mountain as well as at our 7 Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) throughout the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin,” Megan Barglind, executive assistant to the director at Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center, said in an email. “If residential treatment is needed, Veterans are referred to residential substance treatment programs at other VAs in our region.”

Barglind said the VA has a “no wrong door” policy.

“If a Veteran would like treatment for substance abuse, they need to call the VA or come to any of our VA locations and indicate they would like treatment,” she said. “VA staff will work to accommodate the Veteran’s needs and either through a face-to-face visit or a telehealth visit will be arranged to start the process.”

Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is jdepew@miningjournal.net.