{"id":9622,"date":"2023-08-14T17:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T00:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?page_id=9622"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:41:21","slug":"encouragement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/about-samaritan\/together\/encouragement\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Encouragement Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Albany Woman Returns to Life Without Pain Medications<\/h1>\n\t\t\t
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\u201cI just hope I can say something that comes through to people who need to hear it.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Ashley Grajczyk<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Albany Woman Returns to Life Without Pain Medications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Ashley Grajczyk, photography isn\u2019t just an art form or a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the subject, bringing out who the person is,\u201d said Grajczyk of Albany, who works part-time as a photographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I love about photography is for the person to look at the photo and see that they\u2019re beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grajczyk, 41, loves to bring the beauty and joy out of everything she does. Her previous life was one of pain and addiction, and she is happy to keep that in her past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her journey began in her early 20s, when an abusive situation left her with severe back pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a single mom, I was divorced and working hard just to keep up,\u201d she said. \u201cI had horrible sciatic pain, and my doctor gave me some pain pills. He basically said, \u2018this is how you fix it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grajczyk kept pushing herself \u2013 she was managing a tuxedo shop and it was prom season. Finally, she pushed too hard and it caught up with her.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI went out with some friends, and I ended up dropping down to my knees because I\u2019d lost all feeling from the waist down,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw a lot of doctors and underwent a lot of tests. They finally diagnosed me with fibromyalgia, but they didn\u2019t do anything else but give me more pain medication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grajczyk estimates she ended up taking a high amount of opioid pain killers regularly, in addition to other muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of these medications had side-effects, so I also had more meds to manage them,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I was sent to pain management where I was put on a synthetic opiate. I didn\u2019t know anything about it, so I took it like the other pills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made everything a blur. She called her doctor who advised her to give it a few more days. She stayed on it for 13 months and has very little memory of that time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years, my doctors kept adding more medications,\u201d Grajczyk said. \u201cI had a lot of emotional trauma, and I tried to fix everything with meds because I thought that was the correct thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One morning, she woke up and couldn\u2019t feel her legs. At that time, her doctor was Samaritan physician Brent Godek, MD.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFrom my first appointment with Dr. Godek, I felt like he really listened to me.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Ashley Grajczyk<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDr. Godek admitted me to the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cThey did a lot of tests and diagnosed me with conversion disorder and sent me to psychiatric care, and after three months of rehabilitation I could walk again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, as she was about to turn 40, Dr. Godek told Grajczyk that he wanted to stop all her medications. She protested and sulked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt betrayed, because this was all I knew after 19 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Grajczyk had a strong connection with Dr. Godek, and he eased her off her meds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom my first appointment with Dr. Godek, I felt like he really listened to me,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were no charts, no computer, he just listened to me. If I\u2019d had any other doctor, I don\u2019t think it would have worked to get me off my meds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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It took about four months, but Grajczyk successfully stopped all her medications under Dr. Godek\u2019s care. She has also learned more healthy ways to cope with pain and trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned that I was holding on to the pain, living in a constant state of fear,\u201d Grajczyk said. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you\u2019re driving and you see something coming at you. You tighten up and you swerve. It\u2019s the same with trauma \u2013 you\u2019re in pain and waiting for a wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of her most powerful tools now are diaphragmatic breathing and working out. She has gone from being house-bound due to pain, to working out for 30 minutes every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in that much pain and use meds to fix it, it\u2019s hard to consider walking around a store for groceries let alone doing a full workout,\u201d Grajczyk said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still have pain \u2013 everyone does, but it doesn\u2019t mean that something bad is coming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI still have pain \u2013 everyone does, but it doesn\u2019t mean that something bad is coming.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Ashley Grajczyk<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA lot of my life, I felt a small amount of pain, and it led to bigger pain because I was preparing for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, she is healthy enough that she could do photography full-time, but she is choosing to spend time with her family instead of working full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can be with my husband and my kids \u2013 they\u2019re 22, 12 and 9 \u2013 and I can be active with my family and friends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her family, friends and photography, she does pain management presentations with Dr. Godek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve given the talk about seven times now,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in this journey, you\u2019re really guarded, so I just hope I can say something that comes through to people who need to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Gallery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ashley’s passion for her work as a professional photographer is evident in the enthusiasm and joy she takes in working with her clients. Click on each photo for an expanded view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ashley has enjoyed photography for over 12 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhat I love about photography is for the person to look at the photo and see that they\u2019re beautiful.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ashley
Ashley checks recent images taken with her trusty Nikon camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ashley enjoys the personal connections she makes with her clients.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Treatment & Recovery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While Ashley and her family practice physician were able to work together to end her dependence on pain medication, sometimes the additional help of treatment and recovery services to overcome addiction are needed. Samaritan offers outpatient<\/a> and residential<\/a> services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn More<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Join the Campaign to Inspire Hope<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Samaritan Treatment & Recovery Services provides residential treatment and intensive outpatient programs, including group and individual therapy, medication-assisted treatment and peer-delivered services. Currently services are offered in Lebanon and a new facility is being built on the coast. Learn more about supporting these programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pain medications led to negative side effects for Ashley Grajczyk. With her doctor’s help, Ashley ended her dependence and is now helping others do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10961,"parent":9577,"menu_order":16,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":true,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9622","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70013,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9622\/revisions\/70013"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}