A
Another One Bites the Dust1
Guest
The journey that led me to using Canna as medicine started many years ago when I was a child. As far back as I can remember I have always suffered debilitating headaches (cluster, stress, sinus), I can still remember being in bed for days as a child, out of my mind and not being able to sleep due to the pain.. I have also suffered at times throughout my life from mild depression, as well as from a Chronic GI disease (Ulcerative Colitis), which has been linked to be a causative effect of moderate to severe spinal deterioration.
Just after I turned 12 years old I discovered alcohol and the entire myriad of drugs including Cannabis that were available in the USA, during the 70’s. I have one of those addictive brains, and so instantly became a hard core addict/alcoholic at that young age.
I quit using drugs, alcohol, and Cannabis for recreational purposes before I turned 21 years old, as I knew that I would not make it much past that age due to my rampant addictions, if I continued on the path I was on. I was still suffering from severe headaches, and was prescribed Hydrocodone when I was 25. For several years the Hydros worked great. They made my headaches and my mild depression tolerable and gave me lots of energy, so that I could pursue my life as a workaholic.
As with the vast percentage of long term Opiate users, I began experiencing hyperalgesia (hyper-sensitivity to pain) as the medical community kept increasing my dosage of these pharmaceutical Opiates/Oids, so did my pain level. I knew that I could not go on using Opiates to control my headaches indefinitely, so I requested a consultation with a Neurologist specializing in managing headaches. After the medical community did every test and tried every pharmaceutical known to man to try to alleviate my headaches to no avail. The Neurologist that I was seeing literally threw up his hands and said “you are just one of ‘those patients’ that will have to use Opiate pain meds to help mitigate your headache symptoms for the rest of your life. My journey into Opiate addiction really began in earnest at that point.
Little did I know that Osteoarthritis was also beginning to wreak havoc on my spine and major joints. There were times that I could barely walk at the end of the day, but I attributed this to the years of intense physical labor and thought it was just part of the package of the type of work that I did. I did not slow down enough to use critical thinking at that point, to realize how much more damage I was doing to my spine and joints, due to the high amounts of pharmaceutical pain meds that I was ingesting on a daily basis, and thus could not ‘feel’ much of the pain.
In September of 2008, I was performing a task on my job, as I had done hundreds of times before. I felt ‘something’ go in my lower back, and the pain dropped me to my knees. I took my tool belt off, and finished the rest of the day out. I drove to the job site the following morning, hoping the pain would subside enough that I could work. Wrong! I knew there was something going on with my lower back other than just a strained muscle. I was right, after having every imaging and other test available, it was determined that the lumbar region of my back had irreparable damage, and surgery was not an option. I spent the next two years basically in bed always having around 200 mgs of Oxycodone/Contin in my system, along with Morphine and Methadone, and the pain just kept increasing.
My life working as a tradesman was over, and due to the fact that is all I had ever done, and an injury incurred while on the job, my state gave me the option of being re-trained. My options were fairly limited, as I cannot sit nor stand for very long. I have always had a heart for those with chemical dependency issues being there myself, so I opted to become a drug and alcohol counselor. The very first day of college I learned what can and usually does happen to those of us using Opiate/Oids for long term pain management. As mentioned above, I was experiencing hyperalgesia in a big way. I prayed almost every day just to die, due to the overwhelming pain and depression that usually always accompanies 24/7 chronic pain. I knew that if I was to survive I needed to kick my Opiate dependence. Any of you that have been through this can attest that this is indeed an exceptionally hard thing to go through.
I am privileged to live in one of the first states in the US to legalize MMJ. I met a woman in one of my first classes who had been a MMJ patient for 40 years. I never would have guessed it by talking to her (she was going to school to become a librarian, and looked the part). I shared with her my dilemma, and that I had been clean from the Opiates for 30 days. She offered me some Cannabis to see if they would work for my spinal pain. One hit and the all the pain just melted away, which it never had from all the pharmaceuticals that I had previously been on. The very next day I went and got my MMJ script, a little over three years ago. Since that time my body has rapidly deteriorated, due to the Osteoarthritis and other muscular/ skeletal issues inflicting my body.
The second year of college, I had to have a Total Knee Replacement. But that was not going to stop me from finishing my schooling at that point. Just before my last quarter of school, I could no longer concentrate, as C3 –C7 of my cervical spine had also deteriorated to the point that I had to have a three level discoctomy/fusion in my neck. On 6/26/14 I had a revision on my knee that was replaced and did not heal correctly. That did not help, as the Orthopedic Surgeon stated might happen. The pain is NO better as of this post, and may even be worse.
There are a lot of MMJ dispensaries in my area, but I wanted to know exactly what I was medicating with, so I began growing my own meds one and a half years ago.
Now I need to really nail down just what strains work best for me, so I need to start getting a lot more serious about testing and doing some more of my own breeding projects.
I have finally faced the reality that I will never be able to work a tax paying, job again due to my health, so I will dedicate the rest of my life in learning to cultivate and making meds for others and myself. I have and continue to get set up for growing and breeding indoors and outdoors, making it more or less a full time job, as much as I can.
I am so grateful for this site, and all of the help and encouragement I continue to receive from all of you fine people.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Your brother,
Stick
Just after I turned 12 years old I discovered alcohol and the entire myriad of drugs including Cannabis that were available in the USA, during the 70’s. I have one of those addictive brains, and so instantly became a hard core addict/alcoholic at that young age.
I quit using drugs, alcohol, and Cannabis for recreational purposes before I turned 21 years old, as I knew that I would not make it much past that age due to my rampant addictions, if I continued on the path I was on. I was still suffering from severe headaches, and was prescribed Hydrocodone when I was 25. For several years the Hydros worked great. They made my headaches and my mild depression tolerable and gave me lots of energy, so that I could pursue my life as a workaholic.
As with the vast percentage of long term Opiate users, I began experiencing hyperalgesia (hyper-sensitivity to pain) as the medical community kept increasing my dosage of these pharmaceutical Opiates/Oids, so did my pain level. I knew that I could not go on using Opiates to control my headaches indefinitely, so I requested a consultation with a Neurologist specializing in managing headaches. After the medical community did every test and tried every pharmaceutical known to man to try to alleviate my headaches to no avail. The Neurologist that I was seeing literally threw up his hands and said “you are just one of ‘those patients’ that will have to use Opiate pain meds to help mitigate your headache symptoms for the rest of your life. My journey into Opiate addiction really began in earnest at that point.
Little did I know that Osteoarthritis was also beginning to wreak havoc on my spine and major joints. There were times that I could barely walk at the end of the day, but I attributed this to the years of intense physical labor and thought it was just part of the package of the type of work that I did. I did not slow down enough to use critical thinking at that point, to realize how much more damage I was doing to my spine and joints, due to the high amounts of pharmaceutical pain meds that I was ingesting on a daily basis, and thus could not ‘feel’ much of the pain.
In September of 2008, I was performing a task on my job, as I had done hundreds of times before. I felt ‘something’ go in my lower back, and the pain dropped me to my knees. I took my tool belt off, and finished the rest of the day out. I drove to the job site the following morning, hoping the pain would subside enough that I could work. Wrong! I knew there was something going on with my lower back other than just a strained muscle. I was right, after having every imaging and other test available, it was determined that the lumbar region of my back had irreparable damage, and surgery was not an option. I spent the next two years basically in bed always having around 200 mgs of Oxycodone/Contin in my system, along with Morphine and Methadone, and the pain just kept increasing.
My life working as a tradesman was over, and due to the fact that is all I had ever done, and an injury incurred while on the job, my state gave me the option of being re-trained. My options were fairly limited, as I cannot sit nor stand for very long. I have always had a heart for those with chemical dependency issues being there myself, so I opted to become a drug and alcohol counselor. The very first day of college I learned what can and usually does happen to those of us using Opiate/Oids for long term pain management. As mentioned above, I was experiencing hyperalgesia in a big way. I prayed almost every day just to die, due to the overwhelming pain and depression that usually always accompanies 24/7 chronic pain. I knew that if I was to survive I needed to kick my Opiate dependence. Any of you that have been through this can attest that this is indeed an exceptionally hard thing to go through.
I am privileged to live in one of the first states in the US to legalize MMJ. I met a woman in one of my first classes who had been a MMJ patient for 40 years. I never would have guessed it by talking to her (she was going to school to become a librarian, and looked the part). I shared with her my dilemma, and that I had been clean from the Opiates for 30 days. She offered me some Cannabis to see if they would work for my spinal pain. One hit and the all the pain just melted away, which it never had from all the pharmaceuticals that I had previously been on. The very next day I went and got my MMJ script, a little over three years ago. Since that time my body has rapidly deteriorated, due to the Osteoarthritis and other muscular/ skeletal issues inflicting my body.
The second year of college, I had to have a Total Knee Replacement. But that was not going to stop me from finishing my schooling at that point. Just before my last quarter of school, I could no longer concentrate, as C3 –C7 of my cervical spine had also deteriorated to the point that I had to have a three level discoctomy/fusion in my neck. On 6/26/14 I had a revision on my knee that was replaced and did not heal correctly. That did not help, as the Orthopedic Surgeon stated might happen. The pain is NO better as of this post, and may even be worse.
There are a lot of MMJ dispensaries in my area, but I wanted to know exactly what I was medicating with, so I began growing my own meds one and a half years ago.
Now I need to really nail down just what strains work best for me, so I need to start getting a lot more serious about testing and doing some more of my own breeding projects.
I have finally faced the reality that I will never be able to work a tax paying, job again due to my health, so I will dedicate the rest of my life in learning to cultivate and making meds for others and myself. I have and continue to get set up for growing and breeding indoors and outdoors, making it more or less a full time job, as much as I can.
I am so grateful for this site, and all of the help and encouragement I continue to receive from all of you fine people.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Your brother,
Stick
