An Inside Look at How Medical Cannabis Is Changing Lives
At Peninsula Alternative Health we are around 8 months in and overjoyed with the remarkable results patients have been reporting. As our patient number grows we are seeing various conditions successfully responding to medical cannabis therapy and that makes us want to help more than ever.
I wanted to share some of the experiences I've witnessed in the past few months from a personal viewpoint.
Patient with severe multiple sclerosis
During the first few weeks we opened, I saw a patient with severe multiple sclerosis. He arrived in a wheelchair and could barely speak due to his uncontrollable tremors. I tried the best I could to communicate with him and started him off with a 1:1 THC/CBD flower. His overall demeanor seemed defeated as I helped him get his money out of his wallet to pay for his medicine. We flash forward to last week when he happily wheeled himself into our retail room with a bright smile. His tremors are now unnoticeable and he can hold a conversation fine. He has had great success smoking flower and has been able to wean himself off some of his other meds that were causing unwanted side effects.
Plagued with Chronic Migraines
Another common and horrific condition we see frequently is chronic migraines. Because cannabis therapy is very specific depending on the individual, sometimes it takes some fine tuning before we see the results we're aiming for.
Not too long ago, a middle-aged woman came to me desperately looking for a migraine remedy. She came back every couple weeks and was still having migraines but not as frequent. When I saw her last, she reported that she was migraine free for weeks now and feels she has found the perfect cannabis formula. Hope and joy were written all over her face, as was mine, and we hugged in celebration!
epilepsy-sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance
The dictionary defines epilepsy as a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. After meeting a distraught sufferer of this chronic disorder I saw the magnitude of its severity. She arrived shaking, angry, and weeping. Her entire life has been plagued with daily seizures and this last one left her face down in a pool of blood.
Her doctor had just changed her seizure medications again and she was having an awful reaction. She was scared to continue to take her prescribed cocktail and scared not to. The woman was looking at me for answers and I was going to do everything in my power to help.
She had never tried cannabis and wanted nothing to do with the psychoactivity its known for. I encouraged her to contact her doctor immediately to inform him about the bad reaction to her current meds and the protocol I suggested for her. This was a 1:1 THC/CBD oral tablet with the addition of a nightly dose of pure CBD oil. I tried my best to offer her optimism but she left seems very hopeless.
She came back a couple weeks later and appeared to be doing better. Her doctor changed her meds again and she began using her cannabis protocol. She said her seizures had lessened and she was feeling different. Still a bit leery, she bought another round of tablets and we tweaked her dosage some. When she came in this week, I knew right away it was working. She hadn't had a seizure in 2 weeks and was elated.
This has never happened in her life! I can't explain the sense of fulfillment I get from these cases and believe me, there are many others in addition to these three.
As we move forward at PAH and continuously evolve, I feel certain we'll perpetually better the lives of many in our community. At the same time, these positive transformations are bettering us as holistic consultants and as good stewards of society.