It May Surprise Some: Why I use Medicinal Cannabis

I wanted to make a post as to why I do use medicinal cannabis instead of regular, western prescribed medicine to treat some of my conditions from Lyme Disease.  The whole story is a really long one, so I'll try to keep it brief for now, but will definitely be expanding on this.  I also want to share what I find works for me, healthy ways to ingest cannabis, etc...
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the short of it:  narcotics nearly killed me, along with blood pressure and cholesterol meds.  OTC pain remedies nearly destroyed my liver
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On my really bad days, I experience more physical pain in that day than most people will experience in their entire lifetimes.  I'm not going to list what I suffer from right now, but it is an extensive list.  A list that may even make Santa jealous.  This pain I suffer from has mostly been caused by 30 years of  undiagnosed Lyme Disease, spurred on by probably hundreds of injuries over the years.

It's a self-feeding loop where any injury is seen as advantageous by the Lyme bacteria.  The injury is a place to live and breed and bore through the inflamed tissue.  Here's the bitch of it - Some of the Lyme gets to the injury via white blood cells, the same little cells that are headed towards the injury to try to fix it.  Lyme's a sneaky little bastard, it is.  This process also makes the occurrence of injuries much more prevalent.

I once had my right ankle x-rayed, after yet another sprain, and the doc asked, "how many times you broken this thing?"  "None", was my answer.  I just thought I'd sprained each of my ankles very severely like 20 times.  Nobody ever bothered to x-ray any of them until much later.

Anyway, if you've ever lived in Europe and have been treated by Euro docs, you know that they do not give out narcotics like candy as they do in the US.  In fact, they frown upon the use, only using narcotics for the terminally ill and life-long chronic pain patients.

I was deemed bad enough by a few docs to be one of these life-long chronic patients and was handed a 'script for enough pills to easily make 20k selling them on the streets in Nuremberg.   These ended up being the pills that I used to make the flight back to the US when we finally moved last January.  The pills were morphine and something else, a combo not used in the US.  They were strong as hell, but needed, as I had to make that flight to get somewhere new and hopefully figure out what in the hell was going on with me.  The German docs had signed off on me for life, so…..

Once in Anchorage, I visited a doctor at one of the local pain clinics.  When I left Alaska 7 years earlier, these pain clinics didn't even exist.  Now they were on every freaking corner, it seemed.  I knew right away that this place had no interest in really helping me.  The guy just threw me a big 'script for Oxycodone and some muscle relaxants and said check back in a few weeks.   Again, they just wanted me to live masking the pain instead of trying to figure out what was actually wrong.  No money in fixing me, I guess…..

I ended up in the ER one night last February with severely impacted bowels.  So bad, I could have died that night.  All from the narcotics.  I had complained twice to my doctor about this, being completely ignored both times.  I have eaten strict Paleo for nearly four years.  I only drink water.  A lot of water.  And I was taking and eating tons of Fiber.  And I still got that constipated.  It's what long-term narcotic use can do to you.

I wish I would have started using medicinal cannabis years earlier, damn the laws.  It works so much better than any pharmaceutical pain med for so many different conditions.   It is not a panacea, and I hate the stereotypes involved, but dammit, it works.  We moved back to Alaska from Europe just so I could legally get a card to see how it would work for me.

Best thing I've done so far.

One of these days, I'd like to address some of the stereotypes that are still be thrown about regarding marijuana and the people who use it.  Lazy people are lazy people, regardless of what it is they chose to fill that lazy time with.

Junk food.  Beer.  Video Games.  TV.  Pot.  Whatever.

I'm tired of hiding the fact that I use something incredibly healthy, that really works for my situation, and has improved my condition enough that I'm up typing this right now.  I still see so many negative connotations involved with cannabis use, most of them simply not true or just pure and blatant propaganda.

You know, yes, I guess it does bug me if someone looks down on me because of how I choose to treat my disease.   They are not me, and I don't expect to have any decision in their life's choices either.  So far in my lifetime, I've quit drinking alcohol, quit chewing tobacco, and quit eating processed American shit food completely cold turkey.  I also don't watch any cable TV and don't play video games.  I just find it ironic when someone, usually someone who is addicted to everything I've listed above, looks straight at me and tells me I'm being unhealthy.

I would be happy to answer and questions anyone may have.