Monday, April 15, 2019

new try to expand fuctions

The new "wave" of potential helps for Jan.

Recently, we have witnessed a wave of legislation making it legal to use cannabis (THC and CBD) for medicinal purposes. Some jurisdictions have legalized even the recreational use of THC and CBD. The major pieces of the news have been the opportunities that this type of legislation for investors and entrepreneurs to get on the ground level and reap potentially huge profits. Besides the "profit" motive that is the neural spine of our economic system, THC and CBD seem to open new medical therapies for people suffering from chronic pain, seizures and other problematic conditions.
For centuries, the first nations living in Mexico knew about the potential benefits of the cannabis plant.  I knew about these benefits of improving difficult-to-treat symptoms since my childhood. My grandmother's generation in México used THC and CBD as a home remedy for a variety of conditions. They cultivated or bought surreptitiously cannabis plants and "pickle" the flowers and leaves in rubbing alcohol or oil. I vaguely remember her (my grandmother would probably contradict my story) rubbing some of this infused alcohol mix on her hands to reduce the pain caused by arthritis. Also, a neighbour lawyer used to smoke cannabis to deal with stress in her job. No one ever made a big fuzz about it. It was taken for granted that people would use "whatever worked" to alleviate their suffering and stress. Socially, it was probable seen as harmful as alcohol. Of course, children were not allowed to try it, the discussion about it was set aside and dealt with as a taboo topic.
One description that fits Jan's personality is that of a "soujourner". She is an explorer in the truer sense of the word.  If there is something to be tried or done to expand the functions she has recovered after her aneurysm 13 years ago, she will  do it. The only limitations to her explorations are: it has to be legal, and it has to be ethical. And so, she is embarking now in the exploration of how CBD can help reduce her seizures or eliminate them completely, and how she can move to a higher level of speech, short term memory and cognition and reduce pain caused by right neglect. Despite the fact that she is considered to have a "hyper-sensitive" body to any medication, she is embarking in this new trip with high hopes.
In the past few years, she asked several doctors for their opinion about trying CBD. Family physicians and neurologist all said it was "too early", and more studies needed to be done before they could recommend or prescribe its use. But Jan was not going to wait a couple of decades before the medical establishment would get on her side. Her daily battle with pain, poor speech, memory and cognition is a strong incentive to try "whatever is necessary" to alleviate these symptoms and possibly resolve the root cause of the problems. So, as a "soujourner" traveling to unknown places, she began her self-determined trial with CBD. She went to a medical clinic that is among the first ones in town to prescribe and monitor the use and effects of CBD and THC. She was taken as a patient because of her medical history. I suppose she makes an interesting participant in this initial steps.
We are in week one. The results are still uncertain. The first day she started with a small dose: .25mg of CBD and about a sixth of that of THC in an oil presentation. The instruction was to apply it under the tongue for rapid absorption. All the pain disappeared and her speech was wonderfully clear about 12 hours later. But, she felt jittery and with an unusual level of anxiety; her sleep was fragmented and the next morning she felt dizzy and confused. After a consultation with the MD, her dose was reduced to half of the original and the application was to eat it with some other food.
The second day, with half the dose, she felt some beneficial effects after two or three hours, but they disappeared after 6 or 7 hours, leaving some hours of zero chemical in the body before the next dose. The side effects are very unpleasant. An image of this is like being raised several feet off the ground and then being dropped suddenly, hitting hard the ground with your back side.
The third day she went through the same cycle as the second. CBD kicks in within 30 minutes to an hour and she experiences the positive effects. After five or six hours the effects wear out and she snaps hard back to the base line.
On the fourth day, she talked to her family doctor about the dose. He suggested increasing two or three times the dose of .125.  She will increase it slowly over a couple of weeks to allow her body to get used to the effects.
This is a new road with many twists and turns. She is traveling on it with both excitement and caution. She wishes the cost would not be as high as it is. Maybe the market will make the necessary price adjustments.

-     FC

  

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