When my mother was dying, I had the privilege of being her sole caregiver. And it was a privilege, for this extraordinary Hungarian writer and poet provided me with a wonderful, enviable childhood. I always felt completely loved, accepted and supported in my life choices. So, life, in its wisdom gave me the chance to give something in return.
When she became increasingly ill with a parade of disorders ranging from Grave's disease, and spinal stenosis, to degenerative arthritis, breast cancer and stroke, her suffering broke my heart.
I took her from doctor to doctor; she underwent countless procedures and operations, and was given a pharmacy's worth of medications.
In her last year, her pain, depression, insomnia and gastric distress were monumental. Nothing helped her. One of her most upsetting moments came during a visit to her neurologist, as she sought relief for her maddening neuropathy. He wanted to prescribe Gabapanten for her, but it was a medication she had already tried. It hadn't helped, plus it made her dizzy, drowsy and caused her legs to swell. Somewhat coldly, the doctor informed her: “Well, if you won't take Gabapanten, then there is nothing I can do to help you.” She felt dismissed, and abandoned.
I took her from doctor to doctor; she underwent countless procedures and operations, and was given a pharmacy's worth of medications.
In her last year, her pain, depression, insomnia and gastric distress were monumental. Nothing helped her. One of her most upsetting moments came during a visit to her neurologist, as she sought relief for her maddening neuropathy. He wanted to prescribe Gabapanten for her, but it was a medication she had already tried. It hadn't helped, plus it made her dizzy, drowsy and caused her legs to swell. Somewhat coldly, the doctor informed her: “Well, if you won't take Gabapanten, then there is nothing I can do to help you.” She felt dismissed, and abandoned.
I felt angry.
I couldn't believe there was nothing out there that would make a difference. I began extensive research to find something, anything that would actually address her increasingly desperate condition. Surprisingly, everything pointed to… medical cannabis. I begged her to try it.
She refused, of course, being fully indoctrinated by the decades long demonization of the plant. I persisted. She resisted. This went on for some weeks. Finally, she agreed, more to please me, I think, than out of any belief it would help – but help it did. In fact, the results were amazing.
She was able to get off of thirty different pharmaceuticals, half of which were given to combat the side effects of the other half. Her depression lifted, she could sleep again, her intractable pain and peripheral neuropathy were mitigated. Her appetite returned, and she got her personality back.
Once again we could have long, warm and witty conversations; and when she would ask for her "magic cookies" with a mischievous smile that was endearing, I knew I was finally giving her something that worked.
I was able to purchase cannabis brownies and cookies for her because I live in California, and had easy and safe access to a medical cannabis dispensary in my home town.
My mom died in 2006, a final massive stroke took her, and I shall miss her 'till the day I die ... but in one of our last conversations, just before she fell asleep, this daughter of an iconoclastic publisher from Budapest, turned to me and said, with the deep Hungarian accent she had never lost: "Wouldn't it make my father smile to know that the only thing that helps me is illegal."
It was funny at the time, but then I asked my self: "Why is it illegal? Why doesn't everyone in this country have access to this powerful, yet gentle medicine?"
Since then I have turned my time and energy to educating people about medical cannabis, busting the myths that have accumulated over the years, and working with increasing effort toward national legalization.
She was able to get off of thirty different pharmaceuticals, half of which were given to combat the side effects of the other half. Her depression lifted, she could sleep again, her intractable pain and peripheral neuropathy were mitigated. Her appetite returned, and she got her personality back.
Once again we could have long, warm and witty conversations; and when she would ask for her "magic cookies" with a mischievous smile that was endearing, I knew I was finally giving her something that worked.
I was able to purchase cannabis brownies and cookies for her because I live in California, and had easy and safe access to a medical cannabis dispensary in my home town.
My mom died in 2006, a final massive stroke took her, and I shall miss her 'till the day I die ... but in one of our last conversations, just before she fell asleep, this daughter of an iconoclastic publisher from Budapest, turned to me and said, with the deep Hungarian accent she had never lost: "Wouldn't it make my father smile to know that the only thing that helps me is illegal."
It was funny at the time, but then I asked my self: "Why is it illegal? Why doesn't everyone in this country have access to this powerful, yet gentle medicine?"
Since then I have turned my time and energy to educating people about medical cannabis, busting the myths that have accumulated over the years, and working with increasing effort toward national legalization.
I am doing this for my mom.
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Anne Cameron Cutri
Dr. Susanne Freeborn
Writing Raven
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iambu
Love Grandma
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Bravo to you for your great work.
Rated.
Your persistence was worth the relief your mother found.
Michigan passed medical marijuana in November yet the system is still trying to figure out the dispensing of it. Hopefully they can work it out so that the people who need it will have legal access to it.
Shaggylocks, I appreciate the rating. We so often undervalue simple common sense.
Livemonster, so sorry for your loss. My blessings to you and loving prayers for you Mom. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you, ladyfarmerjed. I spent my childhood summers in Michigan, and was thrilled when that state became the 13th to legalized medical cannabis. You are right, they are still trying to workout the distribution, but it is a huge step in the right direction.
Oh yes, Dorinda, love is the key! Che was so right. I do appreciate your thoughts.
You are most welcome, Patrick. Thank you for the rating.
Bobbit, I hope you always will include the information on therapeutic cannabis when your tell of your Dad's journey. We must all speak out, whenever and wherever we can. The prohibitionists love to say that the medical cannabis movement is just about "using" sick people to forward the legalization agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth. We owe it to every suffering individual to speak the truth. Thank you for doing so here.
And thank you to, shaggy! It was a nice surprise.
I look forward to the day when people think of marijuana the same way they think of alcohol. But it will take a huge effort to counteract sixty years of crap being fed to us by the Establishment: the drug companies (who cannot patent it, of course), law enforcement (which makes untold zillions off of it), and the good ol' US Gov't. (which makes untold zillions off of enforcement.).
You can see her interview at this link: http://www.medicalcannabis.com/documentary.htm
I have had to do a number of explorations of medical issues because Western medicine refused to recognize and treat an illness, or prescribe a particular medication because doctors didn't believe in it. I have had relatively good success.
I had a systemic yeast infection which periodically showed itself in oral (thrush), vaginal, and skin conditions. It happened because I was put on antibiotics at a young age for acne and took them for years and years, destroying a lot of the necessary bacterial flora and allowing yeast overgrowth. I wasn't able to eat certain foods because I couldn't digest them, and I was made ill for weeks whenever I ate even the smallest portions of peppers and broccoli with pain, gas, and bloating.
I eventually found a few alternative resources that suggested several prescription anti-fungal medications that were available here but were not prescribed because most doctors didn't believe in systemic yeast infections at the time.
I found research articles and gave them to my doctor, but she wouldn't prescribe what was considered an effective dose for permanent cure.
Doctors do believe in it now, and better medications are available, but I drove to Tijuana (12 hours round trip) once a month to lay in a supply. It took about a year of self-treatment, but it did clear up, and I haven't had any problems since. I don't have to read labels carefully or grill waitstaff and cooks about ingredients.
All of this is just my way of saying "Good for you for taking matters into your own hands and finding something that worked." At pays to be a wise consumer of medical treatment and an advocate for meeting one's needs regardless of what the medical establishment is willing to accept.
Rated. I'll also digg and reddit this.
I truly appreciate you sharing this, devilgrrl. Thank you!
SaoKay, what a sweet thing to say.
Thanks, Rich. What a nice complement. I definitely will keep on.
Thank you, Y heron, someday I hope to write more about my mom. Actually, the first photo is one of my favorite pictures, and the second one, one of the last (perhaps the last) in which my mother and I are shown together.
Thank you for sharing those links, Leslie! I so admire Jaqueline Patterson for her bravery and willingness to speak out on the subject. And it has cost her dearly. We must stand up for all who are impacted by these senseless laws. I am so glad that you took the alternative route, and were finally victorious over candida! (Such a lovely name for such a nasty affliction). Good for you.
Thank you, incandescent for the digg reddit and thumb. PS, I love your handle.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Your mother was able to get off 30 medications with medical marijuana. My uncle is a neurologist and super great guy, I love the man to death, but he is almost smug and arrogant with the suggestion of medical marijuana comes up. I think it is partly his training and partly his generation.
It baffles doctor's mind why someone would consider a weed in the hands of the "untrained" for pain when there is a pharmacy full of "scientific" drugs available. Doctors are so trained to think in terms of pharmaceuticals and surgery for all illness. The medical training in this country totally does not consider any alternatives and as a result any move towards a more natural process is met with resistance.
It is part money, but mostly it is prejudice of the unknown.
I also read that Marinol has stronger psychoactive properties, which I interpreted to mean that it gets people higher.
I did not know that. I thought maybe someone else might be interested in knowing.
These tidbits came from an article on the NORML website. This is the link: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6635
You are exactly right, Leslie, about Marinol. And what is particularly ironic is that Marinol (100% THC) is Schedule III, whereas the cannabis plant is deemed Schedule I, along with heroin. And the drug warriors are trying to say that today's cannabis is really bad because it contains 10% THC. Do we see a disconnect here?
Thank you, Beth!
THANK YOU!
Here is the U-tube link for the segment on marijuana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yqyx0pCIHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx50lhkQcf0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oloobzAU-3Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKbfXabxddg&feature=related
Why Americans continue to embrace a medical system that is the most expensive in the world, operates for profit, offers little relief, no real cures, ranks 16th in infant mortality in the world, and uses pharmacueticals to suppress symptoms, not cure them, is beyond me!!
I haven't been to a doctor in years and don't plan to go any time soon. However, I take health very seriously, but take care of my own health just as Americans did in generations past, and taught my daughters to do the same. In fact, my older daughter just cured, yes, CURED, herself of a painful sinus infection that caused her cheek to swell no less, in TWO DAYS!! That's right...two days...think the American Medical Establishment can do that?!!!!! NO WAY!!!!! Can't even get a doctor's appointment in two days!!!
Herbs, food, exercise, homeopathy, TCM, etc. offer more than I need to stay healthy, but the American Medical Establishment is so "high-tech and modern", right? Every pharmaceutical comes with several pages of cautions, side effects, on and on, but that's OK with Americans! If anything proves stupidity, I think the willingness to accept kidney damage, shortness of breath, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, possible heart damage, even death, etc. in exchange for whatever a pharmaceutical promises is ABSURD!!!! It's INSANE!!!
Furthermore, marijuana is illegal because Big Pharma and law enforcement want it to be. If 800,000 citizens were arrested for smoking pot in 2008, that gives police a lot of "busy work" protecting us from non-violent pot users. If I spent my law enforcement career protecting citizens from pot users, I'd feel like a damned fool!! And Big Pharma has realized in recent years that it has an illegal market for its drugs in terms of recreational use. Thus, keeping marijuana illegal cuts down on the competition. Let's see...how many prominent citizens or celebrities have died from pharmaceutical overdoses or addictions? Elvis Presley, Heath Ledger, Howard Hughes, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith and her son, to name just a few.....
As someone wrote, we don't have a "health" care system in this nation, but a "medical" system.......get it? Our system doesn't really promote health, but promotes profitable medical procedures instead. That says it all, I think......
Thanks!