Like most of us, I smoked weed in my youth. I never really cared for the taste of alcohol when I was young, therefore, I liked to light up for my buzz. Now, I want to light up for medicinal reasons. Let me explain.
Nine years ago my wife, seeing a drop in my activity, got me to go see a doctor. It had been a long while since my last visit. I walked in thinking I was just down with the flu, I walked out a diabetic. Not just any diabetic, but a seriously sick diabetic. I had never been checked for diabetes before and that is where my troubles all began. I was refered to an endocrinologist. The first few trips to the endo. were routine. I was put on pills and had no luck. No matter what I ate or how many pills I took my blood sugar would stay high, when I say high, I am talking about in the 400-500 range. Anybody that has ever dealt with diabetes knows this is an extremely high number. After discussing this with the endo. it was decided that I had most likely been diabetic for many years. Well the pills weren't working, so, I was put on insulin.
After three months of shots and my numbers staying in the high range the endo. put me in the hospital for 5 days to see what was going on. This doctor could not believe that my sugar was staying so high if I were doing as I was directed. They were convinced that I was not following a strict diet and the insulin routine that had been prescribed for me. This 5 day stay proved them wrong. After another 6 months of changing dosages and diets the sugars were still in the HIGH range. Not being able to get the sugar under control, the endo. wouldn't see me anymore because he couldn't help me and referred me to Emory University Hospital. I was taking unGodly amounts of insulin and it was decided that I would need to go down and have an IV once a week with a bag of insulin going straight into my veins for 8 hours at a time. This seemed to help as long as the IV was in. This would get my numbers down to around 250, but as soon as the IV came out the sugar went back up. They decided that my body was insulin resistant (no shit).
The next option was to be put on Humilin R U500, this is a concentrated insulin that works as both a short term and long term insulin. The U500 is five times the power of regular Humilin R, in other words one unit of the U500 was equal to five units of normal insulin. As time rolled along this wasn't helping me either. I just kept working and continued with my shots, numbers never really budging except to go up. I was spending at least five days a month as a patient in the hospital. One day, as I was working, I got really bad off. I was staggering around my store, I couldn't see, my speech was slurred, and I was pouring sweat. My employees called Jennifer and told her what was going on and she needed to come get me as there was no way they were going to let me drive. Jennifer shows up and takes me straight to the hospital, after a determined fight over me not wanting to go. We got there and they took me straight back when they asked if I had checked my blood sugar with my trusty meter. She tells them I had and that the meter read HIGH. These meters only read to 600 and above that it just says HIGH. They draw blood and come back to tell us that it was 954. We were floored. So, needless to say, they kept me. Put in an IV and a bag of insulin and it dropped down to 250 after three days of insulin drips. I go home with the usual speech about my diet and checking my blood sugar on a regular basis. By this time I had heard that speech so many times I could recite the speech to the doctors.
As the years rolled by I continued being put in the hospital. But, now, I was begining to have severe episodes of pain in my kidneys. I have been passing kidney stones most of my life, and when my sugar would go up above 500 I would stay thirsty and I was peeing all the time. I could never drink enough to keep up with all the peeing and would dehydrate, back to the hospital I would go. The dehydration would cause more kidney stones. It began to be a vicious cycle: Kidney stone would cause pain, pain would cause sugar to sky rocket, high sugar would cause dehydration, and so on. Well, the pain in my kidneys began to become a different kind of pain. It began to come from the right side as well as the usual left kidney pain. Then it happened. I was feeling extremely bad one afternoon at home and Jennifer carries me to the hospital. Low and behold, it was my first time that my sugar had passed the 1000 mark! I had been to the mountain top, or at least I thought so at the time. The number was 1054! This scared the crud out of me.
Next came the blackouts. One here and there and a lot of dizzy spells. By this time I was up to 24 pills and 8 shots per day. I had already had 2 mini strokes in the prior three months. My quality of life was really sucking by this time. Father's Day 2010, as I sat at the table eating dinner, BAMMM, major stroke. Jennifer rushed me to the local hospital. The doctor there gave me the shot that breaks up blood clots in stroke victims, or so he thought he had. They had given me the wrong shot. They rush me to the Athens hospital, by ambulance, as Athens Regional is a stroke center and could better handle me. They put me in ICU, they wouldn't allow me any TV, no phone, and only Jennifer was allowed to visit, they were determined to keep me relaxed and calm. A neurologist came to see me and began running brain scans and the such. This is when I began to use a cane. It is not really to help me walk but more as a kick stand. The neurologist recommended the cane. So, by now, my life was really sucking. My sugar had broken the 1000 mark several times, I two mini strokes and one major stroke behind me, my heart was beating off rhythym, I had already had a tube ran up through my groin into my heart to check for heart damage ( turned out that my potassium had gotten so low during a dehydration that my heart was cramping and stopping during the cramp). My high blood sugar was the cause of all these ailments. It was then discovered, during an MRI, that on the right kidney (the one that the newest pain was coming from) had a growth on it and it had been seen there over the previous two years. Now the cyst had grown inside of the right kidney. The new dilema? The right kidney needs to be removed, BUT, the left kidney produces stones on a monthly basis. If the right kidney is removed the left kidney is too weak to handle my body load.
Now, here we are at the present day. I have two messed up kidneys, my sugar is still in the same condition as always (30 day average is over 500), my blood pressure is now TOO LOW, cholesterol is sky high, my liver enzyme numbers are through the roof (caused by all the meds and the high sugar), my vision is blurred and glasses do not help as the sugar causes the lenses on my eyes to warp and the vision changes daily, my stomach muscles have been damaged by the sugar causing my digestive system to be almost at a halt, I have no appetite at all (have lost 30 pounds in 2 months), the high sugar content of my body has made my teeth deteriorate (had to have all my top teeth pulled and the bottoms are coming out in October), have lost most of my memory, the doctors had my drivers license revoked because of the blackouts, I am having blackouts almost every day now, and the neuropathy now has effected my hands and feet and now my kidneys are effected with it. I live every day in excrutiating pain, or at least what I once would have considered excrutiating pain, my body has now become accustomed to the pain level I guess. I take a ton of pain meds for the chronic pain. I am still shooting up with insulin all day. I can no longer work, BUT, I DO NOT collect any hand out money from the government. Most days I can not get out of bed. I do try to get up and go with Jennifer to the grocery store so I can get out. I went to the drag races last Saturday and lasted 3 1/2 hours before I began to get too sick, and it has taken until today to recover from it.
Now, why do I believe in the use of cannabis as medicine?
Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of clinical applications. These include pain relief -- particularly of neuropathic pain (pain from nerve damage) -- nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders. Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia. Emerging research suggests that marijuana's medicinal properties may protect the body against some types of malignant tumors and are neuroprotective. It has been in use as a natural medicine for over 5000 years. The chances of overdosing are zero.
So, there is the abridged version of pain and suffering that I have been dealing with for nine LONG years, and the symptoms and the pain are only getting worse. I have had three different doctors that have said that I should be dead by now because of the diabetes and the side effects of the disease. Medical cannabis could only help. If it could only handle the neuropathic pain, it would be worth all the effort I am putting in fighting with the state of Georgia's lawmakers and the federal lawmakers. And trust me when I say I can pass a drug test at any time. If it weren't for all the lobbying money that Big Pharma is dishing out, medical cannabis would have already been legalized.
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