Chronic pain for life? But wait, I’m too young…
About 10 years ago, my youngest daughter was terribly injured in a 5 car pile-up on a busy interstate at rush hour. Diagnosed with severe spinal injuries and chronic pain for life, she was devastated emotionally & physically. At first, she chose the traditional route of pharmaceuticals and multiple reconstructive surgeries to address the pain and related nerve conditions. These greatly limited normal activity for the first few years, forcing her to spend a lot of time in bed and walk with a cane. Our family tried hard to support her needs by learning & utilizing a lot of medical, psychological, and wellness concepts very quickly!
After years of using pain prescriptions, she chose to experiment with cannabis for pain relief, but adamantly objected to feeling mentally altered. We quickly learned that when applied topically, the THC in cannabis is completely absorbed by receptor sites in the skin so it never reached the bloodstream, eliminating its mind-altering capability. Even more impressive cannabis applied topically relieved her pain within minutes and its effect lasted for hours at a time. So welcomed was this outcome that in a fit of exuberance, she described the feeling as “sweet relief.”
Using the cannabis cream daily, she was able to wean down her prescription meds. As she improved, her energy began returning. Not all at once, in fact, it took years of small steps in the right direction like supportive therapies, exercise routines, a balanced diet, and kind friends’ and family’s love to yield results. Her fighting spirit returned too, propelling her to begin a Chinese Martial Arts program called Tai Chi. She went on to become proficient in an advanced form known as Tai Chi Sword. All this is to say that with natural therapies including a plant-based medicine like cannabis topicals and rugged determination, one can build back an active and productive life, restoring Hope where for quite some time, very little existed. And the truth is, you can probably do it too!
Respectfully submitted by Didi Davis.
