OK... Let's Get Real
May 2019
Since I am now doing not only the Kelley Protocol, but a Lyme disease treatment and Mistletoe injections, I have to admit that there are many days that I am not Little Miss Sunshine. It’s really hard to feel upbeat when you feel like crap on a cracker. And I’m not even sure which of those treatment modalities is causing me to feel like shit. Add to that the fabulous joint and muscle pain and you have a very unhappy camper. It is on those days that I am forced to lay low and just nap, read or watch TV. This whole situation has pretty much killed any social life I used to have since I can’t indulge in what “normal” people eat and drinking alcohol is out of the question. It’s also difficult to make plans because I never know if a given day will be a good day or a lousy one. I try to get as much done as I can on the higher-energy days, but then I often pay for it the following day. I console myself by telling myself that these painful symptoms are signs that the cancer cells and/or Lyme spirochetes are being killed off. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it seems to help me mentally/emotionally when I’m feeling really discouraged. At least I am experiencing things I never felt before with any other practitioner or modality, so I’m presuming that these protocols are digging really deep to root out what needs to be gotten rid of. Could these painful symptoms be signs that the cancer is progressing? Sure. But I don’t want to let my mind go there. So I choose a more soothing scenario to focus upon.
When my new PCP delivered the news that the cancer was now residing in my lungs, she strongly suggested that I look into medical marijuana as she had heard amazing things about it’s cancer-killing ability. I had heard similar accounts of its almost-miraculous cancer curing traits, but I shied away from that treatment for a couple of reasons. In my college days, smoking weed invariably produced paranoia in me, so I avoided it like the plague. My peers assumed I was hopelessly uncool for not smoking, but I did it to avoid flipping out. Then, shortly before I left for the integrative cancer clinic in Arizona, the son of a dear friend made some pure THC (the part of marijuana that gets you high) for me to try. I ingested an extremely small amount of this preparation—a tiny square only 1/16th the size of a postage stamp and went to bed. About 4 hours later, I woke up to sheer terror! I was about to experience two of the scariest hours of my life! I felt like demons were taunting me, telling me I would never get well and that God was a lie. Worst of all, a brand new thought came into my head every second and there was no stopping them!! I could not still my mind or calm myself down in any way, shape or form. I was totally preparing to die during those two hours as I was convinced that that was what was in store for me. I felt on the verge of a complete psychotic break from reality! Thankfully, the effects gradually wore off, but I vowed never to use marijuana again as I simply couldn’t risk another episode like that. Of course, I have no idea how many milligrams of THC were in that tiny square that I swallowed. It could have been hundreds of milligrams for all I know.
Fast forward to the beginning of May 2019 when I stumbled across the website of Stephanie Seban. Stephanie was also diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer with mets to the lungs. Her symptoms were quite severe, resulting in both of her lungs collapsing and requiring the removal of fluid from her lungs on a repeated basis just so she could breath. She reports, however, that after starting to use medical cannabis she noticed a dramatic improvement in her symptoms, a shrinkage in her tumors and no more need to have fluid aspirated from her lungs! While she also takes the drug Ibrance (not available to me since I am hormone-receptor negative) and Chinese herbs, she clearly feels that the medical marijuana played a huge role in resolving her lung symptoms. This made me sit up and take notice. Maybe it was time for me to revisit the idea of medical marijuana. Perhaps it could be totally different if I had a measured dose being supervised by a medical professional. I asked my naturopath if he felt medical marijuana might be something I should consider and he was quite supportive of it. He felt that it would be a very beneficial addition to my healing modalities. He cautioned me, however, to find a doctor who was well-versed in using medical marijuana with patients and steered me to the UnitedPatientsGroup.com to find such a physician. I did just that and found a doctor about a 45-minute drive from my home. I called the office of this doctor and was pleased to find that they could see me that same afternoon! After an evaluation by the doctor’s staff, I relayed my fears about the resulting paranoia I experienced from marijuana use. The doctor assured me that since I would be taking the preparation in a 1:1 ratio (1 part THC to 1 part CBD), the much milder CBD would cancel out the psycho-active effects of the much more potent THC, thus eliminating the chance of paranoia occurring. So I was given Rx’s for several different forms of medical marijuana: RSO (Rick Simpson Oil) as a tincture for sleep, a vape pen for pain/anxiety/depression, another high-CBD, low THC tincture as an anti-inflammatory for pain, and a different vape pen (called “Girl Scout Cookie”) to stimulate appetite. As soon as I receive my Medical Marijuana Card from the State of Florida Health Department, I’ll be able to take the scripts to a dispensary and have them filled. By the way, this doctor’s office also helped me complete the Florida State application for my card, which I should receive soon! As always, I’ll keep you posted on my results after using the medical marijuana.