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Post by romeosgal on Aug 18, 2012 15:33:26 GMT -5
I'm sure this has come up before but I searched and couldn't find any threads... So, I'm wondering if anyone has used (legal) cannabis/marijuana for pain management? I have pretty much exhausted all the medications available to me (other than narcotics, which I really don't want), heat packs/ice packs, and I had a lap in December. I am in absolute agony these days and nothing seems to help! Someone mentioned to me that cannabis can really help to reduce the pain. It's not an option I'd ever considered before because I am very anti-drug, but if it's legally given to me through my doctor, it might just be worth it. Thoughts?
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Post by creolesenna on Aug 20, 2012 8:00:36 GMT -5
Medications I've been on to control endo: Everything on-label and off-label except Danazol.
Medications I've had for endo pain: Dilaudid, Morphine Sulfate, Percocet, Vicodin, Nucynta, Oxycontin, Vioxx/Bextra (when they were on the market), blah blah and so forth with all of the OTC stuff.
And... pot.
I grew up very straight edge and never considered drugs. I'm actually very pro-legalization, but I never smoked pot in high school even though some friends did. Then after a few surgeries, I became very tired of opiates themselves. Fortunately I never had to contend with addiction despite the cocktail I was on during Lupron, but they made me very volatile emotionally and increased my intestinal pain by quite a bit.
Pot helps. The biggest downside would be the tiredness. Medical-grade cannabis is usually high in CBDs vs. being high in THC (sorry for the puns, I'm not trying to do so). CBDs tend to make the body feel rather heavy, which can be detrimental with a body already taxed by endo. But that is the biggest downside.
I can't emphasize how much easier it makes surgery recovery. I can't emphasize how much it helped me get out of bed and just live my life. I didn't even feel "high" most of the time, and I did as little as possible to achieve the pain relief. I wouldn't recommend making butter out of it though, I think the best delivery would be to use a bong or a vaporizer if smoke is undesirable. Vaporizer takes longer but there's far less odor. If you're talking about Marinol vs. actual pot from a dispensary in CA,CO or WA (and many more states at this point)... don't bother with Marinol.
Also... pot does indeed stop nausea in its tracks like nothing I've ever taken. Better than Reglan, better than Remeron, Zofran, you name it.
Hopefully I've helped. I'm here for more questions if you would like to know.
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Post by romeosgal on Aug 20, 2012 10:26:42 GMT -5
Thank-you for the reply! I am trying to avoid really harsh drugs as my body just doesn't agree with them and I know long term use can cause major GI/stomach issues. Plus, like I said, everything I have tried, has not worked. I've been having major pelvic pain and yes, nausea, too. It's getting old fast. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable smoking it (I've never smoked anything in my life). Have you tried cooking with it?
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Post by littlestar on Aug 20, 2012 16:34:30 GMT -5
Hi, I am new to the forum and just started posting. I currently have PTSD due to past trauma which doesnt help the Endo period time. However, i recently recieved my medical marijuana card and it has been saving my life in a way. The medical stuff is great, I found out by default that it was great for when I get my period too. I found I needed less painkillers, I currently take about 800 mg of ibprofren, and I took it way less when I started smoking medical marijuana. there are other ways of absorbing it into your body. One way is to cook with it like with marijuana butter, but if you have a legal way of obtaining it like from a dispensary with a medical marijuana card, then they also sell tinctures and candies to suck on. Same as above though, it does not help with the tiredness as my period just kicks my butt anyways, but there are different strains of medical marijana that provide pain relief as well as are energizing. Also same as above, frequently I dont even feel like I am high. it is a beautiful thing to be able to get up and do something intermitently throughout the day and not feel like I will pass out or throw up. Still experimenting with it though to find out what works the best, ingesting etc.. or smoking, tinctures etc.. Thanks for reading. Happy to answer questions if you have them.
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Post by creolesenna on Aug 20, 2012 18:57:54 GMT -5
Thank-you for the reply! I am trying to avoid really harsh drugs as my body just doesn't agree with them and I know long term use can cause major GI/stomach issues. Plus, like I said, everything I have tried, has not worked. I've been having major pelvic pain and yes, nausea, too. It's getting old fast. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable smoking it (I've never smoked anything in my life). Have you tried cooking with it? I have done a great deal of cooking with it. Making the butter is the hard part (though easy with a pressure cooker), because people often overheat it in the process. If dairy is hard on your system, butter won't be the best option. Tinctures are a great idea, though, and although I've never had a pot lollipop I've heard great things from friends with cancer. The simplest and easiest way to ingest with butter is to divide a piece of bread into fourths, then toast one, put the 3/4 piece of bread back. Then, depending on the strength of your butter, dab a bit of butter on your quarter toast. Add whatever topping agrees with you; agave syrup, jam, jelly, honey, cream cheese even. That means that it's a very small amount going through your digestive system. I know everyone always references brownies and cookies, but that's a lot of eating brownies and cookies. For me, I couldn't handle that much wheat and sweets. I eventually got gluten-free bread to put the butter on. However, for maximum monetary gain, do try a vaporizer. It's not smoke, if you ever see smoke you have the vaporizer set too high. After you get your dose, put the "used" pot to the side. This can then be used to make butter later on. If the pot you are prescribed is pricey, then this is a great way to make it last as well as have browned pot to experiment with so you don't feel bad if you ruin your first batch of butter. I also found that vaporizer vs. bong vs. pipe vs. eating vs. pot tea all give a slightly different high. Speaking of different highs, keep in mind that varieties of pot really are very different. Sativa vs. indica is the big division; however, beyond that it just gets stranger. For me, White Widow was the best for pain and keeping me from being too tired. Northern Lights made the tiredness pretty awful. Everyone is individual with these things too, just like any medication.
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Post by creolesenna on Aug 20, 2012 19:39:32 GMT -5
Hi, I am new to the forum and just started posting. I currently have PTSD due to past trauma which doesnt help the Endo period time. However, i recently recieved my medical marijuana card and it has been saving my life in a way. The medical stuff is great, I found out by default that it was great for when I get my period too. I found I needed less painkillers, I currently take about 800 mg of ibprofren, and I took it way less when I started smoking medical marijuana. there are other ways of absorbing it into your body. One way is to cook with it like with marijuana butter, but if you have a legal way of obtaining it like from a dispensary with a medical marijuana card, then they also sell tinctures and candies to suck on. Same as above though, it does not help with the tiredness as my period just kicks my butt anyways, but there are different strains of medical marijana that provide pain relief as well as are energizing. Also same as above, frequently I dont even feel like I am high. it is a beautiful thing to be able to get up and do something intermitently throughout the day and not feel like I will pass out or throw up. Still experimenting with it though to find out what works the best, ingesting etc.. or smoking, tinctures etc.. Thanks for reading. Happy to answer questions if you have them. We have that in common; PTSD was the other reason that I started doing it medically. Not being crippled by panic attacks from trauma triggers made life so much more livable. It's an extremely obvious thing for me to say, but I'll say it: when you're not stressed out of your mind constantly, the cortisol-estrogen effect isn't nearly as pronounced. I wish I'd gotten more help for my PTSD earlier because I really believe it worsened my endo symptoms (and most definitely my ability to deal with them) considerably.
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Post by Karen on Aug 21, 2012 17:18:31 GMT -5
I want to chime in with a reminder that Proboards and Endo-Resolved will not promote or advocate the use of any illegal substances. If there's any discussion regarding the use of cannabis, it must be made clear that it's under the care of a doctor and legally prescribed. I have no doubt there may be some benefits to this, but I'm not so sure this is the best place to discuss it. This forum is not owned by us and we must abide by the rules, so I hope everyone understands the need to be cooperative and post very carefully in this topic. Even so, we may be asked to remove this.
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Post by creolesenna on Aug 21, 2012 23:07:05 GMT -5
I want to chime in with a reminder that Proboards and Endo-Resolved will not promote or advocate the use of any illegal substances. If there's any discussion regarding the use of cannabis, it must be made clear that it's under the care of a doctor and legally prescribed. I have no doubt there may be some benefits to this, but I'm not so sure this is the best place to discuss it. This forum is not owned by us and we must abide by the rules, so I hope everyone understands the need to be cooperative and post very carefully in this topic. Even so, we may be asked to remove this. I understand. I've been careful to specify prescription and dispensaries vs. illegal use. In several states, compassionate marijuana care is allowed for patients meeting very specific guidelines. I know you may have to remove it regardless, but in the case of everyone posting in this thread so far, at the time of treatment we all live or lived in states allowing this use and had a physician who advocated such care and prescribed it or may prescribe it in adherence with state guidelines. Edit: The reason I haven't spoken so much of the prescription process is because I am very wary of telling people how to get prescribed, as I do not want the system abused in the states where it has become legal. The ladies in these threads clearly have physician care as I did, but I don't want an idle person find this via webcrawling and decide to game the process.
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Post by romeosgal on Aug 22, 2012 17:01:47 GMT -5
I definitely am NOT okay with obtaining it illegally and would only ever consider a doctor prescription, as I stated in my original post. If you need to delete the thread, that is okay. I was just simply wondering about the effectiveness of it for pain
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newsy
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by newsy on Oct 31, 2012 11:42:45 GMT -5
No one would advocate the use of illegal drugs, me included. Finding the best legal medical care in your state is, however, a right, which is why more & more states are legalizing medical use. Seeking out all legal alternatives available to you is especially crucial for those with Endo because the medical community has so few answers when it comes to this complex disease.
That said, I have found success with medical use in reducing pain- I can be laying in bed & rolling around in pain all day, or I can use the medicine to get me up & moving (certain strains can be more energetic). It really has made all the difference in the world for me & I am a strong advocate of exploring my options despite what people say- my pain doesn't give me the option to be choosy!
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