Medical cannabis oil has been life-changing for Julia, but she’s still struggling to come to terms with vaping.
Fibromyalgia patient Julia Davenport says cannabis oil has been life-changing for her, but she’s still struggling to get on board with Flower.
My perception of cannabis has changed dramatically in the few years since I started taking it as pain relief.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I’m from a generation that, despite living through the enlightened age of the 1960s, grew up believing the plant to be wrong.
This created a strong resistance to even trying CBD or medical cannabis when they emerged as possible treatments for pain associated with my fibromyalgia and arthritis.
I’m over that now and take CBD daily, with a private medical cannabis prescription to use orally whenever I have a flare-up.
One taboo I’m still struggling to get past, however, is the use of vape.
Buried in my kitchen drawer is a dry herb vapouriser alongside the medical cannabis flower prescribed to me by a pain consultant.
With this, I’m armed and ready with what I understand to be the fastest route for medical cannabis to get into the bloodstream.
But sadly, although it could have rescued me on several occasions in the year since I bought the device, its box remains sealed.
I’m sure many Cannabis Health readers will be shaking their heads right now. What a travesty that something millions of people with a range of conditions could potentially benefit from is going to waste.
I do genuinely feel lucky to have a private prescription at a time when countless others are unable to access medical cannabis through cost, red tape, or misinformation.
The problem I have is my huge aversion to smoking. Yes, vaping isn’t smoking, but the action of ingesting something that looks like smoke into your lungs doesn’t feel right.
While I’ve never smoked in my life, my father was a heavy smoker who suffered from lung disease and chronic emphysema. My mother also had coronary artery disease, possibly related to smoking.
For these reasons, I have a mental block about vaping despite reading about how effective it can be as a breakthrough remedy.
No doubt many people my age, who grew up with parents who smoked, also feel the same, and perhaps there is some way to go before vape vendors can escape perceived links to smoking.
Maybe more evidence on the impact of vaping on the lungs will help to change this over time – and I’ll eventually make use of my vapouriser.
Meanwhile, in putting my fibromyalgia diary together, I began to think about all the ways cannabis has changed my life. I thought I’d share perhaps the most unusual one – going cold turkey on my teddy bear collection.
With chronic pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, nighttime can be tough, and insomnia is common. It is a horrible experience to feel utterly drained but be unable to fall asleep, sometimes for days.
Before discovering CBD and medical cannabis, I would often find myself wide awake in the middle of the night. It was at these times that my attention drifted from my iPad to eBay.
For some reason, possibly nostalgia, my search for distraction amid the pain and boredom took me to the furry world of vintage teddy bears.
Many nights spent bidding for bears in the blue light led to a considerable collection building up.
Now, my days as an arctophile (yes, there is a word for someone who collects or is very fond of teddy bears) are over.
My CBD and medical cannabis regime has significantly cut the number of sleepless nights I experience and, in turn, the volume of new bears taking up space on my shelves.
Disclaimer: https://cannabishealthnews.co.uk/2022/05/12/story22-fibromyalgia-diaries-to-vape-or-not-to-vape
