Scleroderma and Marijuana

Woohoo! Controversy! This post is all about marijuana and scleroderma. It's going to be a long post. I've come to learn a lot of scleroderma patients are interested in learning more and possibly trying it to treat symptoms but can't find any information. They usually don't know much about it period so I'll briefly cover some common fears as well.  I've also learned some doctors are fine with it and others are dead against it. I hope they see this and change their minds.

Disclaimer! These are my experiences with my health issues. Marijuana isn't always a good thing with certain meds or illnesses. Be sure to check about medication problems etc. A quick example. If I smoke marijuana while on 2 or more painkillers I shut down. I get very slow both mentally and physically. I don't have heart, lung or kidney involvement. I don't know how it might react with your illness or meds. Like anything medical. Do your homework.



So, I'm going to start at the beginning of my marijuana history just in the interests of full disclosure. I was against it as a teenager. Then, like alcohol, I figured I should try it before declaring jihad against it. I liked it a lot. I probably smoked more then I should have when I was young. I got over that eventually. I've never really stopped using it since but I've never again abused it like I did in those years. My use began to change from social to medicinal when my stomach issues raised their heads in my early 20's.

So let's tackle the biggest fear for the uneducated. Addiction. Well, there ain't any. A psychological dependency can be built but a physical? Pffft! I frequently go without for months at a time after months of use. My worst withdrawal symptom? Sweating when I sleep and being a bit crabby, for 3-5 days after I stop. I still smoke cigarettes and I'm fully aware of how bad that is for a scleroderma patient. Gives you an idea of the difference.

It causes cancer! Another big fear. Again no. Bad for the lungs because it's smoke? Yes. Well there's other ways to use it besides smoking the plant matter, more on that later. There's never been any verified connection to cancer. Don't you think the anti drug groups would be shouting that from the rooftops if it were true?

It's a gateway drug and everyone who uses it is a criminal. No. A higher exposure to crime and illegal activity due to an environment grown from prohibition? (I'll quickly point to the alcohol prohibition as a common example of this). Yes. Legal medicinal users do have more options to avoid this and in fact can avoid it completely. I've met users from every walk of life. From wealthy to welfare. White collar, blue collar. Man. Woman. It crosses every social line. Ask around. It's easy to see that.

So if it's not apparent. I'm on marijuanas side. Compared to alcohol, cigarettes, prescriptions and even caffeine. It's the least of the evils. I think it's retarded I can go get a prescription for Percocet, pick up a pack of smokes, a bottle of booze some gravol and an energy drink and go home and almost accidentally kill myself but I can't find a doctor willing to do the pain in the ass paperwork required to grow PLANTS in my apartment without going to jail. Which I should mention is impossible to overdose on. For those who've heard otherwise, that experiment on animals, was found to have killed the animals from lack of oxygen due to smoke inhalation. Not overdose. Zero. Zilch. Nada. There are no reported cases of death from marijuana. They put masks on the animals nose and mouth and suffocated them with smoke. Technically you can overdose but that amount is impossible for humans to inhale or ingest. Something like 30-60 THOUSAND joints of potent marijuana would be needed, in a day. Good luck on that.

Ok so on to scleroderma. I just wanted my views and some basic misconceptions exposed. My biggest use for marijuana as a medicine is for my GI issues. Nausea, pain, gas, loss of appetite, constipation, diaharea etc. I suffer all of these. Marijuana can get rid of most of the discomfort associated with those symptoms, even eliminating some. For me it can be mean the difference of spending 10 minutes in the bathroom or 2 hours. Munchies anyone? I barely ever break 125 pounds. I credit the weight I have to marijuana. I have almost no appetite and when I do eat I get both full and nauseated rather quickly. Marijuana means the difference between eating just my vegetables or just my meat OR eating a whole meal. I could go on for each symptom but you get the idea.

Raynauds. So this would be the one negative. In my experience I've found that marijuana will aggravate my Raynauds. Not severely. I'm normally set off at around 15 degrees or colder (Celsius). After marijuana I'd say it's 11-13. However. I have read of different strains that will promote circulation. I'm sadly not one of the legal users and don't usually have that much choice.

Pain from calcinosis, collagen deposits and ulcers. This one can be tricky. I don't normally have large ulcers but have had them on occasion. My calcinosis is usually on the small side as well. I find that marijuana can alleviate minor pain. The general aches and pains and inflammation. Tear open an ulcer the size of a quarter on your elbow? It can actually aggravate the pain. This is where it gets tricky. If I take a painkiller (one percocet) and then smoke some marijuana, it helps. Better then either on their own. Better then 2-3 pills on their own. This is where it matters for me due to GI issues. I have a lot of problems with taking painkillers. Marijuana allows me to take a lot less as well as alleviate all the GI issues I get for a week and a half after taking ONE.

For me, distraction is one of the best painkillers if I can focus more intently on something or zone out some it will help with the pain. Guess what helps? Marijuana!

Quick departure here. I mentioned other ways to use marijuana besides smoking it. This would be a good time to mention some. They can have different effects on the body especially in regards to pain management.

So obviously there's smoking. This is my preferred method as its instantaneous and helps the most symptoms. I use a "bubbler". A water bong with three water filters. I find most other ways of smoking cause me to cough more then I like due to the heated smoke. The water cools it as well as helps to filter out the plant matter. This method helps with almost every symptom except major pain.

Vaporizers. I've personally had bad luck with these. Mainly due to the crappy quality of the vaporizers I've used. If you have a good vaporizer this is very similar to smoking it for symptom treatment. I've heard it works better for pain then smoking but havent been able to verify it. These work by turning the THC (the part that gets you "high") into vapor by heating it enough to vaporize the THC but not hot enough to burn the plant matter into smoke.

Food. In my experience this is the best method for pain. It also has the least mental side effects and causes what most call a "body high" I suffer from neuropathy as well, in all 4 limbs. Eating a brownie and having a puff from my bubbler eliminates almost all pain and makes what isn't eliminated tolerable. It can be mixed into almost everything. Alot of people will use "ganja butter". This is just butter with marijuana in it. For proper bakers it means not having to guess at the amounts needed. Just use the butter as directed in the recipe. There's a huge variety of food to make. I've seen suckers, bread, brownies, cookies and even Popsicles plus a whole lot more.

There are THC pills. I don't know a lot about these other then not being a popular choice. The main reason I hear? The inability to control the dosage. With a joint you can just stop smoking it if you've had enough. Pills you get what you're given. A lot of the time more then is needed. I find this hilarious. People get all in a huff over marijuana but the pills developed by pharmaceutical companies are more potent and desired the least by those using the plant medicinally. Yeah sure it's the high we're after.

Ok so there's a few common methods of use. Let's get back to the scleroderma. My last couple of topics aren't all that exciting but I want to be complete.

Fatigue. This one for me is both a positive and negative. If its physical fatigue I find it can help to get me off my butt and get things done. An example, house cleaning. If its mental I find it can make that worse. If I didn't want to do something because I was feeling blah, smoking will make it worse.

Sleep. If it weren't for my GI issues this would be my main use. I can deal with most pains and the bullshit scleroderma gives us daily as long as I'm rested. Those with ulcers or a neuropathy can verify how hard sleeping can be when your in pain. I've always had problems getting to sleep. Since I was a toddler. I remember staring out my bedroom window at 2am when I was 10 because I couldn't sleep. Marijuana allows for 4-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. 8-10 if I take a painkiller an hour before bed. Without? I'm awake after 4 hours at the longest.

Last but surely not least is a mental escape/release. There's no way to beat around the bush on this one. I smoke it cuz I like it. How many people come home from work and unwind with a scotch or a glass of wine? Well I can't. Booze is one of THE worst things for me. One drink can make me violently ill for days and even land me in the hospital. I don't get to get drunk and forget....ever. Weed helps me cope. For those who say I'm escaping, what the fuck do you think alcohol does? I remember. Drunks don't. Drunks don't remember why they cried. Because of marijuana I not only remember crying, I remember why. I find it's great for internal evaluation. I've mentioned people tell me I'm positive when it comes to this disease. Guess why? I don't hide. I don't run. I smoke a joint and face it head on. Why am I angry today? Why am I sad? Do I really give a shit what JoBob down the street said? I find it can help even when I'm not aware I'm having troubles. I'll smoke a joint and watch tv and find myself crying over something stupid. It's not the stupid thing on tv that made me cry though. It was me. Well now I'm facing that head on. Not burying it.

So that's my nutshell on my experiences with scleroderma and marijuana. This is something I plan to discuss more and get into each symptom more directly. This post was meant to familiarize people with a basic understanding of marijuana and the medicinal benefits for scleroderma patients. Please feel free to ask questions here, my email (scleroguy@gmail.com) or on twitter (@scleroguy).

Now that ive shown the benefits I ask your indulgence as I go on a bit of a tangent here. Marijuana comes with a lot of social stigmas and it pisses me off to no end. According to the government, a lot of doctors and assholes in general. It's better for me to be addicted to painkillers and gravol then to smoke marijuana. I should have to take numerous medications, a lot of which have side effects worse then the problem I'm trying to alleviate. Here's the thing as I see it, it doesn't matter! NO ONE PERSON,GROUP OR GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE ANY SAY IN MY MEDICAL TREATMENT! How in the hell is it ok to go to a plastic surgeon, as a man, and say I want breasts! Just cuz! I think it'll be neat! Receive implants, addictive painkillers, buy a bottle of booze, get drunk and stand on the street screaming "Look at my lady lumps!" and get no condemnation from society yet if I smoke a joint to alleviate pain and nausea in my own home, after work at the end of the day, I'm a degenerate and a burden on society. It's bullshit.

As I'm sure a lot of scleroderma patients are aware, we dictate our treatments to our doctors. We understand better how the disease effects us then most doctors. Even those specializing in scleroderma are aware how the disease effects each person differently. Because of the stigma attached to marijuana a lot of doctors won't fill out the paperwork. All in all marijuana is probably what I use the most to treat my scleroderma, if you don't count my stomach meds (nexium or Prevacid). Why can't I get it legally? Why can't I put a fucking potted plant in my window to grow my most used medicine? These are headaches you will encounter. You're not a patient. You're a user.

I have recently decided to go through the headache of trying to become a legal medicinal user. I plan to document it. Including the number of rejections I get from doctors. I have written a small explanation of how I use it and how it benefits me to give to the doctors. I will be documenting each doctors reasons for rejecting it. Why do I want to go through the headache? Well for me there's two reasons. 1.) Financial. I simply can't afford to purchase it from illegal dealers anymore and would like to grow a couple of plants for personal use. 2.) Travel. I don't travel a lot but when I do I would like the ability to take my most used medicine on a plane when I go visit my mother.

Anyways. That's my tangent. As I said this will not be my only post on marijuana but it is the broadest. My next posts will focus more on specific symptoms and treatment.

Thanks!

Scleroguy