How Medical Marijuana Is Helping Me

 

How Medical Marijuana Is Helping Me

*I’m really not feeling well at all and having a very rough few months again. I just wanted to briefly go over something that proves to me that my mmj is working.

I have posted before that I use medical marijuana (mmj) to help with my many illnesses. I take the cannabis oil for my lyme and co’s and for its medicinal purposes but I also take edible mmj for my Gastroparesis (GP) and eating issues. I never have an appetite and rarely crave anything except chocolate or salt. I lost a lot of weight even while on all these meds that are supposed to make me gain weight. I usually only eat dinner when I wake up but I don’t eat very much food maybe what a kid could eat. At night I sometimes snack on things like chips or cereal if I am feeling hungry still. I lost 10 lbs in pretty much one day. I weigh what I used to weigh in probably the 6th grade.

So after losing my appetite and not wanting to eat very much I needed help. I also have digestion issues and cannot eat many foods but I try to eat them anyway lol. After dinner every night I would vomit up dinner. Then I trained myself where I can dry-heave now. I got all my paperwork and card and started to try mmj. Smoking it doesn’t do the trick for me so I use edibles. The best edibles that work for me are called KIVA Chocolate Bars which to me tastes just like eating a Hershey milk chocolate bar. They come in many flavors and different doses as far as higher THC/CBD. The CBD is what you want the most not the THC but the THC gives me my appetite back so I need both.

I have proven over and over that every time I forget to eat my chocolate bar piece I always puke after dinner. So I know for a fact it is helping my stomach and digestion. It is also helping me gain a little weight back and I crave things sometimes. Tonight I ate a little bit of dinner and had no appetite so then I ran out to the backyard and almost puked. I thought to myself “did you take your mmj?”. I went to my room and there was the unopened bar sitting there. So I forgot to take it. The bards are pretty pricey but it is worth it to feel a little relief from eating.

 

 

Stay strong warriors….. you are never alone we are all in this together.

 

 

 

Morphine, Opiates, Pain Killers And Constipation

 

Morphine, Opiates, Pain Killers And Constipation

Most of the meds (opiates, pain meds, other meds) we take with a chronic illness can cause really bad constipation. With my Norco I was constipated the first week on it but my body adjusted to it and I was regular. By the way Norco was my IBS savior, after having IBS for 10 years the Norco made me regular again. I am now using 90 mg of Morphine ER or MS Contin per day and I hear your body can never really adjust to the constipation with Morphine. I have possible Gastroparesis, slow digestion chronic dehydration and all my other meds that can help with the constipation also.

I had a really bad experience with the constipation from the morphine for the first 2 weeks. I was constipated or backed-up for 9 days! It wasn’t fun and wasn’t cool. I won’t go into details of how it all ended, way too much TMI, pain and passing out! But I will share how I have got the problem under control so far since then.

I am taking 1 cap full of Miralax or Polyethylene Glycol 3350, 1-2 stool softeners and 2 triple magnesium complex (I get them from swansons) and plenty of hydration with water each day. So far I seem to be having success one time per day or once every two days. I know it’s not good to take the stool softeners long term so I hope my body will start to adjust to the meds. I hope this info may help someone else going trough the same thing I did with the morphine. Best of luck to you and sorry readers for the TMI but I have to be honest and real.

Have a great flare-free day spoonie fam. Smile 🙂

 

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UCSF Visit – Pain Management

UCSF Visit – Pain Management

I took the long, torturing ride to UCSF yesterday. I was car sick in the first 5 minutes. It’s always good to see what the outside world looks like and see the sun though so that was a plus. I took some iPhone pictures I edited below of SF. I also had lunch and tried to enjoy the scenery but I was in too much pain and too sick to take it all in.

So the visit was not really what I expected. The Butrans patches have been burning my skin and I have red, square burn marks all over my arms, chest, back but they decided to keep me on the Butrans patches and up the dose to 20 mcg (all the FDA allows in the US). I asked for the best pain med they had just to have even one good day a month and the doc said “you are pretty much on it and there are no other options or better meds I can put you on that you haven’t already tried in the same pain med class”. He gives me ‘cancer patient/ chemo meds’ he said.

So my new treatment will be Butrans 20 mcg patches daily,  6 Norco per day, and Ketamine Infusions that he says is a special cocktail that he has a recipe for (not sure what else is in it).  He said I will need an anesthesiologist while getting the Ketamine since his cocktail can make me hallucinate, space out…etc.  I know Dr. H office gives Ketamine but not sure if it is this high of a dose or the same cocktail. I can get the Ketamine infusions as often as I need them each week (on top of the Butrans patch and Norco).

I will be also taking Methadone on the months I don’t use the Butrans patches so I don’t build a tolerance so fast. So I will stagger the meds such as Butrans one month then switch to Methadone then back to the patch the next month and so on. For me these meds just take the edge off enough each day but don’t really “stop” the pain. I guess you just kind of get used to the severe pain as weird as that sounds so I can seem like a person not in this much pain if you met me.

The Ketamine he says is to “reset my brain” and hopefully the pain will go away for a day or two while the other meds are still helping. Since I have so many medical issues and old injuries that cause all this pain this isn’t really 100% just a Lyme thing so I hope this doesn’t scare new readers with Lyme. Although the Lyme & Fibro do cause severe widespread pain so don’t get me wrong.

Now I just need to find a better PCP or hopefully my new LLMD office can write the scripts for all my new meds. There is no way I can drive to UCSF every couple days for Ketamine infusions so I have to find a near by place to do them. I know my current (evil) PCP will have a fit with all the new meds and probably refuse to write up the prescriptions (UCSF can only recommend the meds and my doctor has to fill the meds…if my doc refuses then UCSF will talk with them or fill them their self).

Never give up hope!

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My Current Med Prices Using Medicare

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My Current Med Prices On Medicare

This is my first month on Medicare (yay fianlly!) so I thought I would share some of my costs for medication. I have a higher-priced Blue Shield of California PDP (Part D, Prescription Drug Plan). As you may or may not know when you get social security disability you get Medicare within 2 years. You will then need to choose if you want to keep or upgrade your Original Medicare and you will need to pick a prescription plan most likely (which is not automatically included).

Everyone is different and have different situations but for me I am single, no other insurance, and do not qualify for any SSA or other prescription savings programs. So I need everything I can get. By the way you do not get Dental with Medicare unless you choose some high price insurance plan from a third party (I believe). I cannot afford Dental or a higher priced plan other than “Original Medicare”.  So for me my total cost to have and continue with Original Medicare and my Part D prescription plan are $210 a month. I guess it beats my old $625 a month Cobra plan when I had zero income for 3 years.

I chose my plan based on the pricing for Mepron since I know I will be on it again one day. Most plans want $1000 – $1500 for one bottle but with my plan I think it will cost me around $325 out of pocket. I am no Medicare expert so do your homework and try to read the packet they send you. There is a great online tool they will send you to choose through Part D plans and compare.

I rambled on sorry…. so here are my costs so far while on Medicare, hope this helps you in some way to know what to expect at the pharmacy.

 

My Costs (remember your cost depends on your Part D plan)

 

• Clindamycin HCL 300 MG (180 qty) – $7.00 out-of-pocket

• Suprax 400 MG (30 qty) – $75.00 out-of-pocket (I’m told they retail for $600)

• Fluconazole 200 MG (30 qty ) – $7.00 out-of-pocket

• Lyme Formula Memory Tonic and Meriva-500 – $152.00 out-of-pocket (not covered)

 

 

*I buy all my prescriptions from CVS Pharmacy and through my LLMD office.

 

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