Category: Paul

I decided to take a different approach to the tolerance issue this time. I imagine my body runs at close to max Cannabis tolerance more-or-less continually. I have to be careful to avoid knocking myself out eating the de-carb’d flower. It doesn’t really get me high that much any more except just makes me sleepy at some level. So I decided to try a little different approach than just stopping cold turkey for a few days to see if I can detect any clues.

I’ve been titrating down slowly for at least a month, aiming to completely use up all the stash. Haven’t had any rosin concentrate since those ran out a month ago. I like the solventless and cold-pressed rosins. They are probably the only concentrates not potentially adulterated with processing artifacts. I’m not really comfortable with all the pre-processed Cannabis products available in this so-called “regulated” market. I suspect the only thing really getting regulated to any effect is the tax revenue. Finished the Kief last weekend. Had no edible at all past three days, and I finished vaping the last of the CBD flower a few hours ago.

Experienced an excruciating right knee something (nerve flare, or just another bad joint?) holding it in an awkward position trying to dump a big bag of dog food into the storage container yesterday. It was pretty sore for a few weeks right after the lumbar surgery, but this was the first time I ever had a real episode of any kind with it. The last of that CBD flower didn’t contain much THC and seems like nothing to the radiculopathy symptoms. All stiff, cramped and sore up and down the whole right side now.

Early indications seem to suggest the only difference is going to be taking longer to get miserably un-medicated. This weekend is gonna suck.

LATE UPDATE – Sunday Morning: There’s not much wrong with that knee that hasn’t been there for the past 20 years – except maybe the nerve going through it. I can walk on it, doesn’t hurt to move, but starts building stiff resistance with activity – and hurts like hell when it gets pinched. I should probably get it x-rayed just to make sure, but I’m persona-non-grata with the VA orthopedics clinics since the last hip replacement. If there’s anything I’ve learned about healthcare after dozens of VA encounters over the years, it’s that diagnosis for my maladies is best done at home.

LATE, LATE Update – Monday morning. Pretty unpleasant getting out of bed this morning. The real problem is, it only gets worse throughout the day, depending on how much time I spend on my feet. We’ll be heading to Boulder later to pick up some Kief. A new overall medication approach will start today. The last few years was just trying alot of different stuff to see what happens. I think I have the info to start doing real, targeted medication, without getting into hyperemesis and blotto periods. Using Kief in combination with different flower, has been the only thing that showed me clear changes in their effect. I can now confirm what they’ve been saying all along: Terpines must be the key to unlocking whatever it’s doing in the body.

20 JUL 22: I finally gave up. Not fighting it any more. For three-and-a-half years, all this time, I’ve been struggling to recover from a lumbar nerve root damage injury that is not going to get better. Considering how the c-Spine progressed over the years, I only hope the lumbar doesn’t go retrograde at some point. No amount of massage, stretching, rehab or exercise of any kind has ever shown anything but fleeting temporary relief. Drugs, pharmaceutical or otherwise, are only a thin veil of suppression. So I’ve resigned myself to establishing a new lifestyle using a cane or brace any time I need to be on my feet more than ten minutes, and spending at least half my waking hours resting when I’m not. Memory of those days is fading, but it literally feels like I’ve been on my feet all day every time I sit down.

Looks like the Memorial Day update caught somebody’s attention this year. My apologies to the readers, but remember this government stuff almost never comes without long waiting periods. In the meantime just to clarify, cyber terrorism is only a hobby of mine and way down on the priority list.

Here’s a kicker for ya: Guess how many times I had to submit the claim before they would even begin to process it? Yep – opened, then immediately closed. Twice. Maybe they thought it was like a 3rd time around type thing, too? I haven’t told anybody that before today. That’s REALLY gonna need some ‘splainin.

The stream of VA healthcare horror stories publicized across the country never abates. They seem to have a fairly high volume of that type bullshyt to deal with, so the government has them set up and well funded for it. We are actually paying contractors to screw over the vets these days. The surgeon who broke my back was a contractor from the hospital across the street. That’s pretty rare, but this is an ongoing process in the claims system:

I stumbled across the Youtube™ C&P videos at one point a year or so ago. I watched a few, but it seemed kinda weird, like they’re gaming the system. Now I get it. It’s one of those games where both sides are always cheating. 😉

28 APR 22: Muscle fasciculation presented in the left calf for the first time a few weeks ago. No clue on that one. Probably due to whatever I was doing just prior. The fusion procedure feels more related to some of what I’m getting now, unsurprisingly. There’s a noticeable cramp on the upper left glute by the end of the day that wasn’t there before the last surgery. Focal mononeuropathies are getting scratched on my torso, arms and legs. I think the one on the left shoulder happened while sleeping. Some sort of subcutaneous greasy spooge oozes out and crusts up on my scalp in a random pattern emanating from around the temple area on the right side of my cranium. Seems psoriatic, but doesn’t really match any of the descriptions I can find. Some reaction to all the midsection damage and prosthetics, I assume. These symptoms arisen in the past two years seem to be indications accompanying conditions setting in for the long term, or what’s left of it.

No news to me. I’m with the ~⅓ of patients in that study who gave up opiates completely. That’s what got me started with various drugs – inflammation and related pain. I’ve been through the orthopedic surgeries and all the medications that go along with it – before, during and after. The doctors will never say, because of course you’re just getting older. But I am inclined to believe all the metal in my midsection suggests the arthritis is more towards the severe end of the scale, and it’s not even my biggest health issue these days.

I’ll save my take on how it does with nerve damage for another study on that topic. The only thing I can say for sure about the weed, in my case at least is: I cannot use enough. The only two problematic issues I seem to have with Cannabis are: Can’t use enough, and waiting to start up again after a break when hyperemesis sets in.

Short for tolerance break. It’s what recreational Cannabis users do every so often to feel the most high, when effects start to diminish after regular use over some period of time. It’s what serious medicinal users do to avoid hyperemesis, before the endocannabanoid system eventually gets pushed out of whack after chronic use.

It’s been eight months since that episode. That appears to be about how long it now takes me to get to the hyperemesis threshold at a dose amounting to around 50mg/day combined throughout the day. I know this because I could feel it coming on this time, after carefully tracking and limiting my intake. I’m on day three off the weed, and keeping a real close eye on it this time around.

Day 1 was no biggie, a little uncomfortable, sorta easing out of it. Yesterday, the stark reality of not being medicated shone through. Radiculopathy is markedly more apparent, along with noticeable jabs from that lumbar job site, moving/reaching/stretching around under a car hood. C-spine invokes the same enhanced radiculopathy in the arms from that nerve root damage, only without the extra pain. Doing PT, stretching, whatever, is just excruciating. Keeping a cane nearby always.

I noticed mild sweats/chills several times yesterday, reminding me of the hyperemesis part where I was sweating bullets and feeling freezing cold at the same time. It’s difficult describing the non-psychoactive way Cannabis affects the brain. I’m calling it headspace. it’s a sensation – an actual physical sensation – I assume might be related to CB-receptor activity, or lack thereof. I could feel it starting to get to that point where things were about to go haywire pretty soon.

The medical community needs to pick up on this. I’m not talking about quack doctors handing out med cards. The surgeons and neurologists dealing with pain and spinal injuries have a safe, effective tool they are ignoring or poo-pooing for various reasons, mostly ignorance. Alternatively, people are given Neurontin and painkillers, often leading to gawd knows what other complications.

I’ll mention my experience(s) with Neurontin, because I now believe it is a dangerous drug masquerading as a safe catch-all for anything they don’t want to actually deal with. I took it for about three years during the time I was going through the shoulder business, along with Venlafaxine, and Tramadol at some point. It does work to ease radiculopathy, but it also developed a bad reaction in me. I say developed, because I was fine with it for awhile, the first couple years. But I became increasingly unstable on my feet, literally losing my balance at times for some reason. I can now point the finger at Neurontin, because of what came next.

I got off ALL the pharmaceuticals when I finally realized I was on the drug poison road to an early death. Then a malpractice episode followed by lumbar fusion got me into another Neurontin prescription. Damned if I wasn’t stumbling around again – right away! No other drugs in the system, except Cannabis. Tried it twice this time around, two different prescriptions separated by a few weeks. – same thing. it did something to my nervous system. The only question is what?

The doctors will tell me I’m just getting older, and these type things are to be expected. Ya think? It happens alot faster and hurts alot more when you’re all beat to shyt. Neurontin, Gabapentin, or whatever brand name they are using to fill the pharma coffers with it now: STAY AWAY!

Late Update, 17 March: It takes 3-4 days for the therapeutic effect to wear completely off, after which time the entire right side of my body becomes stiff and sore with radiculopathy to the point I do not want to move. Right quad is the worst, aching acutely, due to the moderately severe L4-5 damage. I’m not even sure where to put it on the severity scale, because Donner stopped talking after they realized what happened.

Imagine that, BEFORE it was repaired, on top of a fresh hip replacement, spending almost a year trying to get help from the VA. IMAGINE THAT.

Latest Symptoms Log entry:

4 MAR 22: After 3 years of going through all the medications, surgeries and rehab, it seems I’ve finally arrived at a steady physical state. Still struggling with the psychological aspect of re-calibrating my life, figuring out what I can and cannot do, how long it takes to do what I can, and trying to prioritize necessary activities. Not yet sure where the Cannabis hyperemesis threshold is. I’m using at a rate about half what I was before that episode. Some clues point to real success with the weed. I’ve noticed not always grabbing for the cane every time I get up after medicating. The paralytic muscle sensation clearly diminishes with THC. Neurontin has a similar effect, but also seems to make me dizzy. CBD certainly helps with sleep. I’ve noticed a few episodes of REM sleep coming back over the past couple months. There’s a whole world of nuances in the strains I can’t really distinguish except to say the Indicas seem to work better on radiculopathy, for me. C-Spine decompression stops the arms from going numb during the night. That is a big sleep loss factor. Skipping decompression just one session immediately begins a slide back into the overnight arm numbing. i have to be real careful with small, spillable stuff because there’s almost no sensation in my hands anymore. I’m doing an average of 2 hrs/day various PT stuff, mostly foam roller and decompression. Still pretty miserable, but I can see a way forward.

My share of low quality VA healthcare almost got me killed.

“A recent in-depth report found that VA administrators are overruling doctors’ decisions for the sake of cost control and keeping veteran patients in the VA health care system.”

Took me a year to get through that gauntlet after running into some provider issues. Now I spend most of my time sitting around crippled from malpractice.

It’s been hard learning how to use Cannabis.

16 JAN 22: Smaller more frequent doses is the ticket. I guess maybe I was lulled into a sense of sedentary life with the injury itself? High edible doses of Cannabis were mostly just helping keep me immobile. That, and wearing the brace when I’m not, seems to be the main thing providing muscle symptom relief. Sometimes I can actually feel them let go while sitting around toking the vape. But it’s fleeting and only slows the slide back into paralysis when I start moving around. I imagine if we’d had freely ongoing research with Cannabis over the past 80 years we’d probably already have an effective, time-release targeted medication for this.

Latest Symptoms Log entry:

16 DEC 21: Didn’t take long for a mostly vaping prescription to get old. It doesn’t seem like 4-5 times/day is hurting my lungs. I just don’t like the way it feels after some point past around 3 – hacking up more phlegm, etc. I’m going to try a modified micro-dosing scheme. All the articles on it I’ve seen talk about tiny 1-2mg doses. I was taking around 40-50mg doses 2-3 times/day before, but that led to hyperemesis and some uncomfortable excesses. When I tried microdosing a year ago, it did not seem to affect me at all. I’ll up that to around 5-10mg, 3-4 times/day. Should smooth out the peaks and valleys and still hopefully achieve better radiculopathy suppression.

Added this to the symptoms Log last week:

“12 NOV 21: Been back on the Cannabis for about a month, with one fundamental change to the regimen. Gastric ingestion (eating it) only at bedtime with CBD-type products – flower, tincture or gummies on the menu att. This is strictly as a sleep aid, except before I was also using CBD and THC edibles during the day. It helps with the arthritis inflammation, but that’s a much less problematic symptom for me these days. Vaping flower throughout the day keeps radiculopathy symptoms under control, allowing me to move about with less discomfort. Dabs in the evening as before. I was eating it around the clock along with vaping for probably a couple years by the time hyperemesis set in. The other issue with daytime edible is it’s too easy to get hammered to the point of being unsafe to drive. I tried “micro-dosing” throughout the day, but that never seemed to approach the level needed to squelch muscle paralysis. The daily roller-coaster vape ride is not too bad as long as I keep the activity level low. Vaping wears off in an hour or 2 at most, and doesn’t get me nearly as high as eating it, pretty much regardless of the dose. I suppose the layman analogy might be the difference between beer and whiskey, in terms of psychotropic effect.”