Ron.Shaw@f7.n374.z1.fidonet.org (Ron Shaw) (04/11/91)
Index Number: 14772
[This is from the Chronic Pain Conference on Fidonet]
I've had cronic pain since 1972 and have tried it all. from DMSO to
Nerve stimulators. The nerve stimulators allowed me to continue on
my job as an engineer for about 5 more months, only because I had
the sucker on 24 hours per day. Finally I became immune to it,
started wearing a heating pad to work & pluggin it in at my desk.
This worked for a month (of which I probably missed 3/4 of work
time). As a last resort after numerous medications including
valium, percodan and the like, I resorted to smoking pot. Naturally
being illegal I had my druthers, but wanted to continue to function
in society. Well THe Pot decreased the pain from the backaches,
reduced the muscle spasms & cramps, but it does not allieviate
completely the pain either. Only de-sensitizes your brain to it.
Now after not smoking it for a considerale length of time, I no
longer can function outside of my 3 room apartment. My doctor has
prescribed Pot, but the hold up is the DEA. They don't care what
condition you are in, they just want to hinder anyone in pain from
getting anything that may help. Although Pot is not a cureall (and
if you can stay away from it, by all means do), it does not give
you the side effects of other medications which include SUPER
stomache problems, shaking & dizziness, going out of your head,
deep depression (as valium), and other disfunctions. my vote is
for pot to help cronic pain (but not to be completely legalized.
Have any of you tried it? Robert Randall of ACT (Alliance for
Canibus theraputic) was the first able to legally obtain Marijuana,
and I have been legally able to obtain it since december of 1990
(although with the Hinderance of the DEA I have of yet to recieve a
shipment). They also have a synthetic form of marijuana called
Marinol. This is a joke. It is very expensive (a bottle of 25
capsules-liquid filled 2.5 mg) is 55 bucks. and lasts for about 2
days. Normal doses of pot consists of a bottle of marinol at 10 mg
strength which costs around 181 bucks for 25 pills. Unlike pot, you
can not take a toke or two, put it out for later use. One sever
side effect of the Marinol is chest pains, shit it makes you feel
as if you are having a heart attack. BTW my problem (well one of
them) is Post-Polio syndrome ,PPS or polio mylositis. For the past
7 years I have been completely confined to my apartment, and 18 -
23 hours per day to my bed (under a heating blanket to slow down
the muscle spasms and cramps)
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