Dosing

When you have your medicine ready – whether you’ve made ‘Mike’s Milk,’ your own blended oil, or bought ready-to-go cannabis oil, the obvious question needs to be answered: how much do I take? In general, the answer is ‘as much as you can comfortably tolerate.’ This will be relatively low to begin with but will…

Drying and curing

Once you’ve harvested your plants the maturing stops. Don’t get taken in by the myths about hanging it upside down to control movement of liquid or anything along those lines, that’s simply incorrect. All life, activity and cell development stops once it’s cut down. It IS true that curing properly can improve the aroma and…

Peripheral neuropathy and tinnitus

Chemotherapy is nasty stuff. Okay, it’s useful nasty stuff, but boy, is it nasty! It works by hammering every part of your body, and it’s the fastest-growing cells (which include cancer cells) that suffer the most. The side effects of chemo while you’re going through it are widely known: hair loss, nausea and loss of…

Midwest Cannabis Education Conference – videos

I sometimes hear medical experts say that there’s little or no clinical research going on into the use of cannabis and cancer treatment. It’s true that there needs to be more, but there are some excellent, evidence-driven[*] research programs being conducted and the findings show often astounding and exciting results. Here is an example of…

Three-month CT scan report

I saw my consultant again today to discuss the findings of my ‘three-months-after-chemo’ CT scan. It’s another good result. His words? “This shows a sustained complete response,” building on the ‘complete response’ report from the CT scan three months previously. 

A Doctor’s Case for Medical Marijuana

I love TED talks. They’re (almost) universally superbly researched, written and presented. This one is particularly on topic: A Doctor’s Case for Medical Marijuana.

Research reading list

The medical use of cannabis, both as whole-plant extracts and isolates, is a fascinating area of study, but its legal status has meant that finding well-conducted research isn’t easy. Web forums are full of enthusiastic and well-meaning claims, but many of these are based on nothing more concrete than rumors, guesses and wishes. There are,…

Immuno-compromised

Chemotherapy is evil stuff. It’s a necessary evil, as the saying goes, but whatever kind you’re given it is, at heart, a poison. It works by flooding one’s system and hammering on everything you’ve got, cancer cells and good cells alike. Cancer cells are fast growing (which is the basis of what makes them a…

Post-chemo verdict

26 September “You’ve had a complete response.” I was hoping to hear these words when I saw my oncology consultant. Really hoping. I was diagnosed in May, I finished my last chemotherapy session on September 14th and had my ‘end of chemo’ CT scan on the 20th. So I sat down to hear the news,…

Sepsis!

24 September September 14th was my last chemotherapy session. I’ve been doing this since May, and it’s been a long haul. This is an update post.