Issue 16.pdf - Treating Yourself

HEALTH TESTIMONIALS
Awakening
Your Quality of Life
with
Medicinal Marijuana
Story and Images by DoobieDuck
Is it possible to arouse your inner self, to beat back depression, to stimulate
some liveliness within us once thought eternally gone with medical marijuana?
Can a group of pain and depression sufferers get together to improve
their quality of life and stimulate their minds? Can individual patients be an
influence regarding their physician’s opinion about medical marijuana?
I’m not a pain management
specialist, a physician, a psychologist,
or a horticulturist,
but I do have 35 years experience
growing one species of
plant and over fifteen years of
surgical intervention, chronic
pain, depression, and a neverending
number of doctor
appointments. I also now have
many years experience treating
myself with medicinal marijuana
and learning from others who
have also, so I feel at least somewhat
qualified to write about the
subject my “Quality of Life”.
I first heard the term “quality of
life” from my spine surgeon
years ago. Determined to stay
employed, working while enduring
pain, my surgeon sat me
down and told me, “Your pain is
affecting your quality of life.”
“You are permanently disabled,
you can no longer work,” he
continued, before going further
to exclaim, “you need to slow
56 - Treating Yourself, Issue 16 - 2009
down, you have to completely
change your lifestyle!”
I knew this — years before, even.
I just did not want to quit working.
To just quit working... I
guess I was in some sort of
denial, I wanted to work. However,
he was right; my quality of
life was in dreadful shape and I
had quit enjoying many of the
activities I loved. Fishing, camping,
and the live band I performed
in frequently. I was no
longer enjoying these or any
activities; I was only present
when they were taking place.
The list was enormous, growing
weekly, and staring me right in
the face. Like many of you, I
was having a hard time dealing
with the issues I was facing.
I thought about that term for
years, and still do. I think it is
possibly the most important condition
of your health you have!
Yes, I think your quality of life is
a health condition. By definition
— “Quality” is the degree of
excellence, relative nature or
kind or character of a thing.
“Life” is one’s capacity for
growth, functional activity, and
continual change until death. I
really believe medical marijuana
can help improve this condition,
at least stimulate something
within us that can perk it up a
little. So, how does cannabis
improve this condition for me?
I’m an early riser, waking at 5
a.m. every day for the last 30
years with no alarm clock and
no going back to sleep. Not that
I enjoy this; I’m just stuck with
it, I guess. I have somewhat of a
routine I go through every day,
but every day is different due to
my disabilities. My pain dictates
how things will go for me
throughout the day and that can
change at any time. Some days
around 10 a.m. I will make a
cup of cannabis tea, with one