My Marijuana Chronicles (the concluding part)

After missing my marijuana treatment for 1 week, I had a seizure. That was probably what I needed to convince myself that the treatment was working. My greatest fear was my baby. I was terrified that something might happen to him. Hours later, at the hospital with my mother-in-law clutching my hand, the doctors said the baby was doing just fine. Lesson learned!

Many times through the pregnancy I wanted to tell my doctors I was taking marijuana. The reason I didn't was because I knew that would be their go-to reason for everything that happened to me that period. I suffered incessant vomiting and pains and iron depletion in pregnancy. But you know what, I would take all those things and more in exchange for seizures. For some weird reason, marijuana does nothing else for me. Doesn't give me a high, doesn't work as a pain killer or treatment for nausea and vomiting. These are all things users swear it does. Not me.

In a few days, it will be 1 year since I had a seizure. There are those nights, lying in bed just before I shut my eyes, when I whisper a prayer of thanks. For many years, my last thought before I slept was always, "God please not tonight". I no longer sit up in bed afraid to shut my eyes because the intensity of the auras I felt were an indication of a looming seizure. Awake, I would remind myself that sleep deprivation would only make it worse. I no longer wake up with that sick feeling in my belly. The feeling that something had happened. I no longer wake up to that question, "Do you know what happened?' There are no mid-sentence interruptions due to absences. The list is endless.

By September next year, all things being equal, I should have an MRI. Fingers crossed. Hopefully the readings will be different. Positive. Hopefully, it will be a few months till I can be medically certified seizure free. Hopefully, my son will never have to worry about his mama. And my husband will never have to wake up to watch me have another seizure. Hopefully, my parents will never again be saddened by the news of my seizures.

Well, that's that. I just bought a bong. One word of advice to marijuana users. Vapor over smoke! I hope sometime soon, marijuana is legalized  and more doctors open their hearts to the endless possibilities in that herb.

My marijuana chronicles Part 1

         I have to share the story of my marijuana experiment and how it has made me a happier, healthier, saner person. I have suffered from epilepsy since I was 16. So that's 14 years ago. Getting that diagnosis was a huge blow. It felt like my whole world was destroyed. I had the lemons thrown at me and no recipe for lemonade! Oh well, I sucked it up and moved on as best as I could. The silver lining for me was that the seizures were purely nocturnal. At first, I was sad. Then I became ashamed. I remember people asking me what pills I was taking and sometimes I'd lie and say they were pain killers. It seemed more acceptable to say I had migraines than to say I had epilepsy. My parents and sisters were very supportive. I had good friends for the most part. I dated guys who didn't make me feel any less of a human being. Believe me, coming from Nigeria, it's a big deal.

          The months turned into years and time was passing. Nothing was changing. Every time I thought they had finally found the miracle drug to manage my seizures, they would come back again. It was like I was on a never-ending roller-coaster ride. I started with Tegretol. Worked well until I had a drug reaction. Then came Phenobarbitone. I was in university. I could not handle the drowsiness and lethargy that came with the drug. Moved on to Epilim (valporic acid). Worked well until it didn't. Then I moved on to Epilim Chrono. Same thing but continuous release. I moved to Canada. Epilim wasn't sold here so I was placed on Divalproex. Same generic name. Once again, it worked until it didn't.

          As soon as I settled down in Canada and got a family doctor, I made moves to see a neurologist. It must have been almost a year later that I got sent to this kind old man, Dr. B. He was fun to chat with and would tell me about his family and his grand kids and their vacations etc. After our third visit when I told him I had a boyfriend, he suggested I switch meds. Lol. Just incase I got pregnant. You see, valporic acid is not the drug of choice for pregnant women.So, we started making plans to switch to Keppra (Levetiracetam). I was excited because at the time, I was having seizures at least twice every month. It was exhausting!
We made the switch and all seemed to be going well. Things changed after a couple of months. I started having absence seizures. They continued to increase in frequency. About six months later, I was having full blown seizures every couple of weeks and the absences at least 3 times everyday. That was my breaking point. I knew something had to happen. And fast!

          I poured myself into researching alternatives. I decided to speak to my doctor about surgery. I knew the risks involved, but I was at a point where anything was better than doing nothing. I started to prepare myself mentally.
     
          Suddenly, the conversation changed. Someone really close to me started the marijuana conversation. I laughed it off. To me, marijuana was a recreational drug. I didn't even give it a second thought. This friend kept trying to convince me. He even told me how marijuana had helped a skin condition he had. I still wasn't interested. Then he asked me to look out for a documentary called Weed. It was put together by CNN's Sanjay Gupta. Watching that documentary changed my life!

          I'll stop here for now. If you are interested in watching the documentary Weed, please click here.

Watch this space, I'll be back.
xoxo