Okay, so as I mentioned in my rheumy recap post, she agreed that I should go to a local medical cannabis clinic and try some CBD. It can’t hurt, right? Upon further research, the clinic she recommended (which happens to be next to my work – score!) requires a referral form, plus essentially an application/request from the patient to fill out, and then is reviewed by their staff doctors. Problem one, I don’t have another appointment with my rheumatologist until May. Problem two, my family doctor is on leave (not sure for how long) and her replacement only works Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have Wednesday off (this week at least and I want to get on this). So, I made an appointment with another random doctor at the family practice I go to, hoping he would just look at my chart and agree to fill out the form… but I mean, you never know because it completely depends on who you get.
Image from: https://www.cannamd.com/where-can-i-buy-medical-marijuana-in-florida/
Luckily for me, I got this very nice young male doctor who happily filled out the form for me. He made a comment about the “heavy duty drugs” I already take for my autoimmune condition. He also told me that he has a few patients with different autoimmune diseases that have recently started taking CBD and it seemed to be having a profound positive effect on their symptoms! This is definitely encouraging. He faxed off the form plus some consult notes from my rheumatologist to the clinic, and I filled out the patient request form, so hopefully I hear back soon for an appointment at the beginning of the new year.
Image from: https://www.countrysun.com/news/countrysun/we-have-cbd
What I find so interesting is, once again, how quickly doctors are now willing to refer for medical cannabis. Two to three years ago I couldn’t get any one to. We had to go through pain specialists only, with wait lists of over a year minimum. Now I can walk into a doctor’s office, and as long as they can see I have at least one condition (he checked off pain, anxiety and sleep issues on the form, because realistically these are all related, especially for autoimmune and other pain conditions) and they’ll just give a referral right away. Thank you liberal government of Canada for finally making everything easier on this front.
Image from: https://www.narcity.com/news/canada-is-set-to-legalize-recreational-marijuana-this-week
For the cannabis critics, there is increasing research (even the doctor today said he was excited about the research that is now growing in this area) that there are more positive effects of cannabis, especially CBD, in treating everything from autoimmune diseases to Parkinson’s to cancer. I highly recommend that everyone who is in pain try some. Talk to your naturopath, family doctor, or other specialist first, of course, but CBD doesn’t have THC in it so it doesn’t make you high, it just relaxes your body to reduce pain. Or, if you don’t mind the THC, from my experience it really helps sleep issues because it knocks you out. If you have any questions or comments on this subject, please reach out!
Chronically Living 