Medicinal Marijuana and Post Concussion?
 

Any thoughts? Or research you know of? Interesting articles regarding this and also Roger Goodell's comment on considering it's usage for concussion for athletes in NFL?

CBD (canabidiol) has promise for head injuries. It can be purchased online but even the commercial hemp based CBD oil is considered illegal by some states. It appears that THC has value but only in small amounts, similar to that found in CBD oil.

We discussed this at length a few months ago.

I had a Psychiatrist recently recommend it. For me personally, anger and frustration are recurring daily battles I face and while I've never tried pot or cannaboid-related therapy, I suspect it would be of great benefit for finding a means to keep stress low.

Hopefully someone with some experience will chime in.

I've been a recreational smoker for 5 years and I had to stop it after my 2nd concussion. Now whenever I smoke it makes me more paranoid than I already am, and gives me a headache. One of the hardest parts of recovery for me have been accepting that I can't smoke until I feel back to normal. I highly agree that it's great for stress; it was for me but now it just makes it worse. Could be different for everybody though. Also, here is an open letter from a Harvard professor to NFL stating they should combat concussions with cannabis: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the...-with-cannabis - he claims cannabis has obvious neuroprotective qualities

I'm ready to give medical marijuana a try. Something with high CBD content. Something has to help my 3.5 year long headache. Botox is the only other thing my docs have to offer and I'm nervous about it. Hopefully MM will offer some relief. I've run out of options.
Starr

Starr,

From what I hear, Canada is really a tough place to find CBD oil without going underground. Maybe this company can help. http://www.cbd-canada.net/

Thanks Mark for the link.

I'm not too worried about finding the oil, I think I'll just give vaping a try with a high CBD strain. I had my appointment with the medical marijuana doc and was approved. Now I just have to wait for the paperwork to go to the licensed producer and then I can place my first order and do it all legally.

Health Canada DID just approve licensed producers to be able to sell cannabis oil, like a week or so ago. The producers aren't quite ready to sell it yet, but soon.
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?...&crtr.tp1D=980

From their statement above:
"As a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision, individuals authorized to possess marijuana under the MMPR and those falling under the terms of a court injunction (for example, Allard injunction) may now possess marijuana derivatives for their own use‎. ‎In order to eliminate uncertainty around a legal source of supply of marijuana, Health Canada has taken the immediate step of issuing a section 56 exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), allowing licensed producers to produce and sell cannabis oil and fresh marijuana buds and leaves in addition to dried marijuana"

Hopefully it will take the edge off my head pain. 3.5 years of constant head pain is a long time to suffer. I'm tired of being woken up at night crying from the pain and feeling nauseous when its so bad.

Starr

Hey Starr,

I see you may be considering Botox. I've done 3 rounds of BotoxA injections, with each injection lasting 3 months. Post injection, you notice some pain reduction after about 1-2 weeks, it steadies and holds over 8 weeks, and then wanes, particularly for the first two injections. I'm set to go for another round this summer and I'm not noticing an efficacy drop like I did previously.

Overall, Botox does afford some pain reduction. For me, however, this was only moderate. The daily headache grind still carried on, though the intensity of my unilateral migraines are more manageable; it had little impact on my global throb or migraines on the top or side of my head. Don't expect it to eliminate your headaches, as we all have learned this is difficult to achieve.

The downside of Botox is that it's expensive ($500-600 CDN/injection interval plus a $200 injection fee by the Neurologist). I'm fortunate to have the BotoxA toxin costs covered, but still have to pay the injection fee for each visit. On that note, you receive 20-30 injections in your temples, forehead, top and sides of your head, and your neck and upper back/neck area. To be blunt, each injections stings quite badly; I hate them.:mad:

If you have any other questions about it, send me a message.

Thanks Micro Man for the Botox info.

Botox was suggested over a year ago for me, but with a lot of cautions from my rehab doc and my neurologist that I may not be the best candidate.

Because my head pain does not behave like a migraine and the fact that I've had the same pain (varying degrees) for 3.5 years, they are not that hopeful.

Plus, every oral drug I've tried has had awful side effects, even drugs I was ok with before my injury, I now can't tolerate. I'm afraid of being stuck with the side effects for however many months Botox stays in your system. That seems like a really big commitment for something that may or may not work.

For now, I'm going with medical marijuana and see if I can get any temporary relief that way. At least if I have bad side effects, they will be gone in about 4 hours. I just placed my order today, so it should be here by Friday or Monday and I can start testing.

Thanks for sharing your botox experience. Its helpful and I haven't ruled it out yet.
Starr

Wish you the best Starr. I hope you see some benefit from mj. It helped me a lot after my first concussion in easing my mind and keeping anxiety at bay. I'm pretty sure it helped me immensely with sleep troubles as well.