I don't know if a topic like this is allowed, but I am curious about how people (preferably AVMers) feel about smoking marijuana with an AVM or after a stroke/bleed and/or craniotomy/other treatment.
I have never officially researched it but I've done simple searches and found SO many different opinions and types of research done, all with varying results, that I simply gave up the search.
I know there's a following on the idea that smoking pot decreases the chance of seizures and helps with migraines. I don't know if that is true, I had smoked the night of my seizure but wasn't high when I had the seizure and I can't smoke at all if I have a migraine.
I also know that smoking cigarettes doubles recovery time of a TBI, including brain surgery, but I don't know if that's the same with pot. I quit cigarettes easily and haven't had one since the day before my bleed. I had no hospital privileges for the first few weeks so I wasn't allowed outside of the rehab wing. When I got privileges, I couldn't leave the hospital campus, no smoking on hospital campus, so it was easy to quit, haven't had one since. Because I was pregnant I wasn't smoking pot anyway. After I had the baby I had started the whole emotional part of having a baby (PPD) so....I smoked. I wasn't breastfeeding, it was outside of my house, so I'd appreciate no one judging me.
It helped with my mood swings right away. So, I admittedly self-medicate when absolutely necessary. I can't afford (even with a county card which is $5 every DR visit, $5 every prescription) to see my reg Dr. for a referral for counselling for him to give me a prescription with more side-effects and cost than pot will ever cause me.
So, obviously, I'm pro-decriminalization of marijuana.
I was just wondering what or how other people feel about smoking pot. I talked to my neuro about it and he decided NOT to provide me with his opinion. I believe he may be indifferent to the effects of smoking pot, at least that was my reading of his shrug and "do you get stoned?" which the answer is no, I don't get stoned. I have 2 kids, like I can afford that! Like I said, it helps me keep calm when I feel like ripping heads off or crying in a corner. And I have been asked, "don't heroine addicts and other junkies have the same excuses?" I don't have an answer for that, I'm not a junkie. But how is being dependent on pot for emotional stability any different or worse from becoming dependent on something like Xanax that pretty much dopes me out or another pill that causes worsening depression or cancer or brown anal leakage?
I'd like some honest opinions without anyone lecturing me. I know some people are very strongly against smoking pot, some are indifferent and some are so pro-marijuana they are annoying.
I was hoping this would come up eventually. I self-medicate, not alot, but I do when I wake up and in the evening after dinner. I have for many, many years. It's the only thing that I haven't been allergic to, or that has never landed me in the hospital. And all of my doctor's know I do. None of the told me to not stop and I had two neuros specifically tell me, "I recommend you not stop." I actually repeated it back to the first doctor to make sure I was hearing her correctly. And she repeated it back to me the way I just typed it to you.
The day of my seizure, I didn't have the time to self-medicate in the morning, imagine that. It is well known in the medical community that marijuana does significantly reduce seizures, if not stop them completely. There have been many studies done by reputable colleges around the country. I would provide links to these studies if I had the time right now. The only thing holding it back from being released as one of the biggest "miracle drugs" for seizure patients, is the people voting against medical marijuana. Yet another medical miracle this plant can provide for the medical community. People see this plant as another drug for the drug addicts and it isn't. IT can be used for so many patients in the medical community, yet we keep prescribing drugs like Keppra and Topomax and Phenobarbital, that are doing more harm than good...meanwhile marijuana has killed or harmed 0 people ever. Go figure. I'd rather smoke this than take Topomax and feel pins and needles all over me, like I'm a zombie, or like I want to sleep all day.
I wouldn’t Judge you, there is no judging on this website!!! I’ve tried to follow the discussions here about marijuana but it is so confusing that I just gave up. I’m lucky that the only medicine I take is 5 mg of blood pressure pills. I should take cholesterol medicine but I am of the belief that the cholesterol meds will kill me before the cholesterol does. My kids age(age 21&23), say I need Xanex but that is just their opinion. I think marijuana would have less side effects than anti-seizure medicine. However, I live in a place where I pass by at least 2 cops a day who would love to arrest me and gleefully plaster my mug shot in the newspaper. I won’t give them that pleasure!! I hope you get some good responses to this posting.
If it helps you, you should be able to do it freely in the comfort of your home. This is such a controversial topic, some people believe all drugs are evil, but then they go smoke a cigarette or have a coffee in the morning or an alcoholic drink at night. Those are drugs too. I think alcohol is worse than marijuana and causes many more deaths and tragedies and breaks up families and destroys lives, yet it is perfectly legal to consume.
I had a prescription for pot after my AVM surgery and I was glad I had it and safe legal access to purchase it. It helped me out after the surgery for a few months. But after a while, the effects were no longer beneficial to me, my heart started racing and I felt like I was going to die. That is not good. But I had the ability to determine that for myself, as people in a "free" country should be able to do.
i'm a daily marijuana smoker. haven't stopped smoking since the incident but i do try to vaporize more often.
All of my Dr's know that I smoke when i need to, I told them i'm a "casual" smoker. When I had the stroke, the doctors were only concerned about 2 of my habits: smoking cigs and my "hardcore gaming." But since I quit smoking and I never got the use of my left hand back....Black Ops has been traded in :(,they are 2 things that no longer matter. No doctor suggested I keep smoking but no doctor recommended I stop either. No doctor lectured me about risks and dangers and no doctor warned me about possible bad side effects. But I got those warnings and lectures when it came to the keppra and muscle relaxers and anti-depressants I was suggested to "consider."
I was just wondering if anyone's Dr. had told them NOT to smoke pot. Or if it had been recommended to anyone to smoke to alleviate certain pressures or headaches/migraines, or emotional conditions or other residual effects left from their bleeds or surgeries/treatments.
Doctor's are not allowed to give out that kind of advice in states where medical marijuana is not legal. They could lose their medical license. The neuro's who told me to not stop smoking said it to me in a very low voice, one-on-one in my hospital room during eeg/angio's. None of my doctor's ever told told me to stop, or advised me that it would interact with any of my medications, or my conditions, nothing. They never cautioned me about my smoking at all. No concerns whatsoever.
A simple Google search will bring up plenty of reputable medical reports from various colleges and medical studies where you can learn alot about how it has already helped many patients with all of the above. I'm not sure if it helps with residual effects with bleeds though :)
I was diagnosed with an AVM when I was 20 years old and very active in a college/party lifestyle. "Self-medicate" would not be accurate to describe me - I was just a party person. In indulged before I was diagnosed and after I recovered from surgery, but stayed sober for that time in between. Well, I put back beers before I was really supposed to. No problems
-Chad
This was discussed a few months ago. As I recall, there were folks on both sides of that discussion.
If you want to read that, go to the upper right, type in marijuana, and the site will bring up the results.
Doubt that it makes much difference, but just to toss it out, since MJ might not be legal in many of the areas that would read this, this site and its owners would offer no endorsement of MJ. (I'm speaking for myself, and not as any official representative of this site).
Ron, KS
So ignorance is bliss there Ron?how do you make it thru?
Kristi - I don't smoke or drink anything that would cause a permanent or temporary "reaction" in my AVM or impair my judgment or reactions to any situation. I also have a number of other medical issues and I use a combination of pain management and prayer. No judgment just my way of dealing with it.
R/Gayle
Never bothered me.
beans
Please forgive. I just had to reply - LOL! I'm a recovering alcoholic/addict and I don't think I would smoke pot if I didn't get high. LOL!