Four years ago, I picked up my teenage son from a football game he had played in and the first thing he said to me was “My head is killing me.” I had ibuprofen and Tylenol in the car so I had him take two Tylenol and we went home. He showered, ate, and went to sleep for the night.
At 3 am he was in my room crying, and grabbing both sides of his head, saying “it hurts so bad!” Twelve hours later he had been evaluated by a Sports Medicine doctor and was in the ER awaiting a CT. His diagnosis was a concussion and I was just thankful it wasn’t a brain bleed. We were given concussion discharge instructions and told it should resolve within a few days. It didn’t. Four weeks later he was continuing his speech and physical therapy, and under the care of a psychologist and a neurologist, being prescribed migraine and anti-depressant medications.
It was the worst time of my life to see my son suffer so much and honestly to see him change overnight. He became aggressive, suicidal, and there were two occasions I found him in unconscious in unusual places and he had no idea how he got there. He just remembered feeling dizzy.
I left my full-time job and we battled Post-Concussion Syndrome for over a year. He saw the best specialists in Kansas City and eventually his dizziness, nausea and vomiting became less frequent, but we just couldn’t find anything to help with the migraines and severe depression. That was until he started consuming marijuana on a regular basis. As a parent I had many concerns, but I could see it was working.
I no longer had to get his migraine meds refilled and he wasn’t punching holes in the wall. He showed me studies and we discussed it with his doctors. They told us that if it was helping, then to keep doing it. Four years later, I have my son back. He’s happy and cheerful and I don’t have to worry about the late night calls I would get from him telling me he wanted to die.
In the last four years I have read anything and everything I can get my hands on regarding the medical use of cannabis. Working as an RN for 15 years now, I cannot believe it’s taken so long for patients to legally consume the only thing that often gives them hope.
I am scared to think about what would have happened to my son if he didn’t find cannabis. I truly believe it saved his life.
