When Rebecca Tennison walked into my office one afternoon, I saw a very ill woman, completely closed in on herself, sad and lacking in any vitality. She looked like a wilted flower. She told me she felt like she was dying. I assured her that many patients with serious illness had improvements in well being after using cannabis medicine. Given she was wracked with pain, it hurt to do anything and her multiple surgeries and illnesses had left her body a wreck, Rebecca believed she had nothing to lose in trying cannabis.
Rebecca thought she was beginning a new life after an abusive marriage when she enrolled in college and began work on her Associate’s degree in 2005. She was 31 years old, made the honor’s list each quarter, was balancing a new marriage and children and felt her growing knowledge and comprehension were immaculate. Toward the end of receiving her degree, she noticed her memory wasn’t as sharp as it had been and that she couldn’t comprehend new information. At night, she couldn’t sleep and within months had become a severe insomniac. She began having night terrors, seeing and hearing things that were not there. She was referred to a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with both depression and anxiety and gave her medication. When her symptoms worsened, she was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and was considered a candidate for institutionalization.
Rebecca and her family struggled for nearly 10 years with her worsening symptoms and the side effects of medications, as well as continued misdiagnoses. She gained a considerable amount of weight, couldn’t tolerate touch because of near-constant pain, was unable to walk and needed a breathing treatment several times a day. She was ultimately diagnosed with lupus, fibromyalgia, a rare degenerative bone disease and a malformation of her hypothalamus. Prescribed more medications with debilitating side effects that included incontinence, lethargy and worsening insomnia, Rebecca decided she’d had enough and would rather die.
By this time, Rebecca had begun to hear stories about cannabis. A Mormon, Rebecca had been raised with the belief that one shouldn’t ingest impurities and cannabis was certainly frowned upon as a bad drug. After learning about CBD and THC and different ways to use cannabis as medicine during that first visit with me, she began medicating with a sublingual CBD spray in a CBD:THC ratio of 18:1, using it first thing in the morning before getting out of bed and then at lunchtime. At night, she uses a spray that contains CBD:THC ratio of 1:1 to help with sleep in addition to helping with the pain.
The effects were nothing short of miraculous for Rebecca. While physical activity is still limited, she can walk again comfortably. She has energy for activities with her children. She can clean a stove, wash dishes and participate in game nights with her family. She was able to stop all pharmaceuticals. Most extraordinarily, she sleeps at night and her extreme mood swings have lessened. While her memory isn’t 100%, she is now able to retain new information and has enrolled in a program to become licensed as a financial adviser in the insurance industry. Because her memory and comprehension have improved so dramatically, she is determined to pass the exam and get on with her life.
Recently, Rebecca came back to see me for a follow-up visit. She walked in, her head high, a big smile on her face, her whole appearance so changed that even her energy level was palpable. No longer wilted, she appeared to me like a flower reaching toward the sun. Rebecca believes herself to be a walking testimony to the power of cannabis treatment. When I asked her how she feels about the change in her life, she said, “I can walk, drive, talk and think. I’m alive. I’m still around to see my kids”.