By The Blonde Lemonade
Growing up in the 90’s where D.A.R.E. and not giving into peer pressure was encouraged, I always prided myself on being able to find ways to adapt. Most of my life I have had different health struggles to deal with. However, at the age of 14, I had sinus surgery, and after enduring that I knew what my pain tolerance limit was.
While in high school, most of my friends smoked cannabis, I was always that one person who never partook. In 2008, I reached a point where I was starting to get irritated by my knees. They started to get almost sharp like growing pains and my ribs started hurting randomly.
We immediately went to get me looked at leading to a year of getting passed around for tests by doctors. Early on in my senior year, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia by my Rheumatologist. We decided to try medications like Lyrica, but in doing so I was getting extreme side effects, at one point I was on 5 or 6 different pills.
This led us to find out I had a chemical sensitivity meaning my only options were clean eating, start practicing yoga, and a stress-free environment. By this time my body started to get muscle spasms and the pain was considered full body jumping around to random spots.
RELATED: How This Woman Uses Marijuana For Fibromyalgia
My friends and family convinced me after graduation to finally try cannabis. Not being the old, active, energetic person, I decided to give it a try. From that moment on I have been using cannabis daily ever since. At this time though there wasn’t any medical program available so you really didn’t know what strains you smoked or if they would help you or not. To be honest you couldn’t even know if the name they told you was really the name of the strain. I learned to surround myself with trusting people who knew I had medical issues.
By late 2011 during my first semester of senior year, I start to develop a shake in my hand and would sometimes have a seizure-like attack. The attacks left me unable to make it to class after being wiped out of energy, leaving the tough decision to focus on my health and take a break from college.
After seeing my Rheumatologist, she directed me to a Neurologist who diagnosed me with a benign essential tremor informing me I didn’t need anything for it. Around this time, Colorado had just passed medical cannabis and concentrates were starting to show up in my state. I found the concentrates were helping with my shakiness and pain, leading me to dive into the culture of the plant.
The need for access to actual medical cannabis was obvious in late 2014, when my tremor started to not be so benign anymore. A new Neurologist told me in 2015 that there wasn’t anything else we could really do after trying medication which had failed. She suggests moving to the west coast might help, and I did just that. Packed up my stuff and moved back to Colorado, my birth state.
Colorado went great but I found myself busy traveling for work causing me to never actually get my state medical card, it was Recreational by this time. Early 2016 I started to get extreme sinus pain and found out I needed to do a second round of the surgery. On top of this I was starting to get internal spasms causing many issues. At this time, CBD products were starting to hit the dispensaries and I found myself micro-dosing with CBD water daily.
RELATED: I Use Cannabis To Treat My ADHD & ADD (Here’s Why)
My boyfriend convinced me to move to California to get away from Colorado’s bone cold winters. After moving to California, I realized the market was creating new things every day, and I needed to catch up. After living in a place that frowned upon the smell of cannabis, I started to vape concentrates in cartridges more. I realized some didn’t activate my much-needed appetite or help my tremor that much. I started to get sick from my internal spasms shaking my core, this is when I decided to research newer studies on CBD.
Since moving to California, I found that full spectrum oils help my body the best all-around and were more guaranteed to work medically. For my internal spasms and tremor I have found a 1:3 ratio CBD : THC tincture is great since I have a higher tolerance.
After loving the tinctures, I got the Papa and Barkley’s capsules. Ever since I have been taking the capsules my IBS problems; since I was 14, are getting better and I don’t get shaky anymore. Even the “fibro fog” effect goes away for a while. If I forget to take the capsule, I feel it within 12 hours after the last dose due to my core and organs starting to vibrate. It is mind blowing how much taking a CBD:THC ratio orally can do.
Over time I have found some of my favorite stains as well. Birthday Cake, Gelato, GSC (Girl Scout Cookies), and Wedding Cake are some of my favorite appetite strains. For fibromyalgia and chronic pain GSC, OG Kush or most of the OG strains seem to help me, Granddaddy Purple, and Pennywise (Harlequin Lineage). I have started keeping track of what strains that work and what don’t.
Since discovering and medicating with this plant I have learned how to actually cook and develop a relationship with food, learned yoga, started creating photography, and more.
Today I continue to medicate daily, eat a clean farm-based diet, practice restorative slow yoga, and listen to music daily! Knowing that CBD and cannabis is helping my life in so many ways. I decided to start being open about my advocacy and vocal about how much good can come from one plant.
For Essential Tremor I wanted to raise awareness since the condition’s onset is usually in the population of 40’s and over with a slow progression rate leaving our elderly population primarily effected by this condition. Being 27 years old and being able to figure out ways to live and function, I felt it was some needed information to share. I hope this can help others.
RELATED: Why I Moved To Another State To Use Cannabis For Health & Wellness
The Blonde Lemonade is a cannabis advocate who uses marijuana to treat her Essential Tremor And Fibromyalgia. You can find out more about her journey by visiting her Weed Tube channel or following her on Instagram .