“I am a 24-year-old male with Cerebral Palsy, and I believe certain properties of the cannabis plant help with spasticity, but I would like to do more research having to do with the brain, specifically the brains of people with CP. Unless we remove marijuana from the Schedule 1 Controlled Substance list, we cannot do this research effectively.”
You can help too, sign the petition today!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIvCoyHIYOA]
Ezra’s story is an incredible one, to say the least. This little boy has been through more than most adults will ever imagine in a lifetime. Ezra suffers from a variety of different conditions starting with seizures from a rare disorder called Lennox Gastaut Syndrome (LGS). He also has dystonia, chronic pain, muscle spasms, chronically dislocated hips, osteopenia, bilateral amblyopia, scoliosis, possible metabolic disorder, gastroparesis, GERD, and multiple food allergies.
His seizure disorder began just a few days after birth and the subsequent conditions are the result of a variety of reactions over time. Ezra has undergone many surgeries including a feeding tube placement when he was only 2 years old. During that time samples were taken from his liver, thigh muscle, and skin to test for a mitochondrial disorder.
Over the years, Ezra has been on more than 40 different prescription drugs ranging from seizure medications to heavy duty pain medications such as fentanyl patches, morphine, ketamine, muscle relaxers, and the list goes on.
For such a young, fragile body how could any of these pharmaceuticals be a healthy option? His organs were failing from all of the harsh and toxic chemicals. His family knew it was time for a change.
Like many families in this Raise the Realm project, Ezra’s family moved to Colorado Springs in July 2013 from Boiling Springs, South Carolina to get safe and legal access to medical cannabis. Ezra’s mom says, “It was a no-brainer to try a natural healing route to allow his body to learn to function and thrive as God intended.”
Since 2013, Ezra has definitely been thriving from cannabis therapies! He uses cannabis oil made with a combination of high THC and low CBD and this has given him a 90% reduction in seizures. Wait, there is more because Ezra’s list of benefits continues to grow each day. Cannabis also keeps his chronic pain manageable, is improving his bone density, healing his gut and minimizing his reflux, improving his vision, and reducing his muscle spasms by 98%.
This medicine is providing amazing mental clarity allowing Ezra to express himself with the use of an eye gaze communication device. He continues to learn several concepts which correlate to those of his peers. He has been able to develop a system of communication with his family members when a communication device is not available. Eye contact, smiling, and nonverbal communication are things that were not possible before cannabis therapy. When we asked Ezra’s mom, Marisa, does she have anything to add? “Cannabis is lifesaving medicine!” she exclaims.
Ezra uses a combination of THC and CBD oil, cannabis leaf juice, rosin, rescue vaping or nasal spray, and homemade topicals. It took a couple of years to find the perfect concoction, but Ezra is doing better than ever. He continues to grow and develop and his body is healing after the use of the pharmaceuticals. At one point he was in hospice care, and now he exudes radiant health!
Ezra is age 6, his older brother Noah age 9, Odin is 2 and baby girl Selah age 7 months.
At the urging of my oldest daughter, I purchased Charlotte’s Web 1 oz, 200mg bottle of hemp oil. When I was 28 (1988), I came down with CFIDS/Fibromyalgia. The first 7 years I was bedridden. I slowly improved, but I’ve never enjoyed good health since then. I stopped driving about 5-6 years ago due to severe brain fog. Bodily pain varies; what afflicted me most has been frequent migraines, severe fatigue, a definite feeling of malaise, light and sound sensitivity (so bad I had to quit going to church and other functions); the list goes on and on. Due to some swelling, I couldn’t walk from the pain for over 2 years. On ‘good days’ I’d try to go for nightly walks but usually had to turn back after just walking past 3 or 4 houses. It wasn’t fun; living in the dark and trying to find fulfillment doing basically nothing. I started taking the hemp oil six days ago: half a dropper full twice daily. I cannot even begin to tell you the improvement I’ve seen in that short time!! I feel mentally alert again. I no longer have that deathly morbid fatigue. My mood is …dare I say it… almost happy! Things that I had to force myself to do I now do naturally and without thought. And best of all….I have taken 1 mile walks every day since taking it with absolutely no problem!!!!! Smiling, no pain, no fatigue, for the first time in many years!! No way could any placebo effect cause this. I have tried so many things with sometimes disastrous results, and to tell the truth, had resigned myself to a lifetime of misery…It is awesome feeling like my old self after over 28 years.
“My son who is nine with Autism has been taking your oil for three weeks now. The results have been amazing. Thank you for giving us back our life. Especially HIS.”
-Debra and Wesley
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y1oF5QzGkg]
Listen to Breaking Ground with the Stanley Brothers debut episode with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. With the Stanley Brothers, Sanjay talks cannabis, the opioid crisis, why whole plant medicine matters, and a bold letter he wrote to Jeff Sessions and the Trump Administration. Listen here: bit.ly/BGwSB
Hyrum used to have 15 or more seizures a day. Doctors tried more than 10 pharmaceuticals to try to get them to stop. Sometimes he was on up to 6 meds at a time, that made little difference to his seizure control. We were at a dead end. We just had to live with watching him seize multiple times a day, every day.
In October 2014, Hyrum had so many back to back seizures that he had to be placed in an induced coma to give his brain some rest before it just completely shut down. He was in the hospital for 3 months.
That’s when Hyrum’s mom decided enough was enough. She consulted with Hyrum’s neurologist and he helped her with information and dosing of CBD oil.
Today, Hyrum has only had 2 seizures in 3 years. He has been weened off most of his pharmaceutical drugs and he has come a long way from being so lethargic from the combination of medicines and uncontrollable seizures that he couldn’t hold his head on his own or stay awake for more than 2 hours at a time. Today Hyrum rarely takes naps and is happy, attentive, and very socially interactive. He is learning how to use a communication tablet and enjoys going to school.
To many, this is just a kid on a bike. Simple, right?
I can remember a boy who used to be terrified to leave the house, who couldn’t go to the bathroom by himself, had fits of rage and had so many seizures every day that he couldn’t finish a sentence. I can remember the day he decided to get on a swing. It was just one week after we started to use CBD. It was like meeting our kid for the first time. Just playing a game or drawing a straight line at 7 yrs old was impossible. It devastates parents and families as well…deeply.
The start of this young man’s life has been very difficult to put it lightly. Although he still deals with some of these things on a much smaller level, he now gets to feel like a normal kid.
I was just standing at the end of the street today, waiting for him to ride back when it hit me. I was overcome with gratitude for so many reasons. But mostly I just wanted to share what I now am certain of. CBD and many medical cannabis-based medicines change lives. It’s hard to impress upon you just how much I mean.
Devin used to drool and wear a helmet because he was on so many drugs that didn’t work. It made him so much worse.
Look at him! It’s not a miracle. It’s ignorance and stigma lifted off of our medical world. It’s beautiful.
https://www.nbcnews.com/widget/video-embed/1237046851647
Technical issue with the audio. Link to full video here: https://bit.ly/2J5BHfk
“I saw life….” Watch as Former NFL Player, Eugene Monroe, describes his visit to Realm of Caring headquarters in Colorado Springs in his recent interview with Dateline NBC and their feature story “Growing Hope”.
I have been diagnosed with PPPD (Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness), PTSD, high blood pressure, Diabetes Type 2, and high LDL and Triglycerides. I have lived with migraines and severe dizziness 24/7 since 2011 and have suffered from the migraines as long as 2005. I was prescribed twelve different antidepressants and antipsychotics and they all made me extremely suicidal and depressed. I was out of ideas and was ready to call it quits.
My doctor, neurologist, and two psychiatrists recommended I check out CBD oil for help. I started doing research and about 2 months went by before I tried contacting Realm of Caring. They were very friendly and helpful through the entire process of me asking questions, etc. After about 2 months on Charlotte’s Web Everyday Advanced CBD Oil, I began to realize that my horrible thoughts were going away. I have been on CBD since July of this year and can now laugh again and have almost zero thoughts of suicide anymore. For someone who lived with the thoughts every single day of his life since he was very little, this is a wonderful change. My blood pressure checks out perfect every time I visit the doctor now. My blood sugars are easier to control.
The only things left that I struggle with the high LDL/Triglycerides and the dizziness, which is extremely bad, but that’s MUCH better than where I was just a few months ago. It’s been worth it to me and my family and friends. I’m so glad that I decided to give this a try!
I am undiagnosed. I have been fighting epilepsy, apparently, my whole life. I believe I have Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which makes my story… interesting. I have had identified, undiagnosed “episodes” for 21 years. The impact these episodes have had on my life is only now beginning to be understood, even be myself.
Just over a month ago I was housebound, having been on disability from my job for just over a year. Being a chemical engineer at a DoE nuclear processing facility, I was subject to random drug testing, for which a positive result would likely result in termination and difficulty finding future employment. I had never been released from a job for any reason. Now, I was living in a housebound state, barely able to hold a coherent conversation, an emotional wreck, hopeless, confused and prepared to accept that I would die soon. My breathing would become labored, body systems were losing their ability to regulate, I could not walk, my voiding was nearly uncontrollable, I could no longer read even with glasses, and had no energy to play with my dogs or assist in keeping the house up.
I finally had reached a point where the quality of my life was such that I had to change something or I would consider the alternative to living a life so seemingly empty and void, a burden to those around you, never quite being the person I knew I was, or even a person my family could tolerate. My wife is my love and heart. She convinced me to try cannabis one day. I did and it is turning my life upside down, this time in a very good way.
The changes I have experienced are phenomenal. Often, the changes are frightening, often exciting, and other times bewildering. I believe I am regaining access to neural networks that have been inaccessible for years, or decades. I have access to memories and all associated personality, feelings and emotions, that are tied to those memories. My processing capacity seems higher. My vision is not just normal, but 20/15 at worst. My memory is fantastic and my ability to function at a high level emotionally and intellectually is beyond what I have ever thought I could experience. My agility and coordination are better than I can ever recall. I am losing weight, having weighed 234 pounds a year ago and less than 200 pounds today. I am a different person than I was. I can love and feel like I never knew possible. I do not know what the future holds, but God has this. THC has given me myself, a person buried under decades of seizures.
-Richard
