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Raise the Realm Day 3: Fernanda- Autoimmune

En Español

(Read in English Here)

Mi nombre es Fernanda y vivo en Argentina, tengo 6 hijos y 3 nietos. Padezco desde hace 15 años de fibromialgia y desde hace 7 años neuralgia del trigémino. Llamado también dolor suicida. Ambas enfermedades no son mortales ni terminales pero tan dolorosas que pueden afectar terriblemente la vida.

La neuralgia del trigémino comenzó con una pequeña electricidad en la cara en forma esporádica y luego de ser diagnosticada y medicada, avanzó año a año, como así la cantidad de medicaciones o tratamientos realizados, alopáticos, homeopáticos, acupuntura etc, sin ningún resultado. El año pasado las crisis eran tan fuertes que el mas mínimo pestañeo, respirar, comer o cualquier rose, me provocaban descargas eléctricas insoportables. Estaba terminando una carrera después de 4 años que realicé con mucho sacrificio y veía que con el dolor lacerante que avanzaba no iba a poder terminarla.

Entre otras consecuencias de esta enfermedad, puedo mencionar el aislamiento, la tristeza, el terror por realizar tareas simples como cepillarme los dientes, o tan esenciales como dar un beso a mis seres queridos. Mi familia me sostenía y acompañaba con mucho amor, y sufrían impotentes por no poder hacer nada y ver mi sufrimiento. En octubre del 2016 saque turno con mi medica decidida a operarme, a pesar de la resistencia de ella debido a los serios riesgos de la operación y sus posibles secuelas. Una semana antes del turno con mi neuróloga escuche en la radio sobre el tratamiento con el aceite medicinal de cannabis y me contacte con el padre de una niña con epilepsia refractaria y que gracias al tratamiento había disminuido las 54 convulsiones diarias a ninguna.

Así que en octubre comencé con el aval de los prestigiosos médicos que me estaban tratando el tratamiento con Charlotte`s Web, y a los 15 días el dolor había disminuido al 60 % comencé a poder sonreír, hablar sin miedo, comer normalmente, dormir. Hace ya 6 meses que estoy con este nuevo tratamiento la neuralgia me disminuyo totalmente y los médicos están muy sorprendidos y contentos de los avances y la eficacia. Pude terminar mi carrera, reincorporarme a la vida social, besar a mis seres queridos y sonreír. Mis seres queridos también sonríen.

Tengo la esperanza de que el aceite medicinal puede ser la respuesta a tantas enfermedades incurables o llevar paz y alivio a las personas que las padecen y sus seres queridos.

In English

My name is Fernanda, I live in Argentina and I have 6 kids and 3 grandchildren. I was diagnosed 15 years ago with Fibromyalgia and 7 years ago with Trigeminal Neuralgia also called “Suicide Pain”. Both diseases are not mortal nor terminal, but they are so painful, they affect your life terribly.

My Trigeminal Neuralgia started with a little tingle electricity like sensation sporadically and then it turned into a diagnosis. After being medicated, every year, it got worse as the number of medications increased. I did allopathic, homeopathic and acupuncture treatments with no results. Last year, my crisis were so strong that I could not blink, breath, eat or touch anything without having an electric charge that caused me unbelievable pain. I was about to finish my degree, but the pain did not permit me to finish.

Another consequence of this terrible disease is that it made me lonely, sad and I was terrified to brush my teeth or to kiss my loved ones. My family was supporting me, but they were suffering because they could not help me. In October 2016, I went to schedule a surgery with my Doctor who was against it due to the risk and side effects of the surgery. A week before my appointment with my doctor, I heard about CBD on the radio and I contacted the father of a child whose daughter was using the oil and went from having 54 seizures a day to none.

So, I started Charlotte’s Web with the help of my doctors and 15 days after taking Charlotte’s Web Hemp Extract, my pain had reduced 60%! I started smiling, talking without fear of pain, eating and sleeping. Today, 6 months later after using Charlotte’s Web, my neuralgia is completely out. The Doctors are very surprised about the efficacy of the oil. I could finish my degree, I went back to having a social life, kiss my loved ones and smile. My family is smiling as well.

I hope that this oil could be the answer to so many incurable diseases and that it will bring peace and alleviate all those people who suffer and their families.

Fernanda

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Events

Raise the Realm Day 7: Kendell- PTSD

I was a Loadmaster on a MC-130P Combat Shadow during the Tsunami Relief Effort in 2004/2005, seeing mass devastation, and unworldly damage. My world was changed just a few months later when I sustained a dislocated and fractured right leg, and Traumatic Brain Injury. I went through the VA gambit, twice tasting the working end of loaded firearm before I finally decided to quit all medications until I found a better alternative. Sleeping medications, anti-depressants, anti-this and anti-that; I knew I couldn’t continue that pace for long. After speaking with family, friends, and fellow veterans, I decided to try cannabis for the very first time on my 28th birthday with some of the most loving people I have in my life. The benefits I see not only help with my PTSD, but also positively benefit my physical health, physical abilities and day-to-day cognitive function.

Since my introduction in 2012, I’ve competed in 4 Warrior Games, and traveled with MSI Mining to install gold mining equipment around the world, and served as the Director of West Coast Operations for the Road Warrior Foundation- providing Adventure Therapy to our military veterans. No other medication in my life has helped me more than Cannabis and CBD. I hope to continue to show the benefits of this organic option as time goes on.

Kendell

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Events

Raise the Realm Day 1: Ayden- Cerebral Palsy

Our four-year-old son, Ayden, was born fourteen weeks premature suffering a grade four intraventricular hemorrhage. Along with this brain bleed, he suffered a myriad of issues, which compounded the severity of injury. Shortly after Ayden’s first birthday we started noticing abnormal eye, arm, and leg movements. Given the circumstance, we knew he would have developmental delay. However, we soon learned that these abnormal movements were in fact catastrophic seizures further regressing his development. It was at the age of 18 months that he was diagnosed with both spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and infantile spasms, an epileptic syndrome characterized by an EEG pattern termed hypsarrhythmia. This hypsarrhythmia is essentially a chaotic and disorganized pattern of brain activity that is, in Ayden’s case, an expression of brain injury.

Initially, it was uncommon for Ayden to go even an hour without seizure activity. After failing countless pharmaceuticals that only left him with long lasting side effects, we began exploring cannabinoid therapy. Thanks to the Realm of Caring, we found an amazing level of knowledge and support. As soon as we started CBD oil, we noticed a significant decrease in seizures. We also began getting eye contact and even his first belly laugh! It was on the EEG following CBD treatment that our neurologist found he no longer had the hypsarrhythmia.

Though this has improved, Ayden still must cope with the painful debility associated with his muscle spasticity. This exaggerated muscle tone effects all four of his extremities and significantly impairs his daily functioning. Unfortunately, treatment requires more than just CBD, and that is something we do not have access to in our state. If we fail to relieve his spasticity, we face the real possibility of Ayden needing invasive orthopedic and neurosurgery. Contractures, scoliosis and hip dislocation are the most common conditions requiring corrective surgery. Surgeries like selective dorsal rhizotomy, tendon lengthening or transfer, osteotomy and limb reconstruction are some of the most painful surgeries to endure. Imagine your body uncontrollably contorting and being “stuck” in painful positions and instead of being overly sedated from pharmaceuticals, getting relief from cannabis and actually being able to make developmental progress. We know cannabis can help with this as we have traveled to try this for him. Not only does it provide physical relief, but cognitive improvement as well. Ayden is non verbal. The month we tried cannabis, he said “Mom” for the first time. That same day while waiting on an elevator, he looked at a stranger, lifted his head off my shoulder, and said “Hi” to her. This is the relief we see when Ayden can try cannabis. We are fighting tirelessly to have access in our state so Ayden can have that 24/7.

Ayden

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: May

She was diagnosed with Generalized Idiopathic Epilepsy at the young age of 4. When we first started Charlotte’s Web, she was having approximately 6 episodes a day of varying seizures. She was not responding to various pharmaceuticals with full control; they all affected her personality, as well as the seizures, turned her into a different person.

I am thrilled to say we are approaching a full year since a tonic or tonic-clonic seizure!! We just went for an extended EEG to see if her smaller ones that are harder to detect are still occurring. We were accepted into the Realm Cares Financial Aid program but we already know this is going to have a huge impact for us.

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Stories

Man With Cerebral Palsy On A Mission

“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!

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Wesley

“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=z74bwojdDzI]
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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Devin

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.

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Richard

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

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Eli

Our son, Eli, was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 5. He is currently 15 years old. He has had fine motor and developmental delays since he was born. He never had complete seizure control. When he approached adolescence, his seizures increased dramatically to at least one per week. We had difficulty controlling his seizures and his behavior became more and more erratic with the increased anti- seizure medications and frequent seizures. After more testing, we found out last year that he has a genetic disorder, which was helpful to explain many of the symptoms he has had, but upsetting because we knew the seizures would not be outgrown.

We had been following the Charlotte Figi story, and once we were aware that the hemp oil was available to ship, we decided to try it for our son. He started taking the hemp oil supplement last July, and he has been seizure free ever since! We are so thankful! He still takes an anti- seizure medication and has a VNS, but he has now been seizure free for 10 months (longest since initially diagnosed)! He has been taking the Everyday supplement.

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Stacey

I started having episodes, as they were called back then (now known as seizures), back when I was in elementary school. I’m now 40 years old and still have epilepsy. It’s a constant fight and stalker in my life, but CBD oil has given me some hope. It works far better than any of my seizure medications ever have.

At my age I have completely depleted all my options, so I am reliant on CBD oil to keep the seizures at bay and give me hope for the rest of my future, so I can be around and be functional to care for my family and be here for all the family moments and moments with grandchildren. I wouldn’t go a single day without my CBD oil. It truly does help. No side effects, that’s good too!

-Stacey