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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

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Client Spotlight

Client Spotlight: Taylor

Submitted by his mom, Stacey,

This young man has lived his entire life plagued by epilepsy since he was born and will continue to do so for the rest of his life. But this is not just any epilepsy, It’s UNCONTROLLED EPILEPSY, among other medical issues. Being born one month premature set the stage for so many of his issues, including epilepsy, Autism, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety, both generalized & social. He has a learning disability. He has spent more of his life in doctors offices & hospitals & asleep recovering from seizures, then he has normal activities. He is special needs due to all these issues combined. He will probably never be able to live on his own due to all this and his disabilities. This disease & medical problems, being born premature & just never having a normal life due to them has deprived him of the ability to learn and retain even basic life/ living skills. We are his advocates.

So with a lot of research & a recommendation from two of his doctors, we began using nonconventional medical treatments/therapy to treat Taylor’s epilepsy and other issues. It’s proven thus far to help, and better than what was previously being used which caused him more harm than good. Great to find an alternative therapy and medical treatments to work in his favor, but the expenses of his medical treatment are a downfall. We cannot afford it, and none of it is covered by his insurance. We struggle financially to make things work for him. He has been through so many medications (seizure meds), that he ran out of options. Meds had begun to start to show signs of making his insides “angry.” Liver tests come back abnormal in areas they shouldn’t and so he’s having to be weaned off meds and is undergoing this special treatment to address his medical problems to help control his epilepsy. The nonconventional methods have been of some help to him and more so then the medications, without damaging his internal organs.

NONE of this is covered by insurance, and so we are drowning and killing ourselves trying to afford this form of treatment, to keep him healthy and seizure free. It’s his only option at this point. We need help with these medical expenses and therapies! He’s a fighter and we continue this battle every day, without CBD oil Taylor probably wouldn’t be with us. He fights with all his might. Please like and follow his page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/taylorsfight4anormallife