Five Mainers who have incited to medical pot for pain relief

Michael Wyllie

Michael Wyllie got into a serious automobile collision in Dec 2011. He was ejected from a vehicle, violation both of his legs next a knees and fracturing his skull.

“I was liberated with hypnotic and oxycodone,” Wyllie said.

That led to about a year of being on several opioids, that he pronounced relieved his pain though done his life miserable. He was constantly dizzy and sweaty, incompetent to eat and sleeping many of a day.

“Entire tools of my day would disappear,” Wyllie said. “I would be sitting on a cot staring during a wall during 10 a.m., and unexpected it would be 6 p.m. and we would still be sitting there, looking during a wall.”

After about a year of being on opioids, Wyllie motionless to scrutinise about medical marijuana.

He was approved as a patient, and in Nov 2012 began a 10-week weaning routine to discharge a opioids.

Wyllie grows his possess pot to save money, regulating several strains depending on his mood and pain levels. He pronounced he vaporizes instead of smoking to strengthen his lungs.

Wyllie also has a cannabis-coconut unguent that he spreads on his knees for pain relief.

A former construction workman who is now on Social Security disability, Wyllie pronounced he feels most better, is some-more clear-headed, has proclivity and can accomplish tasks. His amicable life has improved.

He no longer uses a leg braces he once indispensable to walk.

Wyllie pronounced he medicates 3 to 4 times per day, and while it doesn’t discharge a pain, it creates a pain tolerable.

He pronounced he now has skeleton to rise a 6 acres of skill he owns in Pittsfield, and get his life behind together.

“I have never felt softened about myself,” Wyllie said.

Garrett Guindon

Garrett Guindon, 34, of Saco was prescribed 100 10-milligram doses of Vicodin when he had shingles in 2006.

“I remember meditative we can’t trust they’re giving me all these pills,” pronounced Guindon, a soft-spoken prepare during a nursing home. “I used them immediately. we satisfied since people favourite them. This unequivocally filled a void.”

After recuperating from shingles, Guindon was given prescriptions for Percocet, another opiate, to understanding with pain in his knees from a decade operative as a stonemason. As his physique practiced to a pills and they became reduction effective, he’d buy extras from family members and take as many as 10 15-milligram Percocet a day.

He found himself constantly acid for some-more pills than he could get legally. It was tough to get work, he was capricious and didn’t feel healthy. As his life spun out of control, his mom left with their 3 daughters and filed for divorce.

That was a wakeup call for Guindon, who quit opiates cold turkey and incited to medical marijuana.

“I was unfortunate to change my life and be partial of my family again,” he said.

Guindon was frequently medicating with a whiff – he gets it for about $10 a month during a hospital – when he pennyless his foot. After surgery, he resisted regulating remedy painkillers. Instead, he upped his doses of medical pot and supplemented a tinctures with smoking and edibles when a pain was intense. These days, he’s going to college, practices yoga and is means to be active with his mom and daughters, he said.

“For me, (cannabis) was like a miracle,” pronounced Guindon, who hasn’t used opiates in some-more than 3 years. “My life went from horrible, confused despondency to positive. That’s what cannabis does for me – it gives me a certain opinion on life.”

Michelle Ham

Michelle Ham, 37, harmed herself while relocating apparatus during work in 2010, and was immediately prescribed opioids for a herniated discs in her neck. Surgery was not possible, she said.

“I was holding Vicodin, Percocet, Roxicodone,” Ham said. “I don’t even remember them all.”

At a peak, she was holding 29 pills per day, as prescribed, though a drug cocktail put her into a zombie-like state.

“I was dull for a few years. we would pass out, drooling, sitting in front of a TV,” Ham said. “I don’t even remember really most of those dual years. It’s all so blurry.”

Ham pronounced she quit “cold turkey” and went by terrible withdrawal symptoms. Within a week, she became a competent medical pot patient, and a pot started assisting immediately, she said. A state-licensed caregiver donates a pot to her.

Since 2012, when she started medical marijuana, she pronounced her life has softened dramatically. She takes a remedy 3 times per day by a tincture, and will frequency fume pot if a pain is quite intense.

The medical pot also helps control flesh spasms, she said, that she gets in her neck and hands.

“I have my life behind now,” Ham said.

Corey Cayford

When Corey Cayford took Dilaudid after knee surgery, he felt stuck.

He couldn’t get off a couch, couldn’t do earthy therapy and couldn’t focus. Anxious to rehabilitate his knee and get behind to college, a 23-year-old Army maestro grew sap of a thought of regulating opiates to understanding with pain.

Cayford, who lives in Waldo County and studies culinary humanities during Kennebec Valley Community College, initial harmed his knee while portion in a troops during Fort Irwin in California. Later, on a goal during a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan, Cayford disfigured his knee, causing an damage that prevented him from re-enlisting.

After surgery, Cayford and his mom talked about a drugs his doctors wanted him to take.

“They had so many side effects that were really worrying,” he said. “(My mom) looked during me and she told me, ‘A lot of this could be bound if we get your medical pot license.’ ”

Cayford became a approved medical pot studious about a year ago. He now uses usually medical marijuana, that he grows and creates into a clever form. Cayford pronounced he medicates twice a day regulating a aria that does not give him a “head high.” He infrequently uses a THC unguent on his right knee. Cayford pronounced he is now means to get by his day though most pain and has found that pot also helps him understanding with his post-traumatic highlight disorder.

“When we have a PTSD attack, it floods my mind and that’s a usually thing my mind can squeeze reason of,” he said. “I can step behind and ease down.”

Cayford pronounced medicating with pot has authorised him to concentration on propagandize as he prepares to open a food lorry that will underline grilled cheese and tomato soup. He pronounced his family continues to be understanding of his choice to abandon opiates for marijuana.

“Even my grandmother is meddlesome in removing a (medical pot certification) label now,” he said.

Jon Scott

When Jon Scott initial talked to a crony who was a medical pot patient, a thought of smoking pot to soothe pain “felt unwashed to me.”

Scott, 58, pennyless both of his knees and harmed his behind when he fell off a roof of his residence in 1997 and after had knee deputy surgery. His alloy prescribed 15-milligram Oxycontin pills to assistance with pain.

“I was holding 8 of them a day,” pronounced Scott, who lives in a Lewiston area and is on Social Security disability.

Scott stayed on a clever painkillers for 3 or 4 years. He disturbed about being a aim for burglaries and bristled during a thought of submitting to blood tests and tablet depends notwithstanding not abusing his prescription. He also hated a approach a painkillers influenced his attitude.

“It got to a indicate where we felt like we didn’t wish to be in that environment. we didn’t wish to have a Oxys,” he said. “People didn’t wish to be around me. They were fearful of me.”

Scott became a approved medical pot studious tighten to 5 years ago and grows his possess plants since he can’t means to use a hospital or caregiver. He now uses no other medication, including over-the-counter painkillers.

When Scott has pain in his knees – generally when a continue is bad – he says he can take a few puffs of pot from his vaporizer and understanding with a discomfort. Over a years he has figured out that strains work best for him.

Scott sets aside about $16 any month to cover a cost of his yearly recertification appointment, that is not lonesome by insurance. He’s active on amicable media forums for medical pot patients and tries to offer sound recommendation to new patients who are perplexing to figure it all out.

“You’ve got to do it smart. It’s not recreational marijuana. It’s not only something we do since we wish to feel opposite and have a good time,” he said. “It’s medicine.”

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