Carmen's story: "It's given me my life back"

Can you tell us about your health and what treatment options you had been prescribed before starting with Releaf?

I suffer from psoriatic arthritis, and I was on two different immune suppressants. 

Since starting on the cannabis, I've knocked one of those out completely. I used to have a permanent pain here between my shoulders, and no matter what I did or took, naproxen, steroid jabs, nothing in the past six years made any difference, and literally within one use of my cannabis vape that pain went, and it's virtually never come back. Nothing ever touched that before, so that's absolutely brilliant. The pain I was in really immobilised me.

Due to my medical issues, I suffer with anxiety and depression, that kind of thing. Within two days, my anxiety level had dropped phenomenally. I used to take 150 milligrams of what I call my ‘mental meds’, antidepressants and stuff, every day, and I've got that down to 50 milligrams now. I've weaned myself slowly down, and it can only be due to the cannabis. I have a gallbladder issue, and again from day one of starting the cannabis, the pain from my gallbladder went, unless I'm really silly and have a full-dairy ice cream or something.

I also have heart issues, and one of my heart medications gives me restless legs, so I can't sleep unless I get up and try to walk about. I have a daytime cannabis and a night-time cannabis, and probably by the third night I noticed a decrease in the restless legs. I'm now sleeping two to three hours at a time, as opposed to half an hour to an hour. So just those four things are amazing , and I'm a lot happier.

I'm now able to go out for a slow walk on the flat without having to take the wheelchair. I do have heart issues as well which affect my walking, but all in all it's unbelievable. 

How responsive have Releaf been when your symptoms change

When I had  a flare-up of my arthritis, a couple of months ago,  I emailed you in the morning, got an appointment in the afternoon, spoke to one of your doctors, and they increased the THC level slightly. Got my delivery a day and a half later, can't complain about that, and that brought the flare-up down again. I email, I get an appointment, they talk to me, we discuss things, and then I get a delivery within two days at a guaranteed time. In fact the chap arrived early once, he was six minutes early, and my husband saw him sitting on the wall, he said he couldn't deliver yet because it had to be the specific time.

One little side effect, I get a dry mouth, but it's not insurmountable. In this weather, I just have another ice lolly and drink more water. It doesn't give me restless legs, doesn't give me any of these things. 

As I say, I've cut one of my immune suppressants down, and that one meant that I couldn't go out in the sun at all, so now I can sit in my garden in the sun, because I've been able to take that out. The cannabis helps the pain and the inflammation, so it's enabled me to drop that one off. 

So I've got fewer side effects than I used to have to deal with from my pharmaceutical meds, nothing from the cannabis but a dry mouth. I really can't complain at all, and I've been recommending it to everybody.

Before starting with Releaf, what was the hardest part of living with your symptoms?

Two things really. 

The pain from my arthritis, that all the meds I'm on didn't work on, this pain here. That's why I went on it, because of my arthritis. But I think, to be honest, the mental side of it, and if you're feeling better mentally, then everything feels better. My arthritis will improve because stress causes inflammation, doesn't it? 

The other was the mental toll the pain used to take. I was very up and down, quite often feeling angry with the world. Anxiety and depression were often in the background. 

But I'm not angry any more. I used to get angry so often, I think that's just stress and fatigue and pain, but I don't any more.

So it's helped everything, but I think the mental health, that I didn't even come for, is actually the best. If I do overdo things I'd still get the ache from my arthritis, I do, but it's nowhere near as bad. It's just, “Oh, you've done that, don't do that again, have a rest, whatever, have a puff”, and then I'm okay.

How did you find the sign-up process and your first consultation with Releaf?

Very easy. I'd done quite a bit of research, and I went with Releaf for two reasons. One, you can go through the NHS app to log in and join and everything, and to me that shows its trustworthy because there are scams out there.

The other thing I really liked is the card, so that if I go out and get stopped because people can smell cannabis or whatever, I've got that card, and that's really big for my peace of mind. Thankfully, I haven't had to use the medical cannabis card yet, but having it in my wallet really helps with my anxiety, especially around driving because anything could happen at any time.

So I did a lot of research, decided on yours, and clicked on the Releaf medical cannabis eligibility checker. It took all of 30 seconds, maybe less. Once I answered the three questions, I got the all clear to continue, and was prompted to set up an account and book in for my initial video appointment. 

I chose one about four or five days later because I was a bit nervous and wasn't sure. That went really well! I had an appointment with one of your doctors, very friendly and helpful. I asked lots of questions, and he asked me lots of questions, and we talked about what I needed. Then he did a prescription, and I ordered a kit off you with everything in it, and within a few days my card arrived, and then the kit and my prescribed cannabis arrived, all really, really easy. 

How have you found the ongoing care and delivery?

I had my first follow-up consultation a month after my initial appointment. Just as good as the first, the clinical team are fantastic. 

Then, as I mentioned earlier, I had an arthritis flare-up. 

But instead of taking paracetamol or anything, I emailed Releaf, and the same afternoon I got an appointment, and my prescription was increased and shipped. So everything is really easy. 

I'm not good with computers or any of this, I'm on the older side of computers, but everything was just so easy to do, and above board, it's always that NHS bit that gets me. It's above board, and I know if somebody reports they can smell cannabis, or somebody ever says anything, that it's above board. I can't complain about anything from the minute I started the medical cannabis eligibility checker, right through to now.

What is good is when I started treatment with Releaf, there was a bit of limited choice in terms of different medical cannabis strains. But, in the past few months, that range has increased dramatically. 

If the one I usually have is out of stock, now there's quite a good choice of something different, which I quite like. Rather than, they've run out, now what do I do, it doesn't matter, they've just given me another eight to choose from. And if I don't know what to choose or what to do, I can talk to somebody, and usually the next day at the most somebody answers my questions. 

I honestly do feel fully supported all the way.

Have you been open with the people around you, and how did they react?

I didn't tell them at first, as I was a little nervous. But I soon got over that. 

My mum thinks it's great. When I went round to visit her, she said, “You look a lot happier! What's up with you? Are you all right today?” And I'm like, yeah, legal weed. It made her laugh, which was nice. She noticed straight away.

The friends I've told think it's great, and they can see the difference in me. They do think it's funny if I'm at their house and they go outside for a normal cigarette and I've got my weed vape, and they're looking at me. Everybody's been really supportive and everybody has seen a difference. I've even got one friend who I thought really wasn't going to like it, and I thought, well, it's legal, why hide it? And even she was like, “Wow, that's why you're so different.” 

So even my friends who I assumed may be against the idea of medical cannabis can see the difference. What more could you ask for?

I haven't actually spoken to my GP about it yet. A couple of the doctors that I see now, and they're like, “Go for it, it's obviously working!”

Is there anything you're looking forward to that medical cannabis has allowed you to do now that you couldn't before?

Holidays. We haven't been on holiday for four or five years, not just because of my health, other things too, but we're planning a big one next year. 

I'll get my gallbladder out soon, and then next year we're going with our three godsons to Florida, to do Disney and everything. I hadn't even thought about a holiday for the past three or four years, the pain, arthritis, mental health, depression, couldn't be bothered, didn't want to, and just not being physically or mentally able to do it. 

Now we're planning holidays and days out. Before, if I'd gone, I'd have been in a wheelchair and really moody. Now we can go to places like Alton Towers, and I'll still take the wheelchair, but I won't be moody, I'll be happy, and I'll be able to do things, I'll be able to get on the rides. 

It's given me my life back. My quality of life has gone up no end.

What advice would you give to others who are considering treatment with medical cannabis?

Go for it. 

You're not going to lose anything by having the initial appointment, because if you're not suitable, you don't have to pay, so you’re not going to lose anything. Try it for a month, but I only needed to try it for one night to see the first result. So I'd say to anybody, go for it. You might think it's expensive, but I don't think it is for what I'm getting out of it. I am still getting better daily. 

This past month, since I increased the THC slightly after a flare-up, I've been doing more and more of the activities that I had to put to the side before starting with Releaf. 

Only slow things, taking my time, but I've been able to go out in the garden and do some deadheading, and the other evening when it cooled off, I managed to go for a walk. Every day I'm getting better. My memory is improving, I'm not that crazy old lady who forgets everything now, it's helped my brain fog as well. So try it, it's worth it. It doesn't take more than an hour from that first "Can I have this?" right through to being prescribed, and then a day or so for delivery. Try it.

If you would like to learn more about medical cannabis treatment options for the conditions mentioned in Carmen’s story, please see medical cannabis for arthritis.