Alex’s story: Living with chronic pain and discovering a new lease of life

Could you tell us about your condition? 

The injury left me disabled in my left arm. It always got me down, and the only thing my doctor gave me was painkillers to manage the pain, which were having adverse effects on my stomach. It was always making me feel ill. I didn't want to do anything. There were days I just wanted to stay in the house. 

The medication I was given wasn't helping at all. It became a pattern that I would take it, hoping the medication would ease the pain. It was a vicious cycle of medication, pain, and hoping for the best. I got so depressed from it. I didn't really know where to go. 

Has your injury prevented you from doing a lot of the things you used to love?

Yes it has. 

Before the injury, I liked running. I used to go to the gym three times a week. I was always up for going out. But that all changed. I wasn't sure how I was going to be day to day. Even my partner mentioned there were days we had to cancel plans because the pain was too much. 

I had to stop going to the gym. I wasn't able to do even yoga. The stuff I really enjoyed, I wasn't able to do. It's only recently, since the medical cannabis oil has relaxed the muscles, that I've been able to do a bit of yoga again and get the stretching back.

I see that you’ve only been a Releaf patient for a few weeks?

Yeah, and that just shows how incredible this treatment is and how it should be more readily available to everyone. 

One of my friends mentioned Releaf, and when I started it, I had a few apprehensions - I wasn't sure if it was going to be for me or not. And then, within a week of taking it, it was life-changing. I stopped feeling the pain in my shoulder. I was feeling better, more energetic. For the first time in nearly three to four years, I felt like me again. 

As soon as I take the oil in the morning, I'm great. I don't have headaches any more. I don't feel stomach pains any more. I don't feel nauseous from all the medication I'd been given. It’s great.

Can you tell me a bit about how you have found the clinical care at Releaf?

Fantastic. You are very open about how each of the medications is going to affect me. You've given me alternatives, which I love. If I need to contact you, it's so direct and easy - an email, a phone call. If I want to get a consultation, it's easy. 

The conversations I had with the first consultant were superb. She was very open and transparent, told me everything about the medication, and how it affected their other patients. Yeah, it's been great.

What was it like receiving your first prescription through the post?

I was amazed. I loved the box. Everything was so good. When I first opened it, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. But I tried it straight away. Taking the first dose, I felt this nice, relaxed feeling. It was lovely. My arm always feels engaged, so when I take the medication, I can feel it ease off very quickly.

In your line of work, is cannabis something you feel you can speak openly about?

Yes. Because it's medical cannabis, it's understandable. There are a few people in my work who use it and are open about it… They ask if it has any effects on me, and I say no, it just helps manage pain. I believe the term is “always well, never high”.

Have you encountered any stigma as a patient at all?

No. The only people I don't tell are my partner's parents. They're always saying, "You look a bit tired." I'm like, "No, I'm good." But there's never been a stigma. I've always been open and transparent because my work and my partner have known the journey I've been on. She sees the difference, and so do they.

Do you see a future where medical cannabis is much more widely accepted?

I really hope there is. I've said it for many years that cannabis is a great healer, and I say it to this day. My mother had to go through it - use cannabis to help her cancer treatment. She was not too sure about it. I was able to get some, and she tried it, and it did help her a lot. 

My mother had stage 4 bowel cancer. It spread quite a lot, and in her last couple of weeks, she was given heavy medications and she wasn't feeling herself anymore. And I one day said, "Would you like to try cannabis?" And she said yes to it. 

After about an hour into it, she felt better. She was like, “I don't feel in pain. I feel more relaxed”... And that was the first time that I saw my mother have a huge meal. And fair play, she spent like 20 pounds at McDonald's. But it was the first time I actually saw her get to eat something she really enjoyed.

I really hope that someday medical cannabis can be widely used for everyone in that sector as an alternative to these heavy medications.

What are your hopes and plans for the future now that you've got this new lease of life?

That’s a good question. I'm hoping to get back to going to the gym. It may not be the way I used to, but I aim to be able to get a wee bit fitter. I feel like I have the full action of the arm again, even though it's partially still disabled. But I'm looking forward to the future, where Releaf will help me more and more each day. I'm just looking forward to next year, feeling 100% myself again, when I get married next year. So I'm feeling really good.

If you would like to learn more about medical cannabis treatment options for the conditions mentioned in this Patient Story, please see medical cannabis for chronic pain.