Elisei's story: A father turns to medical cannabis to heal from a work-related injury

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your health journey?

I'm originally from Transylvania, Romania, and I migrated to the United States when I was 12. I grew up there, and that’s where I learned my trade: I’m a self-employed hardwood floor installer and finisher, a job I’ve had for the last 32 years. 

My job is physically demanding, and it’s how I ended up with a herniated disc in 2016. I struggled with that on my own for two years. Excruciating pain went all the way down to my left leg and caused problems with my hip. I tried every type of physiotherapy to try to deal with it, but nothing worked. 

Eventually, my family moved to Germany, where they have amazing medical insurance, and I was fortunate enough to have an endoscopic surgery on the herniated disc in my lower back. 

The surgery went well, and the doctor told me I should not do any weight lifting or heavy work for six weeks. Unfortunately, that didn’t work for me. Taking six weeks off was impossible. I had some big contracts at that time, with some large, industrial companies, and I simply could not afford to take that much time off. Only two weeks after the surgery, I went back to work. One day, I lifted something heavy, and I heard a little crack. 

Ever since then, my pain is much worse than before. I know it’s my own fault, because I didn’t listen to my doctor, but I had no choice. Life sometimes doesn't give you a choice. I had a wife and a nine-year-old daughter at that time, and I couldn't lose those contracts. 

Life was hard for my family in Germany. It's a nice country with great medical insurance, but if you are not German, it can be very difficult, especially for people from Romania. It's hard to get work and hard to integrate, even if you speak their language. My family decided to move to the UK about seven years ago.

What type of treatments have you tried previously to manage your symptoms?

At first, I was prescribed a morphine based medication called Tilidine. When I came to the UK, Tilidine wasn’t available and my GP put me on codeine and diazepam, as well as a lot of strong sleeping medications.

My mother is a hospital director in America, and she always told me to do my research, so I checked into one of the medications I had been prescribed for insomnia. It was actually an anti-psychosis medication. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with sleeping, so I don’t know why it was prescribed. I think all that medication was actually hurting me.

What led you to exploring medical cannabis as a treatment option?

My family is from high in the mountains in Transylvania. Back when I was a kid, we took all our medicines from the woods, and everything was natural. My grandparents used to grow cannabis freely. There was no problem back then. We used to use it for bronchitis and things like that—we’d boil the seeds from cannabis and make tea from it, to help with the coughing. 

When I got older, I did use cannabis recreationally in America, but I quit a long time ago. One day, I met a friend who told me that he had been prescribed medical cannabis, so that was interesting. We talked, and he told me it was having a lot of positive effects. After that, I went online to do some research, and even contacted a couple of clinics. 

The first clinic said that they wouldn't give me the money back if I didn't get approved for treatment. So I said, “Never mind.” 

The second clinic I looked into was one of the most expensive in the UK. They told me that they were going to call me back so I could make my first payment, but they never did. I called them again, twice, but they never answered. Three weeks later, they finally called, and they said, “Would you like to make the deposit?” I said, “No, I'm sorry I already tried to pay you. If you don’t even respond to accept my payment, imagine if I really need to talk with someone about my condition.” They really had terrible customer service. 

I talked with my friend again, and he recommended Releaf. He said he’d been with them for five months and that his experience had been fantastic. I asked him if he could do a referral for me, and he said a referral wasn’t necessary. He said to just go to the Releaf website and see if I was eligible. I was, and the initial fee was very affordable. 

I signed up, paid the fee, faxed over my medical records, and within a week, I talked to a doctor and was approved for my medical cannabis prescription. It really was that easy. 

And, how is your Releaf treatment going so far?

Using medical cannabis has helped me a lot. The biggest change is that I haven't taken codeine in two and a half months. I haven't even picked up the prescription. That alone has been a huge improvement, because the codeine made me lose my appetite and gave me constipation. Now, I eat all the time. I empty the fridge, and every other day I have to fill it up again. I do physically difficult work, so getting a lot of food gives me the energy I need to get through the day. 

When I was using codeine, I would take two pills in the morning, two at lunch and two at night, so I'd be dosing all day. I wouldn't want to eat or have coffee until about five—no breakfast and no lunch. My wife never liked that. Now, my wife and I try to take lunch breaks together.

Sleep is the other major benefit. At night, when I come home from work, I use my vape and I can sleep deeply for most of the night. I still wake up sometimes, but I can get right back to sleep. I used to wake up every two hours and could never get a deep, restful sleep. 

I don't mind paying a little extra for the medication, as long as I know it's doing me good. My pain medication from my GP wasn't fixing anything. It wasn't even taking the pain away, and ever since I stopped the pills and started with Releaf, I have no pain. 

Have you spoken to friends and family about your treatment? 

I have already recommended Releaf to a few friends. I have one friend whose wife suffers badly with depression. For years, she’s been taking a lot of antidepressants—a handful of different pills. I told her, “You should try it. It works, and it's easy.”

As I said, I contacted other clinics before Releaf, and one of them wouldn’t even answer my calls. With Releaf, I was in and out—easy. I made an appointment through the Releaf portal with someone on the support team, and they set up an appointment for only five days later. The next day, after I uploaded the medical records, I got a message that said, “Good afternoon. You can move your appointment today, if you like.” It was like an upgrade, and I was four days closer to starting my treatment. Within a week, from start to finish, the medication was delivered and in my hands. I would 100% recommend Releaf to anyone suffering from chronic pain like mine. 

Have you faced any stigma or concerns from others?

I'm a Christian. It says in the Bible, in Genesis, that God gave us the plants that make seed in the flowers, the trees that make fruit with seed, and everything to use for us to consume. So it can be bad, He wouldn't give us anything if it was bad.

I believe that everything that comes from Earth does us good. 

When I talk to other Christians and explain that I’m taking medical cannabis as a treatment, they look at me and say, “Oh, you use that stuff? Wow, that's not good. That's not healthy.” They say that even after I show them my prescription. 

My mum knows about my treatment and she has noticed a positive change. She always says, “You know, you used to be so moody when you used to take codeine all the time. I can tell you're not taking the codeine any more because you're not angry. You're not yelling all the time.” I think that's because I was taking those codeine pills for so long. I still need time to flush that out of my body. Thank God, I’ve now stopped the codeine completely. I stopped when Releaf accepted me. That was all I needed. 

And, finally, what are your hopes for the future?

I went to Romania with my mother recently, and we are building a cabin in Transylvania. We already have the concrete slab poured. So I'm planning to move my family there in the next year and a half, I’m just waiting for all the laws around medical cannabis there are finalised, so I can enjoy being there without pain. It's legal medicinally in Romania too, but only for terminal cancer patients and conditions like that. But they’re getting there, slowly. 

Right now, I'm just happy to have better quality time with my family. The codeine often affected my moods; I’d get angry easily. That rarely happens now, thank God. I still have my moments, but certainly not as often. 

I have to flush all codeine out of my body, and that will take time. I'm glad that medical cannabis treatment is natural, and doesn’t come with any of those negative side effects.