Pain

[Weaselcracker]

I'm looking for people's thoughts and experiences on treating pain with cannabis. Over the last ten years, my life has been increasingly affected by crippling muscle and joint pain. It threatens to overshadow everything and shapes my perception of who I am in ways I really don't like. I have pretty good tolerance for pain and can take a lot without a whimper- but that's the sort of pain that goes away. Increasingly I'm whimpering, like a wimp. It just plain sucks being in constant pain. The problem isn't that it's at level 10, more that it's at level 5 or 6 but just won't quit. Increasingly I treat it with (natural) opiates. That's ok but once it gets to be a daily routine I feel like I'm walking a dangerous path.

I've got a high (hopefully) CBD strain close to harvest, and have my eye on a couple other likely pure indicas in the flowering room, to make oil, cream/whatever with. There's so much to read and learn about ways to ingest and ways to refine the herb into the right medicine. I'm working on that.

Info on how to make oil, CBD/THC ratios and stuff like that isn't really what I'm asking about, (though that's interesting too), as much as I'm looking for people's personal experiences with pain reduction itself. How it feels to treat pain with cannabis, and basically- how it works. Do you need to get high to reduce pain? Do you take oil capsules on a regular schedule but not get high from them? Smoke yourself into painless oblivion on the couch? Do you smoke, eat, vape the right strain/ratio- and the pain just 'melts away'? What's the experience like?

I do use cannabis- I smoke and vape to get high. But I generally stick to pure sativas only, because I don't like the indica high. The recommended strains for pain relief seem to be all indica. Maybe that's why I really don't make the connection between weed and pain relief. Yes there's a relief, maybe some pain relief- but mostly the pain still remains.
I feel like I'm really in the dark about this whole subject. Some part of me (which I really hope is wrong) isn't even convinced that pot does treat pain.

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[boGanja]

I hope you get better soon mate..

cheers.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks a lot mate. I don't have it nearly as bad as some I'm sure. I'm active and fairly healthy and can walk and work- though I'm hobbling a lot more lately. Gets hard on the self esteem though I have to say.
The fact that there are cancer patients and people with actual serious pain, way worse than mine, looking at treating it with cannabis, makes me think/hope that it must work.

 

[JPinkman]

Im on my way to my Canna friendly Dr right now but Ill chime in on this when I get back

 

[rhetorrikz]

After some horrific accidents i sit here now medicated and without pain , i do not have the experience you seek but can state that cannabis has deffinatly helped

 

[Weaselcracker]

I'm really glad to hear you've found some relief, Rhettorikz. Maybe you have exactly the kind of experience I'm looking for.

 

[Dwight Monk]

I think it kind of varies from person to person (like most things in life), you might try different hybrids and find one that works for you the way you want it to. My pain level not near as high as yours (unless I do something I shouldn't like power tools that vibrate and a few other things that mess with my body) and I"m mostly looking for something to take the edge off of the pain (pills screw with my whole system and even the light ones make me loopey/spacey which I don't like that feeling, and they don't take the edge off the pain for me all that well) and as I'm my Wife's Caregiver I need to have my wits sorta about me so I aim for more Sativa dominant hybrids in daytime and use the heavy Indica at night to hit the pain harder so I can sleep. Find a strain where you get some of both and see if you function the way you need to. I have read that the CBD mixed ones help but have no experience with it other than I tried a CBD gel that did nothing for me or my Wife (she won't try anything with THC period, and actually I was surprised she gave the CBD one a try).

 

[JPinkman]

Ive had 8 herinated disks in my lower back. My everyday pain is around a 7-8. A freshly "popped disk" brings that to around a 14, with 10 being the worst pain imaginable and completely incapacitating. The last 2 times this has happened have been from sneezing, due to the dergredation of the disks. They are weak as hell.

Ive had IV fentanyl, IV morphine and just about every Rx opiate Ive ever heard of orally, some of them in some high doses and large Rxs. And for a few years, I took them. They didnt take my pain away completely, but they did a better job then anything else Ive tried. They were also killing me slowly. My tollerance builds to those things so fast that within weeks Im taking what would have been a lethal dose in the begining a few times a day. Not wanting to continue down that road for various reasons, I stopped cold turkey.

I use cannabis daily for pain. Ive tried the pure CBD stuff and alone in small doses it didnt do anything for me. 1:1 with THC it starts to help. High doses of THC helps too, with even more side effects. At these levels, Im still not as "stoned" as I used to get off pills, although Id call the pill buzz more "high and jacked" then stones. The only way I can touch the pain killing effectiveness of the pills is to go deep into edibles, and friends I mean DEEP. Most humans start at a dose of 50-100 mg of THC and get pretty wrecked. For edibles to touch opiates for pain (for me) Im talking 750-1000 mg of THC. At this point my pain is less then a 1/10, and I enjoy this while I talk to Jesus in another dimension.

Long story short, I have degenrative disk disease, 8 herniated disks and extensive nerve damage, and am in pain 24/7 no matter what. I have not found a way to bring that pain down even a little without being stoned on some level.

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Hobbling ah, well ye knees or hips hay !

But if ya ask me it sounds like arthritis more likely the knee's if ya hobbling a bit, ya you get a sharp pain around the joint some times feels like it wants to seize right up for a second or two & a touch of muscle spasm around the area. I normally find this a problem over a period of inactivity which i can normally walk off over the course of a morning at work but staying active helps with pain management but ye, ye get it check it by the ol quack aka doc etc, etc, etc.

Well if i'm any where on track in what i'm thinking we are trying to have chin wag about ?????


You have your good days & your bad days, well what research is done over arthritis along with pain control with MMJ would sound a lil sceptical from what i've read from time to time... On a personal note i'll say smoking moderately offers a mild to moderate pain relief with a slight sense off a dull ache around the joint, how ever cannabutter i find gives me a greater sense of relief over a longer period of time.

 

[Curly Beaver]

I am approaching two years of looking for that right strain and have tried so many high CBD strains that I have lost count. I had hoped to get pain relief due to degenerate disc disease and a failed back surgery and while I can get relief it has to wait until bedtime as I don't like being "high" especially around others, plus even a 70% sativa makes me too lethargic. Now I am on a quest to grow out Malawi and a couple Zamaldelicas this summer. We have no dispensaries around so I need to grow my own and you know that's gonna be awhile.... It's slow going but I am not giving up just yet. You could say I am disappointed in the results so far but I do enjoy growing and I needed a hobby when I retired. I suspect when I'm all in and all done it will be a combination of topicals, tinctures, vaping and an opioid (at a reduced dose.) It is all trial and error for me and very slow when you have to go through the whole cycle to see if a strain is going to work or not. In retrospect I probably spent too much time on 1:1 CBD strains and while I'm not pain free at least I am still able to live a decent life and I'm mobile up to a point. Sitting on my a$$ is the worst thing I can do.
Good luck on your search.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I think SweetSue's thread had a lot of good information about this. I think I remember hearing that ingesting the cannabinoids in a non-carboxylated form, like raw leaves, can get THC to various receptors in the intestines that help reduce pain. So it's not always about the intoxication. There's also the ones like CBG and CBN, which are more common in Indica, that are said to have this pain relief. I don't really know a lot about it myself. I have this little wheel chart that shows what various cannabinoids are supposed to have medical value in treating though...

 

[Papageno]

Some part of me (which I really hope is wrong) isn't even convinced that pot does treat pain.

So that isn't really a black or white thing. I know it can treat many kinds of pain. I know it wont treat my chronic sever pain in my knee from an accident that messed it up. But it does help with many types of other pain.

But many types of sever and especially acute pain is something I don't think cannabis is geared for. Maybe under near sedative doses ingested. I think it really depends on the problem. Mechanical problems in the body like joint failures and vertebrate / disk issues I feel like it can only help so much. Chemical imbalance issues like headaches and cramps ... it really helps a lot for most people.

I aint no doctor but people could write books about just that one topic.

Peace bro ... long time.

 

[cnile]

Pain.

I read muscle and joint pain. Mom takes glucosamine for joint pain and says can't live/move without it. I can get details. It's over counter for joint health at Safeway in pharmacy. I think she used to drink carbonated things with it. Now maybe pills. I'll ask.

One thing might not work - just cannabis. You might need to supplement with a good strain to be more comfortable.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Super busy day here and it doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon. I wanted to address each of these awesome posts individually but I don't think I'll get the time so I'll just say thank you so much for all of them.
Yes and most of the pain stems from a touch of scoliosis, a curve in the spine which is constantly throwing out pretty much everything in my body, combined with hard work and heavy lifting all the time. What can be done about it in terms of personal care is a whole other subject, but pain relief has a big place in the solution because once I start moving more naturally things tend to click into place a lot better.

 

[Papageno]

I have read a ton on cannabinoids and salves and other ways it might be useful to easy and help lubricate joints. But I can say smoking weed aint never helped my knee or the pain I get once in a while from all the metal down there.


Who knows, maybe high doses of certain cannabinoids lowers blood pressure or lubricates joints or who knows what. But it never helped my knee smoking like a chimney for decades.



There are a lot of threads on here about many ways to self medicate and for some things some ways work way better. Tacking is the way to go for cancer. Have you tried that?


I remember being in the hospital on morphine for 2 weeks none the less as they screwed up and put me back under the knife a week after trying to rebuild my leg. On real pain even that doesn't really work. Just makes you not care.

But opiates are not worth getting hooked on I would think. Save that for the end game.

 

[Tead]

I find myself wondering if the delivery method might make a ton of difference. I wonder if some sort of Canna/DMSO mix might be especially effective in treating muscles, bones, and joints directly.
Just wondering... absolutely no experience in the area.

 

[Papageno]

So Tacking is slow release constant medication which is likely to be way more effective. Many people on here have saved their lives Tacking. go read around about it in the more social areas...

 

[Wonderful Gro]

I'm looking for people's thoughts and experiences on treating pain with cannabis. Over the last ten years, my life has been increasingly affected by crippling muscle and joint pain. It threatens to overshadow everything and shapes my perception of who I am in ways I really don't like. I have pretty good tolerance for pain and can take a lot without a whimper- but that's the sort of pain that goes away. Increasingly I'm whimpering, like a wimp. It just plain sucks being in constant pain. The problem isn't that it's at level 10, more that it's at level 5 or 6 but just won't quit. Increasingly I treat it with (natural) opiates. That's ok but once it gets to be a daily routine I feel like I'm walking a dangerous path.

I've got a high (hopefully) CBD strain close to harvest, and have my eye on a couple other likely pure indicas in the flowering room, to make oil, cream/whatever with. There's so much to read and learn about ways to ingest and ways to refine the herb into the right medicine. I'm working on that.

Info on how to make oil, CBD/THC ratios and stuff like that isn't really what I'm asking about, (though that's interesting too), as much as I'm looking for people's personal experiences with pain reduction itself. How it feels to treat pain with cannabis, and basically- how it works. Do you need to get high to reduce pain? Do you take oil capsules on a regular schedule but not get high from them? Smoke yourself into painless oblivion on the couch? Do you smoke, eat, vape the right strain/ratio- and the pain just 'melts away'? What's the experience like?

I do use cannabis- I smoke and vape to get high. But I generally stick to pure sativas only, because I don't like the indica high. The recommended strains for pain relief seem to be all indica. Maybe that's why I really don't make the connection between weed and pain relief. Yes there's a relief, maybe some pain relief- but mostly the pain still remains.
I feel like I'm really in the dark about this whole subject. Some part of me (which I really hope is wrong) isn't even convinced that pot does treat pain.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Hello Weasel!
I've been using cannabis for the past 5 years to help with my chronic back pain and let me tell you that it has been doing wonders for me. I have a twisted spine along with some cracked discs inbetween thanks to the military. (Apologyze for my English if I make any mistakes, it's not my main language) If it were for the health system in my country I'd be taking over 6 pills/day. Thankfully I found God's forsaken plant and it is the best that has ever happened to me. I don't use it to get high or hyped on something, it's only to allow me to bear with the pain that I feel every day. It's not due to addiction but I cannot pass my days without my girls and all they do for me. Hope you enjoy this post! Happy toking and stay medicated

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ok - a few minutes break then it's time to run off feed and water the plants. Thanks again for the wonderful replies I really appreciate them.
WG can you tell me more about how you treat your pain with cannabis, and what sorts of strains you use?

Just as in this thread, I've read a variety of opinions on cannabis pain relief. Everything from people saying they get instant relief, to people saying that they've had no success with it at all. Strange that it would be so varied. But maybe not so strange when you consider all the different reactions people have to it, in the pursuit of getting high.
Yes VI I've heard of tacking, but haven't read about it enough to really understand it, or to hear any success stories. Again I've heard some people saying it just doesn't work. I'll do some more reading.
My girlfriend makes skin creams and salves sometimes for a hobby and I'll be exploring the whole topical treatment thing more when the likely plants are ready for harvest.
Obviously I won't know till I try everything out. It's great to hear the stories though- especially that there are some positive experiences, which gives me some hope in the matter and something to work with.
Nearly every seedbank out there now sells high cbd strains. And lots of people are growing them. But the end result of those seeds seems very vague, to me anyway.
Still, why would so many people breed, sell, and grow these plants if they didn't do something?
Ok back to work.

 

[Papageno]

So like the dealio is there are a lot of cannabinoids. Most of them not studied. CBD is the one they have latched onto for now. Weed is a miracle plant full of lots of good things. If a person has joint pain from inflation and you find a strain that helps with that it may help. But if you joint pain is bone on bone rubbing that needs a different remmide. It's all about the diagnosis and in your case slow release Tacking is worth a try. But you gotta ramp up to a medical dose and hold it for a good time. People have a hard time when they start. Most can't start at a medicinal dose and have to ramp up. Like you will just pass the fuck out...scares some people. They get the fear of overdosing. It is unsettling as well to some waking up and realizing they passed the fuck out.

Lots to be found and support on here.

Good luck man...