seizures – Page 41 – Jesus is for the Wounded

CBD Hemp Oil and Seizures

Published on March 7, 2014May 3, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded9 Comments

Personal Update: I continue to experience a 40% overall improvement in seizure activity and related noxious symptoms just 16 days after starting high CBD hemp oil (HCBDHO). After 2 1/2 years of serious complications to Lyme, mold, Candida and biotoxin illness: I am amazed!

Here’s the research that I found that led me to discovering this LEGAL alternative to medical marijuana (more on that in a moment):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7413719

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7028792

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22696383

After seeing that there was authentic clinical research supporting the use of “cannabis” for epilepsy, even though I was diagnosed with non-epileptic seizures, I wondered how I might obtain it. Purchasing medical marijuana when it’s not legal in your State is a complicated process and risky. Some persons have obtained State I.D.’s in the state where MM is legal, set up post office boxes and even used the addresses of friends or family who live in the MM state. I did not feel comfortable with this, even though I was suffering tremendously on a daily basis.

The story of Charlotte changed everything. Charlotte was 5 years old when her parents became heartbroken over the hundreds of daily seizures their precious daughter had as part of Dravet’s syndrome. Her father researched alternatives to the myriad of medications that were not working and found CBD medical marijuana. Finding some to try was difficult even in Colorado where MM is legal since CBD is generally in concentrations too low to make a difference. CBD can reduce the “high” and confound the benefits of THC found in MM; it was long ago cultivated out of most strains. The parents found the Stanley brothers who had high CBD hemp, were willing to grow it for Charlotte, and were willing to sell it to them with the proper orders from two pediatricians as required in Colorado. Charlotte’s seizures stopped for days after the first dose! She is now gaining in all developmental milestones and reclaiming her young life much to the delight of her parents. Other parents around the world are flocking to Colorado to get on the waiting list for Charlotte’s Web: the high CBD cannabis.

I believe it is the Lord who allowed me to ask the question of whether or not CBD (cannabidiol, a type of cannibinoid) is available in other types of cannabis. While medical marijuana and hemp are the same genus of cannabis but the species containing mostly THC is generally cannabis sativa and the species containing mostly CBD is generally cannabis indica. From here I will call CBD/cannabis indica: hemp. Industrial Hemp is another term for non-psychoactive cannabis.

Industrial hemp is grown outside of the USA and imported for hemp fiber products, oil with elevated essential fatty acids, and more. When cultivated for high CBD, hemp oil has more physical effects and can be sedative as it acts upon the endocannibinoid system of our cell walls. There’s a lot of technical stuff here so I’ll save that for another post. THE TAKE HOME MESSAGE is that you do not have to use MM to get the benefits of high CBD hemp oil: HCBDHO can be extracted from hemp plants as a nutritional product and that product is LEGAL in all 50 of the United States of America!

Industrial Hemp is grown outside of the USA for fiber, cleaning up soil contamination, fuel, clothing, paper, oil high in essential fatty acids, and CBD oil.

From here I set out to figure out how a person takes HCBDHO, how is it dispensed, who sells the best products for me, and what companies are reputable. I did not want a product from a start-up company with an inferior product laced with flavorings, fillers, and sweeteners. I needed a concentration that would be effective and cost-effective as pure oils can be pricey. I wanted a company who could answer my questions and had sound business practices to indicate that it would still be there for me next month and next year when I got well. I believe I have found that product and that company. (For more information and information on how to obtain a discount, contact me via the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/seizurefreezone)

Today I just wanted to share that for persons with seizures and seizure-like episodes, there will be hope for many in the use of high CBD hemp oil. It’s been here all along, running under the radar of controversial medical marijuana. Who knew? Now you do too! Please share this information with others who might be interested!

P.S. Relief for persons with seizures is just the beginning. Just Google any of the key words written here “and” a medical condition or symptom (for example CBD and fibromyalgia). You just might be delighted with what you find!

P.P.S. Watch an informative video by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a former White House Fellow under the Clinton Administration at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GUkzTnFG0 Remember to watch for the mentioning of CBD, THC, or ratios of the two together. Of course, preparations with THC will require purchase in a State where MM is legal! :J

Recovery is a jagged line

Published on March 2, 2014March 21, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded1 Comment

Today my words came back to me. My beloved Steve was comforting with his encouragement that there can be many setbacks even when on the road to recovery. Ah yes. The old, “recovery is a jagged line” speech. I have let those words fly many times when working with my patients as an occupational therapist. There was the cardiac patient who was frustrated with having to restrict his activity level to basically mope-ing around the house for his first week home from the hospital. I also recall a lady practically quarantined in a back bedroom of her home with a great view of the surrounding woodlands. She had a portable refrigerator, phone, laptop, accessible bathroom, hospital bed, wheelchair, walker and many conveniences to help her recover from a knee replacement surgery. I had to encourage her to push up her jagged line a bit lest she become too comfortable in her hospital room at home!

One of the many reasons I enjoyed working in home health care was the ability to use the person’s real-life situations, supplies, and responsibilities as part of his or her occupational therapy. The role of an O.T. is to evaluate the daily activities of an individual and the skills needed to complete those activities. When there is a breakdown due to an illness, surgery, mental health problem, developmental delay, disability, or disease process, the O.T. works with the patient and his or her resources to restore function. I was always amazed at how “resourceful” some patients could be! I think the farmers were the best. I’ll never forget the industrious wife of a patient suffering after several failed back surgeries. The lady of the house had built from scrap wood a rolling cart with a seat on top and rope attached to move it along the floors in her home. What was she moving? Well her husband of course! He was eligible for a wheelchair rental but evidently the subject never came up. I don’t think they even wanted one when it became available. The downside: the gentleman would not likely become independent in household mobility and related activities when sitting on a cart that had to be pulled by others. Recovery is sometimes a flat line too: no true recovery at all.

As for me, the recovery is moving forward. I am 12 days into using high CBD hemp oil to attempt to control daily seizure-like tic episodes. Today I had a setback for about 2 hours but at least the episode was low grade without a severe neck headache or pain. And when night time rolled around to my bewitching hours of 9-11:00 p.m. there were pre-tic symptoms and nothing else. This is the second night in a row with relief! Every night prior to this and for the past 8 months I have had 2-4 hours of intermittent seizures. Virtually every day or night for the past 2-1/2 years I have had intermittent waking seizures. Praise the Lord, the pattern is changing! At either set intervals or when noxious symptoms start I take a full or partial dose of high CBD hemp oil and get relief. Nothing has ever done this before!

It’s not like I haven’t prayed, submitted, waited, or tried more diets/supplements/drugs/manual therapies/technologies/chiropractors/testing/remediation than, as they used to say, “Carter has got pills!” I am actually still preparing to see methylation and biotoxin illness specialists in Michigan later this month. It is likely that the cause of illness is related more to exposure to biotoxins than Lyme disease. All that may be clearer sometime down the road. At this time my husband and I are rejoicing for the relief from our hellish nights. He just might start getting a full night of sleep before too long! That is if we don’t stay up for other reasons . . . ;J

If you are curious about high CBD hemp oil then I offer this informational website: www.mycbdresearch.com and join the discussion on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/CBDhempandseizures There’s hope here for many with seizures and other neurological, intractable health conditions. For all of us there is one ultimate source of hope that will sustain us whether recovery is a straight, jagged, or invisible line: a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ. To find Him we only need to get on our knees and open our hearts to His enduring love, His love letters to each of us in the Bible. I would have never made it this far without my Jesus. I am humbled and grateful for many aspects of these past 2 1/2 years: I’m working on accepting the wretched parts.

Meeting you, Gentle Reader, along the way is a sweet gift. Thank you for being a part of my recovery too. JJ

It’s eBook Week

Published on March 1, 2014 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

Looking for hope and encouragement while you or your loved one recovers from a serious illness? I invite you to check out Hope Beyond Lyme: the First Year.

The first year enduring and battling a serious illness can test everything we thought we knew about coping with the trials of life. In this book, I invite you to share the more meaningful moments of my journey as I seek to draw strength from outside of myself to endure the trials of my particular story. My hope is that you, too, will find strength and hope that transcends your day-to-day experience. I also hope that you will consider the hope found in God though a personal relationship with His Son. His presence in One’s life makes a difference in where a person lands when this particular journey of life is over. Will we have peace or will we have despair?

For the next week, my eBook Hope Beyond Lyme: the First Year is 50% off! Just use coupon code WE45A at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/371334

Take care, Just Julie

Brain Dump and CBD

Published on February 27, 2014February 4, 2016 by Jesus is for the Wounded6 Comments

And so I was right. That is not necessarily a good thing.

The doctor apologized and gave a couple of reasons why he missed 5 pages of an 8-page lab report completed 6 months ago. We had reviewed the results 3 months ago or rather, the first 3 pages of the report! As it turns out, the last time this particular set of labs was completed over a year ago, the last 5 pages were missing then as well. So what is the significance? Those last 5 pages contain information about daily cycles of two hormones that could explain my ravenous, violent seizure-like episodes in the early morning and evening. Treatment related to those findings could have alleviated my tremendous suffering for the past 6 months! However, the doc had nothing to say about that. He said he actually needs to do more research on how to lower melatonin levels! Well thank you but I have heard this before from you . . .

My next concern was the potential role of a new herbal remedy I started on the lab finding of severely elevated melatonin. Looks like there are two compelling research articles stating that the active ingredient in what I am taking has not been shown to elevate melatonin levels. Whew! Looking closely resulted in seeing how the active ingredient may actually modulate the inactive ingredients that have an effect on melatonin. Since this active ingredient has served to modulate one particular trace substance when the latter is in higher concentrations, well, that gives me hope. The answer to the question of how to lower melatonin might already be in my cupboard!

Here’s what “it” is: high CBD hemp oil. This is not medical marijuana nor an oil made from the psychoactive ingredient: THC. That would be illegal in my State and actually not necessary to impact seizure-like activity. Both CBD and THC-laden products are from a cannibus plant yet the plants grown for high CBD oil and their products are legal in all 50 of the United States. No special procedures are needed to obtain it: just sort through a plethora of information online to find a pure product with concentrations high enough (pun intended) to affect health. (You cannot get high from CDB oil by the way.) And the benefits are tremendous: intractable epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and many more. Add THC and the list of therapeutic effects increases to include cancer. Thankfully for me the active ingredient needed to reduce seizures is CBD with only trace amounts of other “cannabinoids.”

Here’s a great place to find an overview of hemp oil, cannabis, how its administered, and the benefits: www.mycbdresearch.com

The first week experimenting with CBD oil has yielded 3 days with less than an hour of seizure-like activity. This is a HUGE improvement over the average of 3 hours per day of seizures for EIGHT STRAIGHT MONTHS and the 1-3 hours per day overall for the past TWO YEARS! At least once per month the duration increased to 6-12 hours. Whew again. I am encouraged. I have trusted the Lord throughout my research process and even in deciding which product to try. Receiving the melatonin lab results today may be a confirmation of this decision. The timing of this situation coming together is very interesting indeed.

Doc did have one idea: resume using my bright light therapy for 30-60 seconds, multiple times per day to naturally lower melatonin levels. Cool beans. You know the old saying, “do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Another one goes, “here we go again!” with what could be yet another false start to healing. Somehow I have a feeling this one will make a lasting impression. Stay tuned. I am going to get well! :J

Addendum: just opened a new Facebook page entitled, “Seizure Free Zone.” Like us and join the discussion today!

Psalm 71

Published on February 18, 2014February 18, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded1 Comment

Psalm 71

¹In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;     let me never be put to shame. ²In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;     turn your ear to me and save me. ³Be my rock of refuge,     to which I can always go; give the command to save me,     for you are my rock and my fortress. ⁴Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,     from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

⁵For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,     my confidence since my youth. ⁶From birth I have relied on you;     you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.     I will ever praise you. ⁷I have become a sign to many;     you are my strong refuge. ⁸My mouth is filled with your praise,     declaring your splendor all day long.

⁹Do not cast me away when I am old;     do not forsake me when my strength is gone. ¹⁰For my enemies speak against me;     those who wait to kill me conspire together. ¹¹They say, “God has forsaken him;     pursue him and seize him,     for no one will rescue him.” ¹²Do not be far from me, my God;     come quickly, God, to help me. ¹³May my accusers perish in shame;     may those who want to harm me     be covered with scorn and disgrace.

¹⁴As for me, I will always have hope;     I will praise you more and more.

¹⁵My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,     of your saving acts all day long—     though I know not how to relate them all. ¹⁶I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord;     I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. ¹⁷Since my youth, God, you have taught me,     and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸Even when I am old and gray,     do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation,     your mighty acts to all who are to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,     you who have done great things.     Who is like you, God? ²⁰Though you have made me see troubles,     many and bitter,     you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth     you will again bring me up. ²¹You will increase my honor     and comfort me once more.

²²I will praise you with the harp     for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre,     Holy One of Israel. ²³My lips will shout for joy     when I sing praise to you—     I whom you have delivered. ²⁴My tongue will tell of your righteous acts     all day long, for those who wanted to harm me     have been put to shame and confusion.

**********************************************

Tonight as my body thrashed about I cried out to the Lord, asking “don’t you see me?”

Tonight I cried out for the Lord to take me, as in take me home. He did not answer.

Tonight I cried out asking Him not to leave me here this way. He did not answer.

The after burn of the seizure attacks, flu-spikes, chest compression symptoms making breathing labored, increased pain, and massive neck headache was unbearable once again this evening. Things are getting worse. This was my third episode today with over two dozen individual incidences!

My precious husband got out of bed after 1:00 a.m. to get me something to eat in an effort to end the tic attacks that would not stop after the seizures.

It is now over an hour later and I am stable. I am beat up. I am still here!

I will remind myself to have hope, to cultivate hope that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Sometimes He speaks and sometimes He is silent. And for those who believe in Him, He is always present.

Psalm 71 puts it all together for me right now, so this is how I will pray as I go forth from this night. And that’s about how far I have gotten. My tummy hurts. Time to go back to bed. I think I can sleep now.