Wow
@Calli, that sure does sound like VERY unpleasant experience! I wish you had a better dispensery staff member that may have helped!
For me personally, I have a MUCH different reaction to oral and with vape oils. I was ready to throw in the towel. Then a friend of mine told me that she only sees benefits from smoking full flower. The oral THC gets processed within your liver. It takes time to hit your system. The low and slow start is a bit difficult because you can feel nothing, then take more. Soon it can turn into a major wham and an unpleasant experience.
Full flower is also something to navigate. Each strain has a different smell, taste, and result. It has taken me several years and a lot of trial. Smoking was easier for me to control dose. Sometimes at dispensaries they tend to lean in hard recommending high THC products for pain. I really have found strain to be more reliable. For me, I learned things like sunset sherbert x kush mints has an upper body relaxation sholder melt. I get a happy high, that can have some light sensitivity and dizziness if I smoke 1/2 a joint. So I tend to go back to it for a few puffs throught the day. Black tuna relaxed the lower half and is fantastic for cramps. I however have to be selective when I use black tuna as it is hard on my chest, where muscles tighten. It also doesn't mask the pain, it is almost like it "clears the noise" of all my nerve pain, and I'm able to feel my pain more clearly as to where it's coming from.
It has been a big learning curve. I used a few websites to learn more about each strains effects, terpines, flavors, side effects and what it is good with helping. I took on the project like a science experience. I started slow and low, smoking out of a small bowl to start. That way, it was a few hits then done. I wrote effects with a permanent marker, listing things like sleepy, hungry, body melt, energy, Happy, relaxed etc.
All this said, no, weed has not been a one for one replacement compared to my opioid prescription. I had been on opioid medications for 5-7 years. Those years I was very "functional". My FM & CFS didn't hold me back. The medicine allowed me to live a fulfilling life with extremely long work hours. I found a lot of joy and reward in my work. Then with regulation changes, the opioid medicine I had been taking was no longer available to me. I had nothing to control my pain. I really leaned into holistic and alternative medicine at this time seeking any for of relief. A few years latter is when I found Medical Marijuana (MM). It took me almost a year to dial it in, then maybe another year with all the strain trials, to have a better understanding of what a strain may help with it's given lineage (parents & type). It still can be trial and error for me with strains.
MM has been helpful in my life. It was not a one for one replacement of my opioid medicine. However, when opioid medicine no longer became an option, MM unlocked a world of relief. It isn't a magic bullet. It has taken a very sharp edge off of my pain. Has helped with my sleep, anxiety, depression and focused energy to get some things done around the house. One great benefit it had was finding strains to control my nausea, increase my appetite and allowed me to be able to eat.
MM is NOT for everyone. I have friends that the side effects are too much, the relief too little, and the costs prohibitive. I have one friend that can't take edibles/oral because he gets zero effect, even with very large doses. It turns out his body doesn't have a particular enzymes that allows the liver to process the THC and deliver the high.
I'm a strong believer that us with FM can be sensitivity to everything
each one of our bodies are unique. What may work for one, doesn't work for all! Unfortunately, a lot of things like food, medicine, environmental factors and emotional and mental health factors all impact us a little differently. Tuning into your own body, and tuning it out at times, becomes an art form combined with science. It is not always easy, but eventually we can learn to dance with it, constantly adapting and controlling things we can, to make it a little bit easier.
Sending you lots of love and healing thoughts & wishes!
- yeah, I aaalmost get it...: form?
GURU.
!!!!!!
