**Disclaimer: names and details have been altered to protect the privacy of the individuals, in this entry and in the comments section below.
My name is Katie. I am a dosing specialist for a cannabis oil company called King Harvest. King Harvest specializes in the treatment of critical illness, such as cancer, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, etc. There is a lot that I want to touch on, but I’ll start by saying working as a dosing specialist for a cannabis oil company has been an incredibly eye-opening experience. People come and go in your life and you have to accept that fact and be at peace with it. However, when all is said and done, there is no greater feeling of reward in the world than when you are blessed with the opportunity to save someone’s life.
There is no “right” way of breaking the news to someone that they have cancer. When given such a diagnosis, the options for most people are very limited- chemo, radiation or death. There are, however, healthier and less invasive ways of treatment than the conventional Western medical treatments. Most people do not have access to alternative treatments and most doctors do not know much about alternative treatments to dispense advice. Cannabis assisted treatment is one alternative that the mainstream media is slowly catching on to.
I recently read an article about Olivia Newton-John and how she has been utilizing cannabis oil in her treatment of metastatic Breast Cancer. I’ve always been a fan of hers, as many people are, so it is wonderful to hear of a celebrity figure bringing awareness to this type of healing modality. I know from first-hand experience that cannabis assisted treatment works and this is something that I feel very passionately about. Olivia Newton-John is a famous person battling a nasty disease. The sad reality is that her personal battle is oh-so-common and a problem devastating your average American.
Since October is breast cancer awareness month, today, I would like to talk about Jennifer and her battle with breast cancer. Jennifer is a member of our collective whom I am currently dosing. Jennifer is in her mid 40s, married with two children, and works full-time. Jennifer likes to barbeque and watch football with her family. She likes going out to the bar with her friends. All and all, Jennifer fits the archetype of the girl next door to a T. She is kind and generous, but often puts her own needs behind those of the people she loves. She does not like to burden others with her issues. Jennifer had started to notice a lump growing in her breast, but for several months disregarded it until she finally decided to go to a doctor. Once there, she found out that the lump had already metastasized to her lymph nodes. Jennifer was absolutely shocked and devastated by this discovery. Jennifer feared for her life. She wondered how her young children could go on to grow up without their mother?
Jennifer’s doctor immediately recommended that she start chemotherapy, but the doctors could not give Jennifer much reassurance that she would be able to beat her cancer. She was told that the chemo had a very low success rate and she would only have a few years left to live. Jennifer decided that she was going to do anything she could to heal herself and watch her children grow up. She began to do research online and came across cannabis oil treatments, stumbling upon King Harvest after watching a YouTube video about a dog with cancer. Jennifer’s treatment plan included the 360 spectrum pack and 60 grams of 1:1 FECO (equal parts CBD and THC) to be done over a period of 90 days. I started dosing Jennifer with the speck pack for the first couple of weeks before slowly easing her into the FECO. While dosing patients, one has to keep their personal comfort in mind, but also still gently push them to continue with their dosing schedule, encouraging them to get the full therapeutic amount. Jennifer was never afraid of taking FECO orally, but she was hesitant about taking it via suppository form. I told her that towards the end of her treatment, she would need to take about a gram a day, which is A LOT, even for a regular cannabis smoker. Jennifer did not regularly use cannabis before her treatment.
I often recommend that my patients take FECO as a suppository because it bypasses all of the psychoactive effects of the THC. This allows you to get the medicinal benefit of the product without feeling high. During the early stages of taking FECO, we use a small unit of measurement, such as a grain of rice. When Jennifer started taking FECO, she would take half a grain of rice at bedtime. Slowly, we started increasing her dosage. Once Jennifer was taking 4-5 grains of rice at night, she would feel incredibly groggy in the morning. It was interfering with her ability to function at work. Jennifer needed to continue going to work to get her medical benefits, so she decided to start using a suppository. Jennifer would take FECO orally along with a suppository. She was able to work up to the full gram that she needed to take each day.
Throughout the process, Jennifer was very afraid, but she still remained positive and continued to live her life as normally as she possibly could. The chemo took a major toll on Jennifer’s body, but taking the cannabis oil was able to help her recover in between sessions. Jennifer is now close to completing her 90 day treatment and she recently reported to me that she is very happy (and surprised) with her progress. Her cancer has not spread anywhere else. Her lymph nodes have significantly gone down in size and the tumor in her breast has shrunk by 90%. Jennifer is well on her way toward going into full remission. Jennifer’s doctors are completely confounded by this dramatic change in such a short period of time. Her family has been very supportive of her, but outside of them, Jennifer has been very tight-lipped about her treatment with cannabis oil due to the social stigma.
Jennifer’s results do not surprise me in the slightest, because I see this happen all the time. While Jennifer is not completely out of the woods, my hope is that she will choose to look at her lifestyle choices and make her own health more of a priority. Family is important, as is engaging with people and being a part of a community. However, one is not much use to anyone or anything if they are not healthy. As a dosing specialist, my job is to aid people on their journey to beat critical illness with cannabis. But what happens once you have that clean bill of health given back to you? What do you do? How do you prevent your illness from coming back?
Generally, if all goes well and the person is able to get their cancer to go into remission, we place them on a maintenance plan to keep the cancer from coming back. The cannabis will help you, but in my experience, the individuals who have the most success are the ones who commit to taking health back into their hands and make a total lifestyle change. Taking back our health involves fighting the mainstream narrative that we are helpless and must submit to a world of taking pills for the rest of our lives to relieve our symptoms and keep us sane. Taking back our health means that we assume responsibility for the state that we are in. Taking back our health means making better choices every single day. Taking back my health is the biggest takeaway I have learned while working for King Harvest.
Remember You and only you are responsible for you. Be present every moment of every day and make choices that feel in alignment with your essence.
Namaste <3