Lake Padden, a month later

Lily at Lake Padden this morning

It was just a month ago that Lily and I had joined the Saturday walking group and my hip seized up on me. I've been dealing with it ever since, and today was the first time I felt I might actually be able to keep up with the Saturday walk's fast pace. At least I could make some decision about it and turn around at any point if necessary. Lily and I joined the dozen or so ladies and started our walk with excitement, enjoying the lack of rain, since it rained on the way over to the lake. I can also hear rain on the roof now, but I'm warm and cozy inside. We've continued to have lots of rain; you can see the grass is pretty soggy looking behind Lily.

I made it around the lake once without having to stop, although I was slower, at the end of the walkers. I decided not to make the second loop, though, since of all the exercises I do, fast walking causes it to hurt the most. On the way home, I asked Lily if she would stop with me at the local marijuana store, so I could pick up some topical ointment for the hip. When we walked in, I was surprised that it wasn't busy. The guy behind the counter was very helpful. He told me that he just yesterday received a new shipment of "Flow," which he says is his best  seller.

I have used some other topical cannabis ointments, so I knew they can be very effective, but this one is twice as expensive, so I was hesitant. But after reading the directions, I decided to give it a try. The part that convinced me was this: "Flow CBD gel can be applied to sore muscles, arthritic joints, minor burns and abrasions. Effects can be felt within seconds of application." Here's more information if you're interested. Unfortunately, you can't get it outside of Washington State and unless you're over 21.

I came home and dropped my drawers and massaged the oil into my hip area. Yep, I could feel the warmth, so I pulled everything back up and sat down to write this post. As I sit here, I can feel the continued warmth, and lo and behold, the pain in my hip is very much less!  Apparently it reaches its maximum strength after about an hour and maintains its effects for several hours longer. I'm sold! And in the time it has taken for me to write this post, the pain is completely gone. Yay!
:-)

Football fever

Spied on the road here in Bellingham

While driving to the movies, I saw this rather dirty truck with a message for all and sundry. It says, "Go Hawks" with a 12, a Seahawk logo, and underneath all that, #24. I had to look up which Seattle Seahawk player it is, not being a football fanatic myself. It's Marshawn Lynch, also known as "Beast Mode." I'm getting an education here, but I don't exactly know what I'm learning!

Tomorrow is the NFL championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. The winner of the game will go to Superbowl XLVIII (that would be No. 48 for those of us who need help figuring it out). The AFC championship game will also be played tomorrow, between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. Not as interesting to me now that I live here, but rest assured I will NOT be watching the game. My heart won't take it (smile). I'll be at the movies seeing "August: Osage County" with my friend Judy. Shouldn't be much of a crowd in the theater.

When I lived in Colorado, I was always happy to hear that the Broncos were doing well and would watch the playoff games, and once I watched what I consider to be the most exciting football game I ever saw, in 1998 when the Broncos beat Green Bay in a nail biter of a Superbowl. I decided then and there I wouldn't watch live games any more when I cared so much about the outcome.

And now my old team, the Broncos, and my new team, the Seahawks, might be playing in this Superbowl. I saw an article about the fact that Colorado and Washington, being the only two states to legalize recreational marijuana use, would probably want to rename the game to something like "the Oobie Doobie Bowl." (grin)

This coming week I should finish seeing all the movies that have been nominated for Academy Awards, except for "12 Years a Slave" (not playing around here right now) and "The Wolf of Wall Street." I have enjoyed them all, in different ways, but I'm hard pressed to think of one I'd like to see actually win Best Picture. I'm leaning toward "Dallas Buyers Club" but think, from what I've heard, that "12 Years" deserves to take home the gold. If so, I'll definitely get another chance to see it in the theaters.
:-)

Drugs and pain

I just read Nancy's post over at Life in the Second Half about whether or not the states that have approved marijuana for medical use have stepped across some invisible line. She links to a post from Land of Shimp who talks about her son recently being approved to buy medical marijuana for pain relief from a shoulder separation.

This whole debate reminded me of my own struggle with addiction to pain medication. When I broke my pelvis so badly in 2000, I woke up to find I was being medicated with oxycontin, morphine, and a bunch of other narcotics I knew nothing about. My dose was pretty high, and I was still in quite a lot of pain (I had six bad breaks in my pelvis and a shattered sacrum). I was wearing an external fixator drilled into my hip bones, which held my pelvis together, along with two 7-inch pins to reduce the sacral fracture. It was a long recovery, although they didn't allow me to lay around for long; I had to sit up within a couple of days, as I remember, and I used a walker to get around for a couple of weeks before graduating to crutches.

Those days are pretty hazy to me now, since I was in a fog from the drugs as well as the pain. But as I began to get better, I asked about the pain medication I was on. The doctor told me that when I felt capable of dealing with it, I could start tapering off on the drugs. Because I was not wanting to become dependent on them, I tried to do this within a few weeks after returning home.

I couldn't do it. Although I finally got down to taking the smallest dose available to me, I could not go without the drugs for longer than a few hours. In doing some research about oxycontin, I found that within seven days of use, you are addicted to it. And this is no small addiction, let me tell you! The first symptom was itching, like I had ants crawling around under my skin, a runny nose, and a strong desire to make it all stop. Eventually I called the doctor and asked for a smaller dose, and for some advice. He told me just to cut the pill in half! You can't do that, I knew, because it releases the entire time-release drug in your system at once. But he didn't know that.

This was before it became a sought-after street drug. I think it had not been used for long, and the drug companies were pushing it onto the doctors as a safe and effective pain reliever. Yeah, it is that, all right, but it's one of the hardest things I have ever done, getting off of it. I had a friend who became addicted to it and managed to get it prescribed by several doctors because of continuing pain. She could not get off it, and eventually committed suicide (I think because they threatened to cut her off). We had several conversations about our struggle to get free of this narcotic. I eventually used percocet and ibuprofen to wean myself off the stronger and more addictive oxycontin.

My question is this: if I can get ahold of this powerful drug just by asking my doctor for it, why is it that something that is far less addictive and harmful to me is not legal??? It would make me a criminal and give the authorities the right to put me in jail if I were to smoke pot for pain.

Just asking.