Friday, August 14, 2009

A Quick Toke of the Day

So today was my day to get ready to go to the Cannabis Club. That takes over an hour and then I got to drive INDY all the way there, which was over a mile. Yes, having a power chair does give me an advantage, it also threw me around like what you think the post office does to your presents at Xmas. I hit every pothole, every bad curb cut, every bad driveway, I was tossed back and forth. Where is the serene music that plays and I sweetly glide down the sidewalk that the ad showed? Oh well, maybe I shouldn’t go on the ‘super speed level’ all the time. Though my first thought was; “Tell techs to make these level go FASTER – I mean I was hardly at a running pace!”.

Yes I realize that driving at like, 15 miles an hour on crappy pavement and then complaining that I am not getting a great ride is irony or something. But for $25,000, I wanted a freakin' hovercraft, okay? Like superglide suspension! But instead I was the 'Wheebel Wobble Wheelchair Person' (remember the Wheebel Wobbles', they Wheebel and they Wobble but they don't fall down! - insert jingle?). And when I slowed down, the bumps were just worse so I figured I would only slow down around humans since I think I have three broken toes now, and if I can do that to ME with this power chair, I don't want to hurt someone else. And I slowed down at traffic lights and the 'quote' curb cuts, known as the 1/2 inch to 2 inch straight drop. GRRR!

But I got to the club forms and explanation took 90 minutes and since I am still up from all day and need to sleep instead of waking up and writing this I will make this account short. This club is the professional club and they recommend that I get the official stamp of approval from the Canadian government to make travelling in airlines and such within Canada easier. With my disability Tax Status that should not be a problem I was told. They explained the different strains and what I should expect. I bought the mouth spray ($20 for the large bottle) which acts in two to five minutes maximum to cause relaxation and pain control (that is the ‘strain’ I chose NOT the stimulant one). That way if I am waking up having a ‘hell night’ a few spray in the mouth and I don’t have to wait for 20 minutes for a tranquilizer to kick in. I also got the slower acting olive oil based one, which I take at night and I will try a baseline this weekend to find out how long it takes to act: from 30 to 120 minutes. They have cookies but recommend that you start with 1/8th of a cookie and that you have OTHER, non cannibis cookies because if you are waiting for over an hour, a chocolate chip cookie can look really good, particularly if you are a ‘munching’ TV watching, where you nibble. And before you know it, yup, you have overdosed and are in for anxiety and high heart rate: proceed to a dark room for 1 to 2 hours without passing go. Sounded like good advice to me.

It was hot, and the sun shined all the way there. It rained all the way back and then the sun came out after I got inside. Yeah one of those kind of times. So besides that I got soaked and had frostbite so bad my fingers were literally the purple color of grapes due to my vascular issues and Raynaud's (that is just was rain does, let’s see what SNOW does…NOT!). Also had a bit of a medical issue later which stopped my nap.

Right now I am finishing up the postcard matching for the weekend. Like the postal service, not sleet, nor hail or dead of night is going to stop me. I am sorry I can’t do big numbers but this has been a pretty bad week – today I couldn’t get out of bed. Like, not possible. Of course, that isn’t the EFM motto, so I just sort of dragged myself into a drop of several feet. Whee, I am out of bed now! Okay, I am on the floor, but that is still out of bed! I was a few minutes late to my appointment at the club.

I enjoy matching the postcards, I hope the people from last week can take a picture of their postcard for me please as I did not get a picture of them, so rushed was I in doing them. Well, off to bed go I. Cheers.

18 comments:

Victor Kellar said...

I really hope the cannibus works out for you. When I was much younger I too, went the Cannibus Club, but it was a small basement rec room with fake wood panelling on the walls and black light posters and there was a lot of loud Deep Purple music .. but that have been a different kind of club

Rest up and take care

wendryn said...

I hope it helps, especially after so much work getting there! I'm glad you avoided running over anyone, too. :P

The munching on the cookie thing made me laugh.

Hope you are doing ok today!

Alex M said...

I'm glad you have hooked yourself up with a club. Please keep us posted about how the medicine helps or doesn't help. I sure hope it helps!!

Tom P. said...

How I wish medical marijuana was legal here. It would help Michel so much. Oh... and don't they have brownies? ;)

Dawn Allenbach said...

Yay for medical marijuana!

Girl, I feel your sidewalk pain. The sidewalks here in NO -- whew! And curb cuts? New Orleans don't need no steenking curb cuts!

cheryl g said...

Good choices of the spray version and oil version. They will provide you with the fastest absorption so it should give you the fastest relief. I am really hoping this is the answer to helping you control pain for sleeping.

Sigh… it is so like you to drag yourself out of bed and onto the floor. I am guessing you then proceeded to crawl or drag yourself to your chair. You are the only person I know where I am exceedingly grateful for their stubborn streak. I do mean that as a compliment...

Elizabeth McClung said...

Victor: yeah they had a hard time accepting that I had never done pot and was from Victoria (Okay, yes, I am the last virgin!) nor would I smoke it as I haven't had a cig either.

Hmmmm....was your club for medicinal use? I am slightly worried that all the cannibis movies will now start to make a lot more sense to me. There is something wrong about me in the wheelchair going, "Woah dude" and sniggering at TV.

Rest, vat is this vord rest?

Wendryn: I hope it helps too. Yes I actually slowed down near children. I have found that in the power chair, I think people in this city can't tell the difference between scooters and power chairs and who uses them so they didn't get out of my way, while in the manual they do -so in the manual they go, "Oh poor crippled girl" and get out of my way, while in the power chair, they make ME go onto the grass while they keep the sidewalk because, I am just another pesky senior? I dunno.

Yes, well they warned me because people get hungry BEFORE the thing hits or impatient and while waiting take a bit more of the cookie and more and then it turns out that is a bad idea. So, I am going to have them pre-cut so that I can only use the specific amount.

I do wonder what Linda would be like on a cookie - is living with me a medical condition? Maybe she qualifies.

Alex M: Hey, I just sent you a postcard. I think you will like it, it is just up your um, en guard. Yes, it took a lot of time and determination like going from the doctors right to the place, and then going back in to the place several times to get a 'emergency' intake appointment which I had to do solo yesterday and now I just need to find time when I can get a routine, like watching a show for 60-90 minutes before bed and then using a baseline to see if it helps, same with the spray, if I can cut the pain in the morning down to get some real sleep, that would be amazing.

Tom P.: I wish it was too - I feel for Michel, any chance she can see the meteors this weekend? I have even suggested a relative with bad fibro get the oral spray (which is on prescription in the UK) but they are of the generation which doesn't DO drugs (while reaching for the 5 different painkillers and muscle relaxants they need to function).

Actually the olive oil it is based in for a variation they said to try making Duncan Hinz Brownies which calls for Olive oil and then just note how much is used and how much brownie to take - the dosage means each $10 bottle is between 10 and 20 uses. It is an added expense, like the Florastor, Gatorade, Grapes and other things to keep me going, but thankfully it seems we are still able to afford it. We also never go out, so that helps - Entertainment budget = Zero. Budget to bail out Beth who has bought too many postcards = way too much.

Dawn: Have you tried it? Does it work for you?

I don't know some points how I wasn't almost thrown out of the chair, and going slow just hurt more so might as well go faster - besides the whole, not able to move thing made me late anyway so catch up time doing the speed thing. Yeah, I remember that about NO, not a lot of improvement since like, um 1960 right in paving?

Cheryl: Well, if one way doesn't work we try another, right. I am hoping this works too. They synthoid is making it so I am not supporting walls with my head all the time. So I hope this will give me quality pain free and longer sleep and then maybe I will have more awake time.

Well, if I had to worry about hurting myself in the long term, I might not do so many of the stupid things I do, but since I can only do what I need to do for now and then do the next thing, this is what gets the job done. See ya soon!

Stephanie said...

I love the image of you veering around cracks and bad sidewalks and children while almost-running to your appointment. I hope it doesn't hurt you too much, but it sounds like a great picture to see. Do you really go over a mile just on INDY? I'm so used to traveling by car that I never would have thought of just going by wheelchair.

Also, mmm cookies. Good idea to cut them into serving sizes, and then probably not allow yourself near the jar of cookies... but maybe you should have a jar of real cookies anyway. Is there chocolate in these cookies? Because it's impossible to live without chocolate.

I'm also impressed you're doing postcards at all, even if not at big numbers. But y'know, you can take a break sometimes, have a romantic evening and pretend it's sleet or snow... or maybe I'm saying that because you're making me feel guilty for not answering my letters yet. I keep saying I'll do it and then being too tired. Agh. :/

Dawn Allenbach said...

I've never tried medical marijuana because my pain isn't that severe. I'm still where two acetaminophen work on most pain. More severe pain calls for 5 (rarely 10) mg Lortab. I often wondered if my brother could have benefitted from it, though.

Yeah, NO's sidewalks SUCK OUT LOUD, as do their city streets. They blame it on subsidence (which IS why they're all lumpy), but they're in no rush to fix them.

Raccoon said...

... one time, a really long time ago, we ordered two large pizzas for the two of us, before we started inhaling. We ended up with the munchies, of course, AFTER we finished the pizza...

Maybe this will help out your appetite, too?

Wait -- my chair only gets about 5 miles an hour! How did you get yours so fast?

Kate J said...

I like the idea of the high-powered wheelchair... where my mum used to live, there was a woman had one of those disability scooter things, which I think must have been souped up in some way. Everyone called her Hell's Granny!
I just got my new computer, (hurrah!) and have wireless-internetted it, so I can even use it while lounging in my favourite chair, or sitting in the garden, instead of having to be at a desk... but now I'm away for a week, so will be offline, again.
Hope the cannabis etc do you some good.
Love and peace...

Neil said...

I also pray for cannabis pain control to work for you.

The actual installation of curb cuts has baffled me since before I found your blog. If your sidewalks are anything like ours, there's no way of avoiding the bumps.

Rest: it's a word meaning "Beth will stop when she falls asleep. Or when Linda sits on her to hold her down."

Love and zen hugs,
Neil

rachelcreative said...

Good luck with the new medicine. I hope it can help with sleep and relaxation and pain relief.

For £25k I would want a hovercraft too.

Cereus Sphinx said...

Hope the cannabis does you good.
I'm glad you got to see a few meteors.

(off topic)
Have you ever watched Reefer Madness? Not that it in any way describes the actual experience of being around high people, but it's one of the most unintentionally-hilarious anti-drug propaganda films ever.
(/off topic)

FridaWrites said...

I didn't realize they made mouth sprays and some of the other products--it would be good to have something fast acting sometimes. I don't know that I would want some of the side effects, but it might be worth me trying it someday. I wonder what happens when a medical user flies from one state to another (when it's allowed one place but not another).

This girl did too much and needs to nap, zzzz...

annette2 said...

Elizabeth I hope that the cannabis gives you some relief. It's great that at least one doctor is willing to do something to help you. On a lighter note, I wonder if you saw any pictures of Emiri Miyasaka in her Miss Universe costume. Public outcry!
I saved the article so i would remember to tell you

http://dreamgirls-marcos56.blogspot.com/2009/07/dreamgirl-emiri-miyasaka-miss-universe_25.html

If that doesn't work. I'm sure you can just google her name and find her
Anette

SharonMV said...

Dear Beth,

the spray is a good idea - I didn't know they had that. Not smoking is a good decision - it is hard on the lungs. hope it works fast & well.

Sharon

Anonymous said...

hope it's helping...