Blog
Welcome to my blog! I have a rare condition called arthofibrosis, and severe osteoarthritis in the front two compartments of my knee joint. I have had 3 knee surgeries, and I need another, but they cannot do it because of my condition. My doctor said I will be lucky to make it 10 years before I would need a full knee replacement. I deal with chronic pain, everyday. Cannabis is a safe way for me to combat the pain. I want to share my experience with others in hopes that my experiences can help someone else out.
You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube! Crystal's Chronic Creations
To whom it may concern,
This is a Blog for changes in my everyday life due to a debilitating knee injury, and a condition that prevents conventional treatments. Along with my experience on how I helped myself, when the doctors couldn't help. How I turned to nature remedies, and what that process is like.
**I am not a medical professional, and NONE of what I say should be taken as medical advice, just me sharing my expirence, and research, so you can do your own research, and make your own conclutions. Everyone is different, and some people ARE allergic to cannbis. Please do your own research, and take heed to anything anyone tells you, on the internet or anywhere else. You should always such multiple sources, and search articles from different countries so you get the full picture. Thank you!" **
My Story - The 1st Knee Surgery
I wanted to share how arthrofibrosis has changed my life. I originally injured my knee April 6th of 2020. My injury did not occur at work, and I had only been employed by Chipotle for 65 days. Unfortunately to get benefits with my job, you had to be employed for 90 days. Due to covid restrictions my surgery was put off until May 28th. In the meantime I was instructed by my doctor to do physical therapy to get as much range of motion before the surgery as possible.
After my surgery Dr. Lavender came to me to let me know that when he got inside my knee, not only did I have cartilage torn, and floating pieces that had solidified over the years, but that I had severe bone damage in my knee joint as well, and he had to do a bone graft, and use a screw to hold my cadaver of cartilage in place. As my doctor and I talked before the cartilage reconstruction surgery, I was under the assumption that I would return to work in 15 weeks at the most. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Six weeks out of my surgery I was only 55 degrees on a bend (angle of knee flexion). I was experiencing severe pain, more than what my doctor considered normal for my type of procedure. At this point Dr. Lavender said I should have been at 90 degrees, and I was only at 55 degrees, and I was having severe pain, to the point I was only sleeping, or nodding out, for about 20 minutes at a time. The pain medicine was not helping, and was making me dizzy, but unfortunately due to new restrictions on medication my doctor was not able to try anything else. I literally suffered. It has been described by other patients as being worse than giving birth, although It last a lot longer. I was also experiencing numb spots, from nerve damage. After my doctor refused to give me anything else I turned to edibles to help me through. I was only getting 20 minutes of sleep at a time, and edibles help me sleep through the pain for at least a few hours.
The Second Knee Surgery
Dr. Lavender decided on a manipulation, and a surgery to clear out scar tissue, and culture the tissue for infection, to rule that out. He said it was necessary, as well as doing a scope, where he cut back into poke holes to clear out scar tissue under my knee cap, and a culture to be run on those tissues to check for infection. He also sent me for a nerve conduction test before the surgery, and consulted another specialist, to make sure my nerves would hold up for the surgery, and to make sure another surgery was the best solution. I also had an allergic reaction to the derma bond used on my incisions to close them up. It caused hives to appear down my leg, and around my knee. It also made the wounds peely, and flaky. I was given cream to combat the reaction, and I was able to get that cleared up.
June 28th 2020 was my second surgery. He did a manipulation, and cleared out scar tissue. The labs from this surgery revealed no sign of infection, but he did determine that I had arthrofibrosis. Six weeks out of my second surgery I was still only up to about 65 degrees on a bend, at my next follow up appointment he told me he didn't think I would get more than 90 degrees of flexion. Just enough bend to get in and out of a chair, and that’s it. On 7 /23/ 2020 he wrote a letter stating that “ Ms. Forrest is currently disabled from work secondary to her injury to the right knee, and surgery. It is likely that she will not reach maximum capacity once she is fully improved after rehabilitation. Will will address this with a Functional Capacity Evaluation for her disability rating when time is appropriate.” He also recommended a CPM (certive passive motion)machine, to try to help me gain as much range of motion as possible. For 21 days 8 hours a day it was my job to make my knee bend. They give you a machine to strap your leg into, and bend it for you because its to painful to do yourself. Essentially a home torching device. The pain was excruciating, I had to bring the machine to Physical Therapy 3 days a week, on top of my normal schedule, and they had to put me in a second room because my screaming, and crying was upsetting the other patients. On top of that I was using the machine 6 hours a day. I actually have logs in a diary that I took to keep track. For a whole month that was my job, to get this knee to bend, or it would be stuck, and I would never bend it again! It took a lot of work, and with the Grace of God helping me through that I finally started going up in my range of motion, and managed to get to 135 degrees on a bend! Dr. Lavender called it a “Miracle”. He did not think I would get that far. Although a huge battle was won, the war against my arthrofibrosis was not. I was still having issues, Many tasks were still challenging, and I had lost a lot of muscle, and my pain, and scar tissue affected my ability to complete all my exercises at physical therapy. Specifically, my bent leg lifts. There was a loud audible crunching sound that concerned my physical therapist, to the point he recommended I don't do that exercise anymore, especially since it became painful to do so after a few days. So Dr. Lavender recommended a third sergery called a debriment of the knee. He told me before I went under that the x rays and MRI's did't show anything but he would try his best. Well to his surprize when he got in there he realized I had a large amount of fresh scar tissue. Because it was so fresh it wasn't showing up on imaging. So he removed it, but the third surgery had more consiquence. It did nerve damage, and made my VMO very weak. My quad never fully activated after the third surgery, and I was unable to do half squats anymore, and the pain was severe.
After Last Surgery Discovery of Natural Supplements as Alternative Option
After my last surgery I went from no arthritis to moderate/severe within 11 months. I was told I needed another surgery for the arthristis, but they can't do it because my leg will go stiff, and I will be in worse shape than I am now. I quickly went down hill, requiring a cane at first to continue the little bit of walking I couldn't do to begin with, and then eventually up to crutches, and finaly a wheelchair. The pain had gotten so bad I couldnt stand any weigt on y knee. I went back to my ortho multiple times, but he said without doing an operation, he did't know how to help me. So I started doing my own research. What I found was amazing! Did you know a lot of ailments today can be treated naturally? Although your doctors are being told not to treat with supplements, but I am proof it works! I started with Glucosimine Chondrotin, and it starting helping within 4 weeks, it wasn't anything crazy, but I noticed the pain was easing up. I looked up ways to boost it, by taking milk thistle to help with absorbtion, and Moranga Olferia to help put a bunch of nutrients in my body to help the supplament do its job, regrow cartilage! There was also a Joint Relief by Health Masters, has all kinds of natural stuff proven to help arthritis pain, and it worked amazingly. Within 2 month of taking I was able to go back to just a cane, and had a couple days where the weather was nicee, and I could actually walk a little with just a knee brace, and I just had a little limp. Unfortunatly this suppliment is $40 a month and I am still waiting on SSI. I had to go almost a whole month without my new found treatment, I was devestated as I started to go backwards again. Pain increased, and weight baring became more, and more difficult. I was able to get another bottle for now, but I worry about running our before I get my SSI. Unfortunately they are so backed up it takes years to get a court date to even plead your case, and SSI just denies everyone so you have to go to court. I had a good job, but got layed off during corona, and got injured shortly after, too shortly to qualify for benifits at the next job. So I had to rely on the government. Well on top of them being backed up there are really no programs to help you while you wait. DHHR will pay 1 bill a year and give you $200/ Month in Stamps. Then we have Heart & Hand, Mountain Mission, and Salvation Army, and again they only pay one bill a year, and thats only if they have the funding to do so. So the rest of your bills? Well unless someone can help you, it won't matter how much you paid into it, or how much proof you will have to wait, witch means unless you have credit to take out a loan your unsure when you will be able to pay back, than you are screwed. I see homeless in wheelchairs, and I can't help but wonder, could they not get help throughout the wait? Why are there no programs when the lawyer is telling me there are many in this boat, some in worse condition, and they paid into it longer! You really wanna continue paying $20,000 or more a year for SSI, and Medicare if it takes years to get your money? You will loose everything in the process. I am hoping to be able to do something about this! Not just for me, but others in the same boat.
Why Cannabis Helps or Doesn't
This all has been a super painful, and super stressful! It's one thing to learn to deal with chronic pain, but a whole other thing when you can't even so a quarter of what you used to do. You used to go have fun, and work hard, now you work hard to do basic activities of daily living. Even my phycologist would agree my life was bleak, and she had no recommendations for how to make anything better. It seamed there would be no help until, West Virginia decided to go medical for cannabis in 2021, and I made sure to sign up. It already made sense for me to treat myself naturally.
It really does help, but isn't a cure all. If you are not actively doing something to help your condition you will continue to increase your cannabis intake to cope, and at some point you may feel it's not working. It's not that it doesn't work, its that if you are in an extreme amount of pain it will take a much higher dose of cannabis to help, maybe even larger than what you can possibly consume. If you are actively treating your conditions, cannabis can be a great aid in managing pain, and mood. Researching the best way to consume high doses if you need it, is important too. This is why cancer patients get the dark oil for under their tongue, or a strong tincture, because smoking a joint wont help someone in that amount of pain. Learn the more concentrated ways to consume cannabis.
Can You Have an Allergic Reaction To Cannabis?
The short answer, YES. You can have allergic reactions to cannabis including, but not limited to, sneezing, itchy eyes, watery or dry eyes, along with skin, and lung reactions. You should take caution introducing anything new into your body. This day and age there are so many topicals, and foods, but do you really know what you are putting on your body? The research is out there, that maybe a lot of products we use everyday are bad for us. Anyone can be allergic to tree's, and flowers in nature so it only makes sense that some may experience allergic reactions. Sometimes these reactions can be due to pesticides, and other chemicals sprayed on the plant to maintain the plants health, and make the plant yield a good amount. ALL these factors should be taken into account before trying cannabis. Making sure you trust your dispensery, and making sure you view the lab results, and understanding how labs on cannabis are; done, how accurate they are, and how often, is very important. Also tring small amounts to start is highly recommended. You can ALWAYS take more, but you can NEVER take less. Some people try cannabis, and are overwhelmed, or crippled with anxiety, or paranoia, make sure you have a safety plan for how to try cannabis safety. Including; knowing how to recognize symptoms, and being aware of when you do, having a plan to cope with the situations listed above like having a friend you can trust to call if you panic, having allergy medicine nearby incase you do have a reaction, make sure you are in a relaxed environment, that you feel comfortable, starting with a very small amount, and having a phone nearby if you need medical assistance. This is extremely rare, especially if you start with a very small amount to see how it effects you, but does happen to some, so just be prepared, and you will feel more relaxed going into it.
QR Codes on my Medical THC Edibles, and Flower. What it means?
When cannabis first become legal, and I saw a QR code on my cannabis product I had bought, I couldn't help but to be curious. Turns out all cannabis companies are required to provide lab results for any product they have for sale. One way of doing that, and making it convenient for everyone, is to put a QR code on the package. You just pull up the camera on your smart phone, point the camera at the QR code, and tap the link when it pops up. This may be tricky to some if you have never done it before. Just make sure you keep the camera aimed at the code until you are able to click the link that pops up. From there you will be sent to a link with official lab results. One thing to note is the cannabis industry has set a error margin of 10%. So results may be slightly off, but can give a deeper analysis into the cannabis product you are consuming. You can also look up the company if there is no code available, a lot of them have the lab results available on their website as well.