Yesterday in my Irvine office I took care of a 78 year old man who has chronic pain in his legs as a result of fracturing his left femur 3 years ago during a fall.   He ambulates with a walker as a result of contracting POLIO VIRUS as a child.  He uses medical marijuana to combat the chronic pain in his legs and to assist him with sleeping at night.  He had been using traditional pain killers but experienced significant nausea and constipation.

Most people today are not familiar with the Polio Virus.   The first epidemic in the United States was in Vermont in 1916 where over 9000 people were affected.   Most famously, FDR contracted Polio in 1921 and when he assumed the Presidency of the United States in 1932 he was for the most part wheelchair bound.   In the early to mid 1950′s there were 50,000 cases per year in the US which led to frantic research on a vaccine.    Thanks to Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin a liver vaccine was created and the last indigenous case in the US of Polio was in 1979.

Polio is a virus which is contracted through the oral-fecal (poor hand washing) route most commonly but is also transmitted from patient to patient through mucus secretions.   It typically causes a febrile illness that can mimic meningitis (fever, neck pain, malaise, headache)  and usually is self limiting.   For many patients the virus also attacks the spinal cord and cause the typical lower leg paralysis (acute and sometimes permanent (less than 1% of Cases).   As a result patients have muscle wasting and chronic weakness. Many times patients with polio have super thin calves and ambulate with a limp.

My patient suffered from sever muscle wasting and has had difficulty walking since he contracted it as a child.   Unfortunately he fell three years ago and fractured his femur.   Since he has had significant pain.  Because of his limp he also has severe lumbar spine pain (lower back).  His doctor gave him the standard cocktail of Motrin, Vicodin and Trazodone to assist with sleeping.   All of these medications had side effects which were intolerable.

He had tried cannabis a few times in the past week in edible form and had significant relief.   He was told it was an indica strain (LA Confidential) which is more sedating and less psychoactive than the sativa strains.   He came to my office in hopes of a treatment that he can use the rest of his life to improve his sleep and limit his pain.    With the use of a vaporizer he can inhale it SMOKE FREE and ODORLESS.

If you suffer from chonic pain or contracted polio and would like more information about how cannabis can improve the quality of your life contact us through our website or by calling 877-721-0047

Be blessed,

Dr. Breen