Two years ago a patient of mine named Brain sat in the orthopedic spine specialists examination room anxiously awaiting his recommendation.   He had herniated 2 discs (L3-L4 and L4-L5) and was having sever pain and occasional numbness down his right leg.   The pain was debilitating and it was keeping him from working as [...]

This week I was contacted by the director of operations for The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy in Chicago because of the feedback they are getting from patients about how much it helps them. Unfortunately Illinois does not have a medical marijuana law on the books so the patients there are frustrated and want relief. The women I spoke with reached out to me because I have blogged about the success I have had using medical marijuana to treat neuropathic pain. READ ON….

Last week I had a patient who suffered from Transverse Myelitis come in for a medical marijuana recommendation. She was the first patient that I have taken care of with this problem. However today I had a 61 year old women who came in with a 10 year history of Transverse Myelitis and she complained of a burning pain in her left leg that makes it extremely difficult for her to sleep. She also has complete numbness to pressure in that leg. It wasn’t until recently, after her sons begged her to try, that she found cannabis not only reduces the pain but allows her to sleep through the night! Amazing.

Today in my Long Beach medical marijuana (cannabis) office I evaluated a 60 year old man who has been suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. He explained that he gets a burning sensation in his right hand and also has pain with any type of wrist movement that involves flexing his wrist. The pain is most pronounced in the evenings and at night and it has caused significant problems with sleeping. He has been using cannabis successfully for the past 2 months and wanted to receive a physician recommendation so he can safely access medicine to treat his symptoms.

Today in my Irvine office I had the honor of taking care of Kathryn R. She is an amazing 83 year old women who developed peripheral neuropathy (pain originating from damage to the nerves themselves) from taking a drug called amiodarone to treat her atrial fibrillation. When I introduced myself to her she said “you are my last hope.”

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients who suffer from neuropathic pain as a result of diabetes. Neuropathic pain means pain that is associated with direct pathology to the nerves themselves. This is in contrast to pain in a muscle whose signal is transported to the brain via the healthy nerves. In diabetes the elevated levels of sugar in the blood actually cause damage to the nerves leading to chronic pain. Cannabis has been shown in several studies to reduce the pain associated with various causes of neuropathic pain including HIV neuropathy.