UK Fibromyalgia, Integro Clinics, Primary Care Cannabis Network, CPASS and PLEA are proud to present a collaborative two-part webinar discussing fibromyalgia, arthritis and cannabis medicines.
An estimated 1.5-2 million people are living with fibromyalgia and 10 million with arthritis in the UK. The management of the symptoms of these conditions can take a long time to diagnose correctly and can take even longer before they are effectively brought under control. This two-part series aims to educate attendees on the experiences and lives of those living with fibromyalgia and arthritis, as well as show the benefits that cannabis medicines and CBD can have in alleviating some of the symptoms of these conditions.
Maz is one of three patients, who will be speaking at the second episode of the webinar.
She is a medical cannabis patient with fibromyalgia. She shares her story from first being diagnosed to gaining her medical cannabis prescription, and how her life has improved since then.
Fibromyalgia patients: Maz’s Story
Maz had been suffering from symptoms of fibromyalgia for 18 years before she was finally diagnosed in July 2020. She had previously worked as a bodyguard but had to give up her job as her symptoms were too much to bear.
“I had all these symptoms, which I had been to see my doctor about, but they hadn’t pinned it down to one condition. The symptoms and the pain were getting too much to handle, and I was tired of wearing a mask of “being ok” so I had to give up my job. After doing my own research, I went to my doctor to check if it was in fact fibromyalgia, only then did I get a proper diagnosis,” she said.
Maz was prescribed anticonvulsant medicines, such as pregabalin, to deal with her symptoms. Although she felt that the medicine had helped her slightly, they only helped her in the short term. After a few months, the pain-relief started to wear off and she was only left with the side effects.
Maz explained: “Taking pregabalin had helped me at first, but after a few months, the pain had started to come back and I was suffering from the side effects. I felt very heavy, had dry eyes, vertigo and nausea, to name a few. The medicines took me to some dark places leaving me feeling hopeless and thinking this is what the rest of my life would look like.”
Maz was at the end of her tether and decided to follow the holistic approach to deal with her symptoms. She had already been using recreational cannabis, finding that it had helped her to ease her pain slightly. However, she wanted to try cannabis in a more regulated and controlled way. She first found out about cannabis medicines through the PLEA community on Facebook and did her own research. She found that fibromyalgia symptoms could actually be helped by cannabis. Maz found her prescribing clinic through PLEA and the whole process made her feel at ease.
“I had been using cannabis for quite a while, this was of course recreational cannabis. My brother taught me, from a young age, that cannabis had medicinal benefits so I wanted to find out more about medical cannabis, to see if it could help me more than street cannabis.
Once I had spoken to a doctor at my clinic and got my first cannabis prescription, I felt much less anxious. The cannabis was really helping with my symptoms. I was fascinated by every movement that I made, the pain was not there as it was before. Before, I was too anxious to leave the house in case I needed to come straight home for fear of collapsing in the street. But that’s gone now, even just having my vape with me makes me feel a lot more secure in myself,” She said.
Webinar registration
Maz will be part of the round table panel in the second episode of the webinar. She will discuss why she believes medical cannabis should be more widely accessible for patients when conventional medicines no longer help.
To register for this free event please follow the links to get your tickets:
Part 1: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/168090997699
Part 2: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/168112536121
Integro Medical Clinics Ltd always recommends remaining under the care and treatment of your GP and specialist for your condition, while using cannabis-based medicines, and the Integro clinical team would always prefer to work in collaboration with them,” said Dr Anthony Ordman, senior clinical adviser and hon. clinical director Integro Medical Clinics Limited
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