{"id":4412,"date":"2015-07-16T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=3530"},"modified":"2015-07-16T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T10:36:09","slug":"oregon-fibromyalgia-patient-says-only-pot-helps-her-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/oregon-fibromyalgia-patient-says-only-pot-helps-her-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon: Fibromyalgia Patient Says Only Pot Helps Her Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/oregon-fibromyalgia-patient-says-only-pot-helps-her-pain\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Carolyn Morse grew up in a conservative, middle-class family in San Francisco, the daughter of a Baptist pastor and police officer. She never experimented with drugs. She didn&#8217;t even smoke.<\/p>\n<p>But then she developed fibromyalgia, a chronic condition marked by pain, fatigue and insomnia.<\/p>\n<p>She tried rounds of medications but they didn&#8217;t help. So she took a puff of marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Suddenly, I felt normal,&#8221; Morse said.<\/p>\n<p>Now 51, Morse is one of more than 71,000 medical marijuana cardholders in Oregon. She medicates about four times a week at bedtime to help her sleep. She doesn&#8217;t overdo it, she said. She hates the side effects, like midnight munchies. She just wants to live an active life.<\/p>\n<p>She said she&#8217;s only stopped feeling like a criminal in the past two years.<\/p>\n<p>Her journey started in 2006. A mother of two, she worked out regularly in the gym and had a full-time job as a banquet manager at Timberline Lodge. One day, carrying a stack of plates up stairs, she fell and injured her spine.<\/p>\n<p>After that, she&#8217;d fumble and trip a lot. Glasses slipped out of her hands and she stumbled down stairs. She was dogged with fatigue and a fuzzy memory.<\/p>\n<p>Physicians thought she might have multiple sclerosis and put her on steroids. Symptoms would ease, then flare up.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, she suffered sparklers of pain throughout her body. In 2009, she developed paralysis on part of her body.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We rushed her to the hospital, thinking she&#8217;d had a stroke,&#8221; said Don Morse, her husband. &#8220;That&#8217;s when the definitive diagnosis of fibromyalgia was made.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Doctors put her on Cymbalta, one of three drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for fibromyalgia. She also tried Vicodin and Prozac.<\/p>\n<p>But nothing helped. She packed on 80 pounds and become a shut-in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would stay in the house for weeks at a time,&#8221; Morse said. &#8220;I was a zombie.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A friend suggested she try marijuana. Don Morse gathered all the research he could find. Together, they decided she should give it a try.<\/p>\n<p>One night a friend brought over a hookah and she took a puff, the first in her life.<\/p>\n<p>A warm feeling flooded her body and eased her pain. &#8220;It was like magic,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband, who doesn&#8217;t like marijuana, helped her get her card.<\/p>\n<p>They drove to a building in Southeast Portland, located on a gravel road. They had to enter in the back. Couches lined the room, and the walls had posters in red, yellow and green, reminiscent of Bob Marley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It smelled like a skunk,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>In a room, she sat on a folding chair and answered questions. A physician took her blood pressure, weighed her and signed the forms.<\/p>\n<p>She was good to go.<\/p>\n<p>Obtaining medical marijuana was more difficult. She and her husband grew it for a time in their house but then discovered the Human Collective, a dispensary in Tigard. He helped with their books, and she learned to make fudge, caramels, cookies and brownies.<\/p>\n<p>These days Don Morse directs the Oregon Cannabis Business Council and co-owns the Human Collective, now in Southwest Portland. Carolyn Morse whips up edibles for the dispensary.<\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;s glad that the program has come out of the closet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a paper trail,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There are cameras, a panic button. It&#8217;s changed a lot for me knowing I have a safe place to go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/gallery\/data\/1412\/15069.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Jacob Redmond <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/marijuana\/index.ssf\/2015\/07\/patient_finds_only_medical_mar.html\" target=\"_blank\">Fibromyalgia patient says only pot helps her pain | OregonLive.com<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Lynne Terry<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"mailto:lterry@oregonian.com\">lterry@oregonian.com<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Lynne Terry<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oregon Local News, Breaking News, Sports &amp; Weather &#8211; OregonLive.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carolyn Morse grew up in a conservative, middle-class family in San Francisco, the daughter of a Baptist pastor and police&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2015\/07\/oregon-fibromyalgia-patient-says-only-pot-helps-her-pain\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1614,9,1,3],"tags":[4182],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}