Truth Seeker
New Member
Some nights, Susan Sturner says, it feels as though pins are being stuck in her eyes.
"It can be completely debilitating," she said.
Sturner was diagnosed with glaucoma six years ago. She said that in addition to the pain in her eyes, she has also been fighting intense headaches and nausea as a side effect of the disease.
"Yesterday was a bad day," she said last night at her home in Lawrence. "When I woke up yesterday, I was like, 'Oh, if I just had something to get me going, to quiet the pain and the nausea that had started the night before, that would be great.'"
And then, Sturner said, she got the call.
Yesterday, Sturner traveled to the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, currently the only medicinal medical marijuana dispensary in the state, for her first appointment.
She came home yesterday with a quarter ounce of a variety called G2 indica, which cost $140, and a quarter ounce of one called G2 sativa, which cost $120, in the hope that the drug would help lessen the symptoms of the disease naturally and reduce the pressure in her eyes that is damaging her optic nerves.
"Now, I'm someone who hasn't smoked pot in a really long time," Sturner said as she removed her medicine from the black bags. "I was told to take it very slow."
But as soon as she took her first puff of the indica, a strain of marijuana that is used to treat insomnia, chronic pain, and anxiety by relaxing the patient, she said she felt better.
"This feels pretty good," she said. "It's a nice mellow."
At Greenleaf, Sturner was given a patient log to document how each of the different strains made her feel and an educational packet on topics from how to smoke the prescription to how to make tea with it.
Sturner said she always been interested in medical marijuana because she believes that it does possess medical benefits.
But Sturner, who also has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fibromyalgia and hepatitis C, couldn't receive a prescription for marijuana until her glaucoma started getting out of control.
"Those are three conditions not covered in New Jersey for medical marijuana," she said.
Sturner said in August, her glaucoma started to get worse.
Sturner said her doctor first prescribed drops, which didn't control her glaucoma, before receiving laser eye surgery, which seemed to control the disease.
"Then, all of a sudden, I noticed my left eye wasn't right," Sturner said. "I went (to the eye doctor), they did the pressure test, they did the visual field test and there's a big chunk out of somewhere in my left eye that has no vision."
Sturner's doctor prescribed different drops but she had a reaction that left her eyes very bloody and itchy. Since Sturner is allergic to all the other kinds of drops, the next step would be for her to have surgery done to open up the canals in her eyes or put tubes in the canals in her eyes to relieve the pressure.
Sturner said the doctor told her there was no guarantee that the surgery would work and if it did work, it might only work for a few years, like her laser surgery did.
"And then I might need surgery again or I could end up just going blind," she said.
In an attempt to avoid surgery, Sturner brought her medical records to a different doctor in September who submitted her case to the state, which accepted her into the medical marijuana program.
"I said to my eye doctor, 'Please, can I have the 90 days to see if what's been proven by science can show you that my eye pressure is stable?'" she said. "And if we can keep it stable and not spiking, we can hopefully avoid surgery."
And since September, Sturner has waited, hoping that she would get the call from Greenleaf and be able to start treatment.
"I've been super scared," she said. "Not because I think I'm special ... I'm going blind. I don't know what day it's going to be that the pressure spikes or that my eye says 'This is the day, we're going to take this amount of sight away.' And that's never coming back."
And even though Sturner has made it past the first obstacle of getting into Greenleaf, she said the fight for medical marijuana is only beginning.
"I'm very excited and I keep thinking I'm dreaming," she said. "But if I could quote (medical marijuana advocate) Jay Lassiter, 'There's so much more work that we have to do.' I made it over the hurdle and now it's, 'What can I do to help other patients?'"
Sturner says she hopes that if she finds her medicine helping with symptoms of her other diseases, she'll be able to tell someone so that people with PTSD, fibromyalgia, Hepatitis C or other similar diseases also can be treated.
"It's historic, it's wonderful, but it's a baby step," Sturner said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: nj.com
Author: Christina Izzo
Contact: Contact Us - NJ.com
Website: Lawrence woman is among New Jersey's first medical marijuana patients | NJ.com
"It can be completely debilitating," she said.
Sturner was diagnosed with glaucoma six years ago. She said that in addition to the pain in her eyes, she has also been fighting intense headaches and nausea as a side effect of the disease.
"Yesterday was a bad day," she said last night at her home in Lawrence. "When I woke up yesterday, I was like, 'Oh, if I just had something to get me going, to quiet the pain and the nausea that had started the night before, that would be great.'"
And then, Sturner said, she got the call.
Yesterday, Sturner traveled to the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, currently the only medicinal medical marijuana dispensary in the state, for her first appointment.
She came home yesterday with a quarter ounce of a variety called G2 indica, which cost $140, and a quarter ounce of one called G2 sativa, which cost $120, in the hope that the drug would help lessen the symptoms of the disease naturally and reduce the pressure in her eyes that is damaging her optic nerves.
"Now, I'm someone who hasn't smoked pot in a really long time," Sturner said as she removed her medicine from the black bags. "I was told to take it very slow."
But as soon as she took her first puff of the indica, a strain of marijuana that is used to treat insomnia, chronic pain, and anxiety by relaxing the patient, she said she felt better.
"This feels pretty good," she said. "It's a nice mellow."
At Greenleaf, Sturner was given a patient log to document how each of the different strains made her feel and an educational packet on topics from how to smoke the prescription to how to make tea with it.
Sturner said she always been interested in medical marijuana because she believes that it does possess medical benefits.
But Sturner, who also has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fibromyalgia and hepatitis C, couldn't receive a prescription for marijuana until her glaucoma started getting out of control.
"Those are three conditions not covered in New Jersey for medical marijuana," she said.
Sturner said in August, her glaucoma started to get worse.
Sturner said her doctor first prescribed drops, which didn't control her glaucoma, before receiving laser eye surgery, which seemed to control the disease.
"Then, all of a sudden, I noticed my left eye wasn't right," Sturner said. "I went (to the eye doctor), they did the pressure test, they did the visual field test and there's a big chunk out of somewhere in my left eye that has no vision."
Sturner's doctor prescribed different drops but she had a reaction that left her eyes very bloody and itchy. Since Sturner is allergic to all the other kinds of drops, the next step would be for her to have surgery done to open up the canals in her eyes or put tubes in the canals in her eyes to relieve the pressure.
Sturner said the doctor told her there was no guarantee that the surgery would work and if it did work, it might only work for a few years, like her laser surgery did.
"And then I might need surgery again or I could end up just going blind," she said.
In an attempt to avoid surgery, Sturner brought her medical records to a different doctor in September who submitted her case to the state, which accepted her into the medical marijuana program.
"I said to my eye doctor, 'Please, can I have the 90 days to see if what's been proven by science can show you that my eye pressure is stable?'" she said. "And if we can keep it stable and not spiking, we can hopefully avoid surgery."
And since September, Sturner has waited, hoping that she would get the call from Greenleaf and be able to start treatment.
"I've been super scared," she said. "Not because I think I'm special ... I'm going blind. I don't know what day it's going to be that the pressure spikes or that my eye says 'This is the day, we're going to take this amount of sight away.' And that's never coming back."
And even though Sturner has made it past the first obstacle of getting into Greenleaf, she said the fight for medical marijuana is only beginning.
"I'm very excited and I keep thinking I'm dreaming," she said. "But if I could quote (medical marijuana advocate) Jay Lassiter, 'There's so much more work that we have to do.' I made it over the hurdle and now it's, 'What can I do to help other patients?'"
Sturner says she hopes that if she finds her medicine helping with symptoms of her other diseases, she'll be able to tell someone so that people with PTSD, fibromyalgia, Hepatitis C or other similar diseases also can be treated.
"It's historic, it's wonderful, but it's a baby step," Sturner said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: nj.com
Author: Christina Izzo
Contact: Contact Us - NJ.com
Website: Lawrence woman is among New Jersey's first medical marijuana patients | NJ.com
