The General
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North Carolina - If your child had a rare disease and the only possible cure was illegal in your state, would you move across the country where it's legal? Dylan and Kelly Morley of Wilmington are faced with that dilemma. They are moving to Colorado where marijuana is legal. At first glance, their six year old daughter, Mia, looks like any normal 6 year old child. The difference is Mia can't talk---she can't walk.
Mia has a rare form of epilepsy that causes her to have two to three seizures a minute. "She has so many you can't count them,"Dylan says. Mia was diagnosed with a condition called Lennox Syndrome on her first birthday. But her parents noticed something wasn't right a few months after birth. "She wasn't sitting up like normal babies do. She wasn't crawling on time, " her mom, Kelly says.
The Morley's have spent thousands of dollars on over a dozen medications. Hundreds of thousands in hospital visits, paid in large part with insurance. But no amount of money has provided anything close to a cure. The Morley's are now joining dozens of other families from across the country, flocking to Colorado for marijuana. There's a treatment there called "Charlotte's Web," that has proven to reduce seizures in children with conditions like Mia's by as much as 85%.
"I see hope, " Dylan says. Mia's father recently traveled to Colorado to check out the facility that dispenses the drug to learn more about it. Jordan Stanley and his brothers started the operation. They were able to successfully remove most of the THC in the marijuana plant. That's what gets people high. The other part of the plant is CBD, the part that's therapeutic. One of the misconceptions about the treatment is that children have to smoke pot. They do not. The medication comes in liquid form and is dispensed through a syringe.
At this point for the Morley's, its not a matter of if, but when they'll make the move to Colorado. They say this is Mia's only hope. "Everything we've done today has failed," says Dylan. "The doctors have told us you're basically at the end of the road." Mia would have to get treatments everyday and since the drug is not legal here in North Carolina, her family would have to move.
The move is not an easy one. It means leaving family, friends, and even the doctors who have treated Mia. And what makes this even more difficult is that there are no guarantees the treatment will work. Both Dylan and Kelly, have come to terms, though, that this is something they have to do. "Put yourself in our shoes," Kelly says. "Just to be able to look in her eyes without her having a seizure, that would be success." "To be able to meet your child for the first time, that's what we want," Dylan says. "I'd like nothing more than to have a conversation with her."
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Wect.com
Author: Frances Weller
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Moving for Marijuana: Mia's story
Mia has a rare form of epilepsy that causes her to have two to three seizures a minute. "She has so many you can't count them,"Dylan says. Mia was diagnosed with a condition called Lennox Syndrome on her first birthday. But her parents noticed something wasn't right a few months after birth. "She wasn't sitting up like normal babies do. She wasn't crawling on time, " her mom, Kelly says.
The Morley's have spent thousands of dollars on over a dozen medications. Hundreds of thousands in hospital visits, paid in large part with insurance. But no amount of money has provided anything close to a cure. The Morley's are now joining dozens of other families from across the country, flocking to Colorado for marijuana. There's a treatment there called "Charlotte's Web," that has proven to reduce seizures in children with conditions like Mia's by as much as 85%.
"I see hope, " Dylan says. Mia's father recently traveled to Colorado to check out the facility that dispenses the drug to learn more about it. Jordan Stanley and his brothers started the operation. They were able to successfully remove most of the THC in the marijuana plant. That's what gets people high. The other part of the plant is CBD, the part that's therapeutic. One of the misconceptions about the treatment is that children have to smoke pot. They do not. The medication comes in liquid form and is dispensed through a syringe.
At this point for the Morley's, its not a matter of if, but when they'll make the move to Colorado. They say this is Mia's only hope. "Everything we've done today has failed," says Dylan. "The doctors have told us you're basically at the end of the road." Mia would have to get treatments everyday and since the drug is not legal here in North Carolina, her family would have to move.
The move is not an easy one. It means leaving family, friends, and even the doctors who have treated Mia. And what makes this even more difficult is that there are no guarantees the treatment will work. Both Dylan and Kelly, have come to terms, though, that this is something they have to do. "Put yourself in our shoes," Kelly says. "Just to be able to look in her eyes without her having a seizure, that would be success." "To be able to meet your child for the first time, that's what we want," Dylan says. "I'd like nothing more than to have a conversation with her."
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Wect.com
Author: Frances Weller
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Moving for Marijuana: Mia's story
