Day: 03/14/2015

Finding enjoyment through pain

Being in constant pain takes all the fun out of life.  It’s hard to find happiness or joy when your body is constantly saying “OUCH!” and “stop doing that.”  And just about the time you laugh at a joke, smell homemade bread, or relax with a favorite tune, your brain on pain quickly reminds you how unimportant all those things are…  I AM PAIN.  I AM THE BOSS.  YOU SHALL NOT WORSHIP OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.

I was just remembering how hard it was to find enjoyment in life while I was on opioid therapy. Yes, the drugs allowed me to be more physically active, until… I wasn’t.  The stress of living under the constant threat of my medications being taken away — the fear of being unable to manage the pain — took a toll.  I believe, without that stress, opioid therapy would have worked better and longer for me.

But there was a difference in my ability to find those little moments of enjoyment that make life worth living while I was in the medical cannabis program.  I don’t know why there’s a difference, but I was thinking that opiates may crowd out other feel-good sensors in the brain.  If these drugs are strong enough to relieve pain, maybe your brain thinks that’s all it really needs, and decreases connections to those chemicals that are involved in feeling happiness and joy. Perhaps our brains can’t distinguish between a lack of physical pain and the emotion of joy.

The entourage effect in cannabis seems to allow for some pain relief, but also… something else. Yes, the THC can cause a similar effect like an opioid, but all the other CBDs keep the THC from being harmful or toxic.  It’s all about balance, which is something that opioids need to get. Maybe they should add some chocolate to Vicodin…

So, perhaps the benefits of cannabis lie not so much in its pain-relieving properties, but more in its ability to allow patients to enjoy life again… even if only for a moment or two.  Enjoyment is important.  Laughter is important.  If your pain is keeping you from these things, maybe it’s time to try cannabis.  Until then, here are some brainy quotes (and an emoticon) for your enjoyment… 🙂

“I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.”  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.”  Adam Smith

“Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”  Epictetus

“Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth – look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”  Soren Kierkegaard

“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.”  Alfred North Whitehead

“I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.”  Maria Mitchell

“Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.”  Cesare Pavese

“A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.”  Frances Burney

“Getting older is a struggle. I always feel that just under the surface of acceptance and enjoyment of the ageing process is a terrible hysteria just waiting to burst out.”  Michael Sheen

“It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.”  Samuel Alexander

“We no longer sing and dance. We don’t know how to. Instead, we watch other people sing and dance on the television screen.”  Tom Hodgkinson

Tax Help New Mexico

March 13, 2015
Dear Friend,

In an ongoing effort to provide top-notch constituent service, my staff travels throughout the state to hold Mobile Office Hours at convenient locations near you. At Mobile Office Hours, my office can help with things like Social Security benefits, Medicare, veterans benefits, student loans, immigration, and other federal programs.

Next Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m., my staff will be in your area at CNM Main Campus.
During tax season, my office is partnering with Tax Help New Mexico, a free service for people whose household income is $53,000 or less, or those who are 65 years or older. Certified tax preparers with Tax Help New Mexico will be on site to help residents prepare and file their tax forms. For more information, go to the Tax Help New Mexico website or call (505) 224-4829.

If you are unable to meet my staff at Mobile Office Hours, I encourage you to visit the Helping You section of my online office to learn more about the many ways I can assist you.
It is an honor to serve as your United States Senator. Be well and keep in touch.

Sincerely,
MARTIN HEINRICH

New MexiCann’s Newsletter (3/15/2015)

As you may have heard R.Greenleaf has suspended their delivery system. It was a quality service and it is unfortunate that it has stopped running. New MexiCann is going to do it’s best to continue delivering to our rural patients. New MexiCann is hiring a driver to deliver to the Southeast part of the state the first weekend of every month. This is the same service that has always been there, but now the driver is a New MexiCann driver and not an R.Greenleaf driver. We may be able to implement other routes over time, but for now all other parts of the state will need to be accessible for Hot Shots Service deliveries…

We now have two Nurse Practitioners scheduled to see Patients at the Taos Store.  Naomi has been seeing Patients 1 day a month at our Santa Fe store for the past several years and has agreed to come to Taos and do the same. She will be in Taos on April 16 and again on May 21. She can re-certify for all conditions and offer new certifications for most.

Lori is new to New MexiCann. She is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner so she can not only re-certify, but she can recommend initially for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She will be at the store on April 3 & 4 but those days are already completely booked. She will be back again on April 17 & 18. She works with Psychiatrist Dr. Florian Birkmayer who many saw on the three days he was at the store seeing Patients.

Call the Taos store to schedule and get info on what you may need to bring with you for your recommending doctor’s visit.  Just to be clear, these practitioners do not work for New MexiCann and we receive nothing from them…

Two more counties without legal Cannabis distribution are about to have their own New MexiCann stores. Our Española store will be right on the main drag, N. Riverside Drive and our Las Vegas store will be on 7th and Mills…

You’re worth it :)

https://wildoregon.wordpress.com/

The creators of Wild Oregon are Makayla Holcomb and Jessi Chval, two women on a mission to improve our health and the health of those we love. We believe that is best accomplished through ridding our lives of as many of the toxic chemicals that surround us as possible. These are unsafe, irritating, often teratogenic and carcinogenic chemicals that we are bombarded with every day, and so many of these products we actually wear on our skin all day long. Wild Oregon Botanicals aims to replace the useless, frequently harmful junk lurking in your skincare products with wholesome and trusted ingredients that are safe for the whole family…

UTAH’s politicians save the rabbit population from becoming addicted to MJ

http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=9700

Great article on what’s happening with medical cannabis in Utah.  But why isn’t there any mention of the veteran population in this state?

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56473395-78/claims-veterans-lake-salt.html.csp

7/1/13, Military Disability-claims backlog in SLC grew 343% in past few years, outpacing all but two regional offices.

Claims at the Salt Lake City VA office followed the national trend, soaring from 5,528 in mid-January 2009 to 22,704 in March. But unlike the nation, the number of claims filed in Salt Lake City is still climbing. The office had 23,491 claims pending as of June 22.

Youse’s lengthy fight for a 100 percent disability rating based on his broken back and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — added to his grandfather’s experience — left him disgusted. Though Walt Youse had a Purple Heart and other documentation, he gave up pursuing a disability claim after a frustrating cycle of rescheduled medical exams and other hassles. He died two years ago.

“They put so many roadblocks up that you just go away,” Youse said…

Waiting took a toll, said [Justin] Youse, who lives in Bountiful with his pregnant wife and stepson, and now receives $3,166 a month. “It’s about making your mortgage payment, not losing your truck. It almost cost me my family,” he said. “It cost me my trust in the VA. It darned near cost me my sanity.”

For-Profit Company Threatened To Jail People For Not Paying Traffic Fines

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/for-profit-probation-rico_n_6863162.html

According to the lawsuit, Clanton resident Roxanne Reynolds was put on a payment plan with JCS because she couldn’t pay $1,632 in traffic tickets, court costs and a failure-to-appear fine. A mother of three and already struggling financially, Reynolds fell behind on her payments after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to miss three straight months of work at her job at an auto-parts plant.

Reynolds eventually paid her debt to Clanton, but it took her 15 months and cost her four days in jail and $610 in fees paid to JCS, according to the suit… The SPLC suit says JCS created plans with minimum monthly payments of $140, $40 of which were fees paid directly to JCS…

JCS regularly suggested that it operated under the power of the government, according to the suit. Under its contract with the city of Clanton — which JCS won without a public bid in 2009 — the company’s employees get to call themselves “probation officers,” according to the suit…