Cannabis & Chronic Pain (Fibromyalgia)

I have just had delivery of some very expensive capsules of CBD oil from a European company called Endoca. Cannabis is known to help with pain relief, but is illegal in the UK & I don't happen to know any drug dealers. It supposedly helps with conditions like Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is thought to trigger something called central sensitisation, which means your body starts to get overly sensitive and the brain reacts, registering pain from things that normally wouldn’t hurt. Because the pain is chronic, day & night, it results in chronic fatigue as well. Broken sleep because you can't get to sleep or because of pain waking you up makes a distressing cycle.

The problem with prescribed pain medication is that it tends to stop working so you have to take more & more. I have taken everything from Paracetamol, (useless) to Amitryptilene (makes you zombie like), to Morphine (too addictive & a b..... to come off). There is no magic bullet in my experience.

What does work is alternative medicine, but you have to find the right one for you. Accupuncture worked, but only temporarily. Osteopathy & Chiropractic helps, but again the benefit doesn't last long, so it's expensive & temporary. I go to a practitioner every fortnight which costs me £1,248 annually.

I found relaxation & self hypnotism helped. Meditation is also good, but can be difficult because sitting in one position can be painful.

The main thing that helps me is swimming. 36 lengths - (1/2 a mile), 35 minutes, 4-5 times a week if I can fit it in. I get into a rhythm which is meditative. My mind focuses on that stroke, that length & nothing else. It helps with range of movement in my shoulders & keeps me mobile. Like all exercise it releases endorphins. However dreadful I feel beforehand, by the time I have finished I feel much better.

A Systematic Review released in 2015 concluded that - "Chronic pain affects between one-third and one-half of the population of the UK, corresponding to just under 28 million adults, based on data from the best available published studies. This figure is likely to increase further in line with an ageing population".

In my experience Medics simply are not coping with this, or alleviating the pain & fatigue which is so prevalent. The Government & Dept of Health & Social Care do not treat this as a priority. They all tolerate the pain epidemic.

So back to the start - I'm trying cannabis. I need something to really work for pain & let me have a reasonable nights sleep. You can't buy this quality CBD oil in the UK, but fortunately it isn't illegal. The thing is I can afford it & was recommended to try it by an acknowledged expert in the field - Professor Mike Barnes, a Consultant neurologist. Lots of people would find it too expensive.

I really hope it works because I haven't got anything else in my pain toolkit to try.