A Back Porch Herbal..my journal of healing

 

 

I’ve come to believe that everything I need to be healthy can be found on my property, either because I’ve planted it, or because it happens to grow here. Juniper, cottonwood, willow and hawthorn trees are in abundance. Red clover, mullein, horehound, mallow, dandelion, plantain and so much more grow on our five acres. We raised our two boys here, homeschooling for part of their life. We grew gardens, raised a few farm animals, and taught karate in our dojo.

Herbs are a part of a witch’s medicine cabinet whether intentionally grown or wildcrafted. It wasn’t long after moving here that I began identifying the various weeds that grow around my home. I took a class at the local college from a respected herbalist in the area, and after that, herbs have been a continual part of my life.

I saw no reason why I had to order Dit Da Jow from a martial arts supply house for our dojo when I could make it myself. The recipe has changed over the years because I always find another wonderful herb to add, but it’s great for bruises and strained muscles and our students loved it.

When I developed rheumatoid arthritis, my entire life changed. Basically, the RA exploded into being, going from generalized pain and fatigue to severe in no time. I was in excruciating pain for thirteen years until I found cannabis, and after making various concentrated formulas, I was finally in clinical remission. Until that time, I had found no real relief from the medications prescribed to me by the various rheumatologists I saw over the years. And it was so odd that none of my doctors ever tried to figure out why I never improved. They were content to prescribe immunosuppressive medicines that didn’t seem to work while I lived in misery.

Six months after beginning a year long flare that I truly believed I wouldn’t survive, and thirteen years of constant, excruciating pain, I became a cannabis patient. Medical cannabis had been legal here in Oregon since 1998, and there was plenty of information available for me to put together some kind of a treatment plan for myself. After eleven years on medication, I really didn’t care anymore. So, we grew, harvested and I began to make medicine from cannabis.

It’s been five years since I began this journey of healing with cannabis. And I did it while going through menopause, no less. I walk easily now, something that I couldn’t do without extreme difficulty all those years. I fell and tore my meniscus on my left knee, needing to use a cane for years afterward just to get from point A to point B. I didn’t want surgery, and my doctor said I had a choice in the matter, so I chose to use a cane and be careful, rehabbing my knee with a stationary recumbent bike. Recent xrays show some damage there, but not as much as I would have expected and now my husband and I walk eight miles a day.

When my RA turned severe, I never knew if I could actually get out of the car and walk into the grocery store, let alone do any shopping. Jerry used to park me with the cart for support in the produce department and then run all over the store getting our supplies. Then we’d make our way to the nearest checkout line, and get out of there as quickly as possible. Then I’d have to make the trek to the car, which was excruciating. But then everything was excruciating. This typically happened at the end of the day when I had no reserves left. I was typically exhausted by one o’clock in the afternoon.

Fatigue is part of RA, but it’s FATIGUE, not fatigue that sufferers experience. My hand to the Goddess, it’s on the level of mononucleosis. I would simply shut down around noon or one o’clock and have trouble moving the rest of the day. So I reserved whatever energy I had left for just getting in the car and going home. This went on for years. Vacations were a nightmare, but we took them anyway. Everything had to be planned to the nth degree. All possible scenarios had to be considered. Could I make it down the long hallway in airports toward my gate? We owned a business at the time and occasionally we would have to travel to one place or another and it was both a struggle and a challenge to do any of that. In the beginning, it was all I could do to walk from the car to the chair at my desk. And I’d need time to recuperate just from that every morning.

And then the other day I get this remarkable letter from the Department of Defense who has decided to insert itself into my pharmacy choice and now I’m unable to get my Humira at my local pharmacy anymore. It’s bad enough they couldn’t negotiate a contract with Walgreens, hands down my best drive through pharmacy experience ever. That’s important when your feet are on fire and you don’t feel like walking inside the building to pick up your meds. My husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran and as his wife, I use TRICARE for my medical and dental insurance. They want me to participate in their specialty care program where a nurse calls me once a month or so to discuss my taking the drug. It’s intrusive and I don’t know these people. They’re not on my treatment team. But if I don’t participate, then I can’t control when my Humira arrives. They want me to receive it by delivery instead of going to a pharmacy to buy it. I realize this saves the government money in the long run, but if I don’t participate in something I consider a violation of my privacy, then my Humira injections aren’t on schedule. I have no problem participating in their mail order pharmacy as long as I get my medication on time. The last time I used them, my Humira arrived a week and one day after my scheduled injection. That’s unacceptable but repeated attempts to explain all of this fall on deaf ears. They simply don’t care.

So, after over four years in remission, I’ve discontinued my Humira. I can always begin again and then fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs, but I’d rather see if I can live without it. Call it Crone obstinance, but I’m through playing games with people who don’t have my best interests at heart. And this really comes at the best time anyway, as I’m getting my Herbalism Certification through Rosemary Gladstar’s, The Science and Art of Herbology course. I’ve been a self-taught herbalist my entire life, but now I have the opportunity to learn so much more from this incredible herbalist.

I suppose I’m writing all of this to illustrate my journey in healing, my way back to health, and now I’ll be expanding that to include herbal formulas I make as well. As I go forward, I’ll be writing about the herbs I’m using and the formulas I create, and their effect on my rheumatoid arthritis. In a real sense, it’s a journey not only of healing but also of discovery. I look around my property and see everything here that I need to remain balanced and healthy. I set up my workspace on the back porch, next to my herb cupboard, where I can study about herbs and create teas, tinctures, oils and salves. So the title, Back Porch Herbal, is appropos.

 

Cannabis and How I Began To Live Again

Initially, I was given three plants from a friend and some seeds. My husband had grown cannabis earlier in life and although it had been many years since doing so, he eased right back into growing. He was interested in using LED lighting in the grow, so I researched various options that seemed likely to work. LED grow lighting is expensive, but it uses less electricity and the systems out now penetrate the grow canopy well. Commercial growers still prefer HID lighting because they believe the yields are better, but when it’s a small garden for a patient, quality is preferable over quantity.

Cannabis is typically a blend of sativa and indica strains. For rheumatic conditions, typically the strain chosen favors the more sedative qualities found in the indica strains. Sativa strains are uplifting, however, and should be included as well. Rheumatic conditions are debilitating on an individual’s emotions as well as the body, and having some nice sativa tincture in a cup of tea is soothing. Chronic pain and PTSD go hand in hand and cannabis is wonderful for both.

While my garden was growing, I researched all things cannabis. I learned about the endocannabinoid system and its cannabinoid receptors waiting to interact with the various cannabinoids found in cannabis. Examples of some of those cannabinoids that heal various conditions are THC, CBD, THCA. The eventual goal is bringing stasis back to the body. The goal is actual healing, not just symptom reduction.

I read about a man named Rick Simpson who came up with a layman’s method of extracting cannabis oil from plant material using a rice cooker and a coffee warmer. He was prosecuted for all of this, but served no time apparently. His recommendation for cancer patients was to work up to a dime’s size of oil each day and to continue it for 3 months or so. Amazingly enough, many people not only survived their cancer using the oil, but some were in stage 4 and given little time left to live and they not only survived but reported feeling more healthy than they had in years.

Again and again, it seemed from what I was reading from both the medical community as well as patient reports, that saturation was key to reversing serious chronic illness. It became clear that I would have to hit my RA from all angles. I had been reading about some success people were having using raw cannabis leaf and bud in juice or smoothies. The plant acids are still present when cannabis is in its raw form and are very healing so, I knew that adding them to my morning smoothie or afternoon juice was something I could easily do. Cannabis plants need pruning. I need smoothie material. Perfect! Oregon gives patients a nice balance of plants in flower versus plants in veg, so I designated some plants just for use in smoothies and it worked out well. Ingesting raw cannabis doesn’t result in the typical corresponding high that happens with smoking, so you get all the medicine without its psychoactive effects.

While the garden was growing..

While I continued to research, I began making different things with leaf. Cannabutter, tincture, hash, coconut bud cannacaps..it was an adventure in healing. With cannabis, no less. That awful drug that gives guys man boobs was going to save my life. When I made cannabutter, I found the methodology odd so I bought a wonderful machine that makes butters and oils which I now prefer to use. I’m not a fan of medibles, so medicated brownies or cookies don’t really interest me. I don’t care for the taste of chocolate and cannabis together. Some of the candy is great, though, especially when made with hash.

I infused leaf into glycerin for tincture, which I used in tea. Leaf isn’t as strong as bud, but it was what I had, so I used it. Some of the leaf I infused into olive oil for cannabis salve. I learned that cannabis likes to bind with oil, and coconut was a particularly good one to use for capsules. When harvest was done I infused dried bud into coconut oil and made capsules. Coconut oil is healing on it’s own, and when combined with cannabis, it can be used as a basis for other preparations and it’s wonderful in cooking. Rather than using capsules, I now pour the strained mixture into jars and use it in my morning smoothie. Capsule making with warm coconut oil, even with the capsule filling apparatus I use, is messy and I really don’t enjoy the process.

So here’s what happened after the harvest was in..

The Pharmacopeia

A witch by birth, I’m an herbalist at heart. Although I follow established recipes, I tend to use what’s known as the “Simplers” method in formulating herbal preparations. In other words, I put some herb in a vessel of some kind and then cover it with menstruum for extraction purposes. Menstruum is a solvent in herbalist speak. And solvent is what we use to extract plant components for their medicinal effect, be it alcohol, vinegar, glycerin, or oil.

Making Tincture

I like tea, so I was eager to make some tincture. I really didn’t want to use alcohol and my research showed that lots of patients were using glycerin as their menstruum with great results, so I decided to use it. A gallon of food grade glycerin at that time wasn’t as pricy as it is now, but it is what it is.

Using a crockpot on the keep warm setting..not low..keep warm, I infused cannabis bud into glycerin. Early on I didn’t decarboxylate the bud prior to infusing. I do it now using a oven turkey bag on 240 degrees in the oven for 40 minutes. The purpose of decarboxylating is to activate the THC, resulting in stronger medicine. But if you don’t do it, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not like the tincture won’t be effective.

Breaking the bud up with my hands instead of grinding it preserves more of the trichomes in my opinion. Others may disagree, but if you’re using older bud, the trichomes easily break off the buds, so I don’t like to disrupt the bud too much before it goes into the glycerin.

I infuse the cannabis bud for 24 hours. Upon completion, I let it cool somewhat and then begin spooning it into my fruit press to press the glycerin from the cannabis. Some people use a potato ricer, but with RA, my hands can’t take it. I searched for a long time before finding the press that I have, but it presses everything so well that I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The remaining plant matter is composted.

Coconut Bud Capsules

I really like cannabis infused into coconut oil. It’s versatile and can be used as a base for cooking, salves, as well as ingestion for pain and inflammation. I bought a capsule filling apparatus from Cap-m-Quick which made filling much easier than trying to use a syringe to fill each one. Again, I used the crockpot on the keep warm setting to infuse cannabis bud into coconut oil.

24 hours later, it was done and after straining the mixture with my fruit press, I monitored the temperature to see when it reached 100 degrees. It was then that I could begin filling the capsules with the cannabis infused oil. We worked quickly, but it was messy and I was helpful for only a short time before the pain in my hands became too much and my husband had to finish the batch. But I made enough to last for a couple of months, so at least the process was sporadic.

I began with two capsules twice daily and stayed with that dosage until eventually I wised up and now I pour the strained mixture into jars for use in smoothies. Ingestion is ingestion. It doesn’t have to be in little gelatin capsules to work. We’ve been brainwashed into believing that dosage must always be precise. I’m sure that’s true when it’s some chemically based drug, and even some herbs are potent enough that moderation is necessary, but with cannabis, too much won’t hurt you. It might make you sleepy, but that’s about it. Mostly, you just heal.

And the more conventional approaches and something called vaping

Apparently we don’t call them bongs anymore. I don’t know when this happened, but it’s always a young girl behind a counter who tells me this. They’re called water pipes. Now that we’re fully legal here in Oregon, I can’t wait until I can go into a place that sells such things and ask loudly to see that lovely bong over there on the shelf. I’m an old hippie and those things are bongs. Period.

Anyway, I discovered something called the Volcano Vaporizer. I remember seeing a news program years ago about a woman in California who was treating her cancer with cannabis and she used one of these things. A volcano shaped heating device that sits on the table, heats up the cannabis, vaporizing the trichomes. The unit blows the vapor upward into what looks like an oven turkey bag. You then inhale the vapor from the bag. It’s not smoke in the traditional sense, but it does smell somewhat. It’s odd, but you get pure medicine that way, without inhaling any actual burning plant material.

Smoked cannabis is apparently protective to the lungs, so it’s really not necessary to invest in one of these vaporizers unless you’re a gadget maven like me. I have several portable vaporizers and if you do your research, there are some that work well and are useful, but if they burn the cannabis itself, then they’re just a glorified pipe. A true vaporizer leaves behind used cannabis, but not destroyed cannabis. There’s still medicinal value to the vaped herb and many people put it into capsules and use them as supplemental medicine. Nothing is wasted that way. It can also be added to plant material used for tincture and salve as well.

Hubby loves joints. I love bongs. We share pipes. Inhaled cannabis, whether conventionally smoked or vaped, instantly provides relief from pain. While at work I would use tincture and capsules, but at home in the evening, and on the weekends, I would either vape or smoke. As ill as I was, I was convinced that the saturation method I had read about was the only way back to health and smoking provided the rest of that balance.

My Treatment Plan

So now that I had all these methods, juicing, smoothies, capsules, tincture, inhalation, I had to decide what to do. The flare had finally ended a year and two weeks after it had begun. I credit the raw cannabis for that. I had been dealing with a massive infection in my jaw that resulted in two dental implants and thankfully the flare ended a month prior to the implant surgery. In spite of the immunosuppressive medication I was still taking, my healing progressed well and five months later the process was over.

But during that process, I decided how I would use the medication I had created. They call it titrating, but that sounds too formal for this witch, so I just did what felt right at the time and began with this:

Tincture: 2-3 droppersful in a 12 oz cup of green tea, twice daily or as needed for pain and inflammation

Cannacaps: 2 capsules, twice daily or as needed for pain and inflammation

Daily Smoothie: cannabis leaf (10), hemp hearts, frozen fruit, flax meal, diatomaceous earth, rice protein powder, yogurt cup, almond milk or water to cover

Juice: carrot, spinach, cucumber, celery, apple, cannabis leaf, parsley daily if possible

Smoking/Vaping: evenings and weekends

I also began discontinuing the medications prescribed by my doctor. I had contacted his office prior to becoming a cannabis patient to see if he would be willing to sign off on the paperwork. He wasn’t interested, so I went ahead without him. In fact, I never told him what I did, something I wasn’t happy about, but if he didn’t want any part of it, then so be it. I would do this on my own. And so I did.

Beginning with the narcotic, Tramadol, I discontinued that one immediately. Then, over time, I discontinued the anti-inflammatory I was taking, and then the DMARD. Next came the blood pressure medication. I had been retaining so much fluid over the years that I was so ill that I was eventually on two different blood pressure medications, the second one added more than ten years after asking for something containing a diuretic.

Every doctor I saw over the years agreed I was retaining fluid, but no one did anything until my blood pressure was so high that they had no choice. Instead, only uncomfortable silence and then the requisite question concerning my use of the recumbent bike. I sat through more visits like that than I can even remember. They saw the edema yet still believed I had eaten my way to how I looked. Finally it was agreed that I needed a diuretic as well. Unfortunately it was after taking it for two or three weeks that the year long flare began, probably triggered by losing so much fluid in so short a time. It was probably too much of a change for my system to handle, so of course, RA being an autoimmune disease, my immune system decided to attack me instead of celebrating my return to normal size. Still, no discussion between me and my doctors about anything I was experiencing.

During this year long flare, and just as I was about to receive my OMMP card, my doctor put me on Cellcept. It’s technically for lupus as well as to prevent transplant rejection, but it can be used off label for rheumatoid arthritis. My C-Reactive Protein test was 46.5. It’s supposed to be less than 5. So I understand the panic, but this drug was horrible. After six months I discontinued it on my own due to its side effects. The following month, the harvest was in, so as scary as it was, I stopped taking it. I figured the side effects alone were enough of a reason do so, and my doctor ultimately was fine that I discontinued taking it, but let me know that we were basically out of options.

Since I believed at this point my return to health was now on me, I discontinued medications one at a time, even cutting them in half if I thought I should slow down the process. I didn’t want to trigger anything unwanted, so the process took between two and three years. I had been placed on Metformin a few years into all of this nightmare, becoming insulin resistant along the way. I discontinued that one with the help of my primary care doctor. We tested my A1C periodically and as it began to remain stable and within normal limits, I began discontinuing it one at a time until I was no longer taking it.

As it turned out, my initial treatment plan worked, so I felt no need to change how I was medicating. After all those years, I was finally getting better. By the end of the third month, I had lost the fluid I had retained for so many years. Although toning up at my age is a little more difficult, I was able to return to my original size when I got married at 21. I was beginning to recognize the person in the mirror again. And I felt so much better. It was like night and day. I was still using Humira, but nothing else other than cannabis preparations.

Going gluten-free

I had been hearing for some time about gluten’s effect on inflammatory diseases and I wondered if eliminating it from my diet would support my recovery. I was accustomed to reading labels anyway, so it wasn’t difficult to figure out what I couldn’t eat anymore. Eating out can be a challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. So eliminating gluten has actually been easy. It’s definitely been positive for my recovery and my husband and I both agree that we can actually taste our food now. We may find in the future that it’s something about how we grow wheat or process it into food that is the actual culprit and not gluten itself, but for now, eliminating it has helped me immensely.

Cannabis Oil

Cannabis oil, or RSO as it’s known, is made from cannabis, not industrial hemp. It has THC in it and it’s not legal to be sold in all fifty states as the ads all say, federal issues and all. If it is, then it’s made from industrial hemp. RSO is sludgy and thick, and it takes a pound of quality bud to make a quarter cup of oil. I used to use Rick Simpson’s rice cooker method to make it, but then discovered an oil distiller that I could use inside my kitchen. I still use the coffee warmer at the end to finish boiling off any alcohol residue, but with the oil distiller, I can recover at least some of the Clear Springs alcohol I use for the next time.

I got brave enough to make this oil after I’d been a patient for a year or so. I had read so many accounts of people surviving cancer when they used this oil and I knew it would help me stay well. At this point, I’m in clinical remission, but I felt that if I could ever discontinue the Humira, it would be with the help of this powerful medicine. And a note about the clinical remission. I had to find this out by ordering my clinical records to submit to the cannabis clinic to get my paperwork signed for my OMMP card. There it was, big as life. Clinical remission. He never asked how that happened before he left to practice in another state.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. We used the work bag from a set of hash payload bags we have to strip the bud of it’s trichomes and other constituents. We poured Clear Springs over the cannabis, taking that infused alcohol and pouring some into the rice cooker outside on the deck. Leaving the lid off, and keeping the remaining alcohol mixture covered, we watched as the alcohol boiled, reducing down enough that we could add some more. We repeated this process until there was only a small amount in the bottom. We did the required swirling of the cannabis oil so that it doesn’t burn. And of course we freaked out and remove it probably sooner than we needed to, so it took forever on the coffee warmer to finish boiling off the remaining alcohol from the cannabis oil. You see, you pour off the oil into a cup and let it sit on a coffee warmer until there are no bubbles visible on top of the oil. No more bubbles, no more alcohol and the oil is ready to pour into whatever container you like. Some people prefer a syringe, but I use a small jar or a silicone container.

First of all, it tastes horrible, so I put some in a gelatin capsule that I used to use for my coconut bud capsules and take it that way. The other thing I’ve used it for was a spot on my back that didn’t seem right. My husband put oil on that spot, covered it with a bandaid, changed it every two days or so, and after a couple of weeks, it was gone. No scar, nothing. Just healthy skin in place of whatever it was. People evidently treat skin cancer with this oil. Maybe I did too. I just know it’s not there anymore and that’s a good thing.

Cannabis Root

Early on I read conflicting reports on the use of cannabis root in preparations. I thought it was probably safe to use in topical formulas, but I wasn’t sure about ingesting it, so I was reluctant to use it until I saw others using it with success. But it appears that my fears were unfounded so I wasted a bunch of time not using something that could have been useful to me. But now, I add it to tinctures as well as salves. The root is apparently a strong anti-flammatory and regulates the immune system, so for RA it should be perfect. Sometimes the way we process an herb matters just as the way we infuse, decoct or tincture it for medicine, and I wasn’t sure if the concern was over something like that or not. But from my research, cannabis root has been used successfully for years, and I plan to include more of it going forward.

I’ve been researching various herbs to use in my treatment, assuming I need anything more than I’m already doing, and that process will be part of future blog posts. But at this point, the door is wide open for anything to happen, and with Goddess blessings, holy cannabis and all things herbal, I’m ready to embrace the future without the help of Big Pharma. And I don’t need a mail order pharmacy for that.

I’m not a doctor, or a naturopath, or any type of a medical professional. I’m an witch and an empath. And I’m an herbalist and a healer. I believe everything and everyone are extensions of Source/Goddess Energy and in nonphysical form, we are one with each other. The herbs and plants that are here to nourish and heal us us resonate with Goddess Energy. We need only be still and receive that knowing, that blessing, and then understand our connection to the world around us.

Feel that energy flowing above and below us, within and without us, surrounding and filling us with the love of the Goddess as we extend the same to all.

We are so Blessed Be!