I recently wrote about the recovery days I go through thanks to cartilage/bone damage in my foot. They are not fun and the pain on these days is making me think dark, dark thoughts.
These days I'm feeling frustratingly helpless: if (!) I make it from bed to couch I don't dare to drink water or coffee (if I can even reach the kitchen to get it) because I'm afraid I'll have to go to the bathroom which I might not be able to reach.
It sucks.
Over the counter pain medication doesn't do a thing for this kind of pain, and since I feel like I need pain meds too regularly anyway (for regular nasty head aches or every month for menstrual cramps), I don't love the idea that I am adding more pain meds in my routine for these recovery days that come and go irregularly.
So I have been searching for alternatives. CBD is one of them. I bought CBD Oil Drops two winters ago, legal here in the Netherlands (well, sort of, not in theory but in practice, yes), but they build up slowly. They help me immensely in the winter months when the pain in my foot flares up thanks to colder temperatures - but they don't help me 'on the spot' when I need the relief now. They are often used to build up a 'base level' of CBD contents in your body over days/weeks, but as far as I know are not always effective for immediate pain relief - and if they are for other, it doesn't work for me.
While traveling in Slovakia and ending up a few days in Vienna, Austria, with pain levels going through the roof, I was shocked and positively surprised to see a CBD shop in the middle of the Main Shopping Street. Big windows, doors open, way different than the coffee shops I see in my city where you will be welcomed by a big muscled guy who wants to check your passport and makes you feel like you're entering an illegal place. Yes, coffee shops are legal here, but they are not welcoming. CBD 'only' shops I haven't found anywhere in my country still - so all curious and happy I walked into that welcoming open and light-filled CBD store.
It was a pleasant experience since I had been searching and reading up on the internet, but sometimes you just want to be helped by a human person, and also see labels, prices, contents in an organized way.
There was a guy behind the counter that listened to my story shortly, and gave me a vaporizer with 50% (yes, that's a high dosage!) CBD in it. I took a deep breath and tried to inhale - it immediately went to my head, feeling a short-lasting dizzy feeling, not unpleasant at all. The whole set-up of the vaporizer and oil would cost me 100 euros, probably a reasonable prize, but since I only spontaneously stepped into the store I wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money.
And there came the surprize: he also had a 'starters' option, a simple battery and cartridge that I could screw on, with Moroccan Mint taste CBD contents, 10% concentration, together for 25 euros. Well, that was something I was prepared to try out!
So I bought it. I figured I would need to inhale more times with 10% CBD, but, also, I could dose better, since 1 inhale would contain less I could more precisely experiment to find a right dosage for me.
So all happy I went back home with my CBD vaporizer, and since I had been traveling and crossing all kinds of pain boundaries I had one of the recovery days next day. I arrived at the couch, had already prepared the vaporizer, and... Tried it out, even before I took breakfast.
Well, normally, a recovery day lasts 24 hours of which about 18 I can't walk, can't go to the bathroom, let alone make some coffee for myself which gives me a bit of comfort. But after inhaling with some pauzes in between while watching an episode on Netflix I realized the pain in my foot was down many many levels, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I was in pain, yes, for sure, but I could walk!
I was happy to get back to the couch again, the pain was softer but still very present, and inhaled a few more times. Another 15-20 minutes later I was sure I would be able to make coffee - and so I tried. And it worked! Normally, standing in the kitchen is the worst, even worse than walking, but I could this time - still noticing the pain, but I felt it was 'far far away'.
Throughout the day I inhaled a few times more to keep the CBD levels in my body up, but I didn't need much more. I got through the day and was even able to climb the stairs at night myself with my walking support/stick.
The magical thing about this CBD experience, despite it liberating me from days where I'm feeling totally helpless, is: it numbs the pain in a way where I'm still aware of it, which means I won't overuse the foot because I still get pain 'warnings', so it can actually recover, but it makes it numb enough so I can do most things I need to do like getting food and water.
Anyway, today is another recovery day, and so I'm writing this while on my second CBD vaporizer experiment. It worked again. The relief I feel, both in pain levels and emotionally, is unbelievable. After 3,5 years of trying to find a solution I might... actually have one?
