Why I Am Using CBD Oil- The Rebuild Week 10
And the effect it has had in the first fortnight.
Why CBD?
I was 12 years old when I first started having issues with my lower back. I remember Mum picking me up from school every week to go to the physio to work on a bulging disc in my lower back. Both of my parents have had similar issues. Mum has a disc that loves to slip here and there, and Dad had two discs rupture simultaneously while sweeping out a box trailer at the rubbish dump.
My Grandma had some of the worst scoliosis you’ve ever seen. Other family members have similar issues with discs in the lower back, with two of my cousins having had different surgeries on the lower back to repair damaged discs and manage nerve pain respectively.
So genetically, I come from a family of weak, spineless gits. I’m kidding.
Up until three years ago, my back issues would flare up here and there. However, they would usually go away on their own. It wasn’t until I was promoted at work that things started to get worse. I went from a role where I was working on-site almost full-time to a role where I would do over 1,000 kilometres of driving most weeks.
I started getting occasional lower back pain and some sciatica issues. Again though, usually, they would go away with a little bit of physiotherapy and some stretching.
In February this year, I walked from my kitchen to my lounge room, turned 90 degrees and felt a pain in my back that I can only liken to a shot of electricity. It ran directly up my spine to the middle of my back. Then it was as though it hit a brick wall and shot off in perfect right angles to each side of my back. I was stuck standing in my lounge room in a position that my cousin would describe as “a chihuahua fucking a tennis ball”. My back seized up, and it didn’t start to release for a couple of days.
A week later, I was finishing up at work, and as I leaned forward to fold down my laptop, it happened again. The exact same thing, only this time, the chihuahua was fucking the tennis ball on the ground.
After two almost identical incidents in six days, I knew that my typical “she’ll be right” attitude wasn’t going to cut it anymore. In fact, it may have contributed to how I got myself into this pickle in the first place.
After jumping through all the medical hoops, I was identified as having something called Spondylolysis or Pars Defect. Pars defect is where the small bone that connects the tail bone to the lowest vertebrae (pars interarticularis) is fractured.
It’s a fairly common condition. For some people, it will repair over time with rest. Others will have it forever. For some, it can be so inconsequential that they live with it and never even know they have it. For others, it can be so crippling that they require surgery.
Since February, I have tried chiropractic, physiotherapy and steroid injections, to name a few. I’ve been following a stretching routine every single morning since February. It’s frustrating, I used to run consistent 100-kilometre weeks, but I never stretched or paid any real attention to recovery and never had an issue.
Four weeks ago, I was the worst I had ever been with my back. I’d wake up at 2 am to go to the toilet, and my joints felt like they had cement in them. The same applies to when I woke up for the day a few hours later. It would take hours for my aches and pains to free up enough for me to move freely. I was at a point where I would avoid one end of the house because there were three stairs separating either end of the house, and the pain of walking up or down them was enough for me to want to avoid them.
One afternoon I was holding my 10-month-old son, trying to rock him to sleep. He’d been sick and was quite upset. As I was rocking him and patting his back, I could feel the pain building in my back and was starting to stress that I wasn’t going to be able to get him to sleep before the pain in my back became too much. It really hit home for me. As much as the pain and inconvenience were a nuisance, I hated the idea that my back injury could prevent me from doing the most important thing to me: being a Dad.
I didn’t know what to do, though. I thought I’d tried everything.
Another week or so passed, and still, there was no relief. While the stretching was helping me to get around and do normal daily tasks, I was still in pain, still stiff and didn’t feel like I was making any forward progress. I’ve always used exercise to manage my mental health. On good days I would go for a ride on my bike. I thought cycling would be easier on my body. But after one ride, I’d be too sore to do anything else for the next couple of days.
I felt like I was cornered and didn’t know what to do. I was scared. Scared that I wouldn’t be able to rock my son to sleep or play with him the way he wanted me to when he got older. Something my dad struggled to do with me and my siblings due to his back issues. I was also scared that my mental health could spiral without the ability to exercise, given I’d leant on it so heavily throughout my adult life to manage my mental health, especially since I’ve been sober.
Three weeks ago, a friend was telling me how they knew someone who had used CBD oil for chronic injury relief and that they highly recommended it. Then I remembered my childhood idol Andrew Johns had appeared on his first and only podcast (listen here), something he hated doing, purely to discuss the benefits CBD oil had given him after 15 years’ worth of rugby league injuries.
I did have concerns, though. Would I fail a drug test at work? Does this mean I am not sober anymore? Could this have any adverse effects on the medication that I take for ADHD?
The old me would have stopped then and there. “You can’t do that, it’s not for you. You’ll have to find another way or just put up with it”. But throughout the last 14 months, I have worked hard at doing things that make me a little uncomfortable, and honestly, I was at a point where I didn’t really give a fuck anymore. I’m only 34, far too young to be waking up the way I was each and every day.
I made an appointment online, I had an online consultation with a nurse the following day. A couple of days later, I had another online consultation with a doctor. After a 15-minute discussion, the doctor prescribed me pure oil with no THC. Something I was relieved about, given my above-mentioned concerns.
It arrived at my house in under a week. I was instructed to take a half dose for a fortnight before going up to a full dose, which will be tomorrow.
Does it Work?
Yes.
When I was in the consultation with the doctor, he mentioned that it would take around a fortnight to feel the full effect of the oil. He said that your body has to build up the stores of the oil.
My attitude towards it was pretty shitty initially. Nothing else had worked yet, so why would this?
After about four days, I noticed that I was in much less pain and was far less rigid when I woke up. My morning stretching routine was much easier and caused me much less grief. As the days went by, I started to feel better and better.
Last week, I did over 4,000 kilometres in my car for work. Something that in the past would have me feeling crippled for days afterwards. Usually, after about four hours of driving, I would have some pretty serious on either side of my lower back, into my butt, down my hamstrings and even into my calves. Although some pain was still present, it was a minor fraction of what it would have been before CBD.
I felt so good that I even managed my first run in 22 days last Thursday, only one week after starting CBD. It wasn’t pretty, and I had some general soreness afterwards, but that’s to be expected after doing next to nothing over the last month or more. Most importantly, though, it gave me the belief that maybe everything wasn’t doomed. Maybe, after five months, there could be some light at the end of the tunnel.
The initial improvement was big, but each day since I started, the improvement has only been incremental, which is to be expected, I assume.
There have been some other awesome and unexpected benefits too. Below are all measurements taken from my Garmin Fenix 6. I have taken an average from the 13 days of this month before I started CBD and the 12 days since I started on CBD.
I understand that smartwatches are not the most accurate trackers on earth, but I do think that if we collect data using the same instrument over time, even though the exact figure mightn’t be 100% accurate, I believe that by using that same instrument, the trends are somewhat accurate, and hey, it’s all we have to go off anyway.
Whatever the case, I am happy with the improvements given I have factored in the first four days where I didn’t really notice too much. What’s wild is since taking CBD, I have actually halved the amount of evening medication I take to help me wind down and get to sleep. This is massive for me, given I have always struggled with sleep, and it’s only been over the last 12 months or so that I’ve started to get on top of that. For all of my sleep stats except for REM to improve while taking half of the medication I previously took is insane. It kind of feels like I am replacing one with the other, however I would much rather take a naturally sourced plant extract than lab-made chemicals where I can.
For me, and I assume most others, REM is my last sleep stage, just before I wake up. Last week I was travelling for work and had my family with me. When we do that, we leave early in the morning to try to maximise the time my son spends asleep in the car. So I am excited to see what happens over the next week or so now we are home. It also doesn’t help that sometimes he decides 3 am is a perfectly good time to get up and play.
I’ve also found that my general mood is much better. I am far less reactive to emotional stimuli. I have been calmer and more considerate in my reactions to things. I have been working hard on this over the last 14 months, but this feels like a bit of a turbo charge for me and certainly something I wasn’t expecting. I’m finding I have more clarity of mind, and differentiating between what is and isn’t important or time critical is getting much easier, something I and others with ADHD can struggle with a lot.
Overall, I’m fucking glad I decided to give this a shot. I refuse to play the victim or be ungrateful. However, the last little while has been challenging for me, and there hasn’t been much to look forward to regarding my back and general health. CBD has given me a real sense of hope, and I look forward to seeing how things go when I increase my dose.
Cheers Wankers.
X.
Bogues Tonnes Up
I haven’t posted about my Sri Chinmoy Canberra Trail 100k for a while because I was waiting and hoping for a quicker resolution to these back issues I’ve been having.
Even with everything mentioned above, the truth is I am miles off, and I have run out of time to train for this run. While this endeavour is indefinitely parked, it doesn’t mean it is parked forever, and it is something that I still plan to do when physically capable.
I want to thank all of you who were kind enough to donate to Beyond Blue. A fantastic charity that does brilliant work in the mental health space.
While I may not be able to complete the 100k race in September, I am still hoping to set myself some challenges for around that time of year. It’s too hard to say exactly what that looks like right now or what I’ll be capable of, but I’ll think of something. Below will be the last time I share the donation link until I figure out exactly what I am going to do. So if you want to make a donation just before tax time, feel free. CLICK HERE to make a 100% tax-deductible donation.
Every cent counts, and you’ll be comfortable knowing it’s going to a reputable organisation who do fantastic work.
Click here to check my other blogs. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @sbrngthghts.
Make sure you check out my Writing 4 Resilience friends. They’re all legends.
Running for Resilience Ben Alexander Brent Ford Running Rare The Milkbar Reflections of a Clare Bear
If anyone is struggling in any way, make someone aware of it. Speak to a friend, family, loved one, stranger, postman, uber eats driver, or me; talk to someone.
Lifeline Ph: 13 11 14
Alcoholics Anonymous Ph: 1300 222 222
NSW Mental Health Line Ph: 1800 011 511
Suicide Call Back Service Ph: 1300 659 467
Mensline Australia Ph: 1300 78 99 78
Kids Helpline Ph: 1800 55 1800
I think the issue is the 4000kms in the car, not your back.