Using Cannabis with Cancer Treatment.

Dkeppel

Active member
Hello all,

I joined this forum several months ago now, I was full of excitement at the time having just brought my first house, beaten cancer and eager to start my journey searching though MNS haze hybrids.

I developed an infection shortly after the operation, it developed into a painful untreatable condition that has stopped me returning to my previous line of work, Im financial broke but I wasnt going to let that get me down, slowly I was saving the money to set myself up with a proper grow room.

A few months ago after having a routine CT scan I was called into the hospital to see my oncologist, the cancer had returned in my abdominal lymph nodes.

My oncologist made a plan and decided on an aggressive chemotherapy treatment, I'm young so my body can handle it and it had a 90% chance to cure my cancer she said.

I completed my first course of 4 chemotherapy courses about 2 weeks ago, they had to stop one of my chemotherapy drugs day 1 as it almost killed me but they said it wouldnt matter to my overall treatment they would just give me an extra course.

1 week ago I went in for a blood test before starting my 2nd course, again I was called into the oncologist's office, the chemotherapy had done nothing my cancer had not responded and infact progressed.

The oncologist's explained that it was rare for such strong chemotherapy treatment to have no effect but it can happen, so she decided to stop the chemotherapy treatment as she had already given me the strongest treatment possible and refered me for radio therapy.

That's my story so far, I've lost all my hair, I've been though a lot of pain, I've lost some of my hearing, I've lost all my financial security and all for nothing so far, I have a wife, daughter and mortgage to support.

I feel cheated by my goverment, cannabis is still illegal here there is no easy option for me to access quality cannabis for use along side traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radio therapy.

So I'm hoping for some advice, I have the equipment from previous grows I've done over the years, it's not pretty, I don't have a lot of space and my radio therapy treatment is in another city so I may have to stay away from home for 3 weeks at a time but it's the option I have to take to get access to quality meds.

I'll be working in about 3 sqaure feet of space with a head room of 4 feet, I've mostly worked with DWC hydroponics in the past but I'm not sure how I could work that when it's possible I could be away 3 weeks at a time and as I said weed is still illegal here I can't exactly ask the neighbour to pop over and water my plants if I went dirt or coco.

Any suggestions regarding THC to CBD ratio etc for my situation ? I only have The Doors, Nevilles Haze and NHx Mango from MNS, I have a bunch of other random strains kicking around from other seed banks.

Any advice would be appreciated, sorry for the long story.
 
Hi Dkeppel,
Sorry to hear about your situation. Stay strong brother.
I can't advise on the best strains to grow thc/cbd ratio for cancer treatment. Hopefully other members can help out on that one.
But if you are going to be leaving your grow for weeks at a time, I would advocate using Auto pots. I am currently growing The Doors and Ortega in Organic Soil and had to go away for 2 weeks.
I set them up in Auto pot system while away. So easy you just fill up the resovirour with rain water and the auto pot valve regulates the flow of water .
Google Auto pot systems and you should find what you need at a fair price.
This will allow you to leave your grow knowing it's self watering.
I have put up a pictorial in the strain base.
The Doors of perception
You can see how my Doors and Ortega grew in Auto pots while I was away for 2 weeks.
I hope this helps.
A21
 
Thanks A21, I'll check out those auto pots, I've seen your grow and it looks like it's going well.

I recieved some very good news today, my case was reviewed by the medical board and the chemotherapy did infact have an effect on my tumor, there unsure why my blood markers increased but the tumor is shrinking.

I don't need to be away from home for weeks at a time anymore, down side is I'll have to continue chemotherapy which has all the terrible side effect but I'm very relieved it is having an effect and my first course wasn't all for nothing.

Funny you should mention The Doors, I pulled my straw out of the freezer last night, definitely the strain I've had my heart set on growing the most.
 
Hi Dkeppel.

I'm in remission myself, having recently gone through chemo and radiotherapy. So I might be able to offer some advice which I hope will be useful.

First-things can change very quickly, for better or for worse. Even the best oncologist in the world can only predict the odds of a particular outcome.
So get everything up and running as soon as possible while you are feeling well.
Hopefully you will continue to get better but if you try to prepare for the worst then you won't loose out either way. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Like Andy said, some form of autowatering from a reservoir would be ideal, that way if you have to go away for a while or if you are incapacitated, your grow stands a much better chance until you get back.
If your reservoir is big enough your plants will be fine indefinitely (unless they grow into the light!).

If your growspace is only 4 foot tall I would be cautious about "The Doors, Nevilles Haze and NHx Mango" as you'll really struggle to keep any of them short enough. You might be able to grow select phenos from tiny clones straight into 12/12 perhaps, but haze dominant plants from seed are going to be a nightmare to stop from growing into the lights.
If you can make a bigger space (especially with more height) you won't regret it.
If you use LEDs or flouros (as opposed to HIDs) you can probably gain some effective height by letting the plants grow closer, but LEDs are expensive and flouros are a bit rubbish for flowering.

As for which strains are best.. If you are undergoing chemotherapy I'm guessing you might suffer from nausia and appetite loss. In my experience pretty much any weed will help with this- basically anything which would normally give you the munchies.

Also you mention pain. If you are on medication for this then weed will help by making the pain meds work better. So you will either have better pain relief, or you can choose to cut down on meds.
IME something with an element of heavy heavy indica (needn't be pure indica) is most effective for this. I just harvested some g13sk which works well for this. I've never grown Master Kaze personally but some of the grow reports sound very good for pain meds so I was considering trying it soon.

The stronger the effects of your weed the better. When I was really ill I never really felt stoned even after consuming large amounts, it just made me feel less ill.

Also you might think about what strains might elevate your mood- I find being ill and being in and out of hospital quite depressing so weed helps me paper over the cracks in my mood.
Personally I find Mango Haze is very good for a sunny uplifting clear high, but unfortunately I don't have anything sativa dom in the jar at the moment :(
But like I said you're going to struggle with sativas in that space.

So I guess any weed is better than no weed :D

I've only talked about treating cancer symptoms as cannabis is proven efficatious for these purposes.
I havn't talked about curing anything- IMO this is a seperate subject and TBH I don't know enough about it to be giving advice.

I would say if you do try any alternative medicine (ie not recognised by regular medical science) then don't abandon regular treatment from doctors and don't do anything which will mess up your regular treatment.
Cannabis is very unlikely to cause any adverse reaction when taken along with cancers meds.
If you trust your doctor or oncologist then maybe you should tell them you are using cannabis, even if it is illegal where you are.
Only a very dishonourable doctor would grass up a patient for using medicinal weed.

Anyway, I hope your treatment goes well.
Feel free to pm me if you have questions about specific meds or something, I don't visit the forums much nowadays but I will get back to you eventually :).
 
Thank you for taking the time to write to me farmergiles, good to hear your in remission I hope this is the end of it for you.

Grow has been up and running for 19 days now, I'm keeping a diary in The Doors subthread, your spot on regarding flowering from clones that was always my intention, I have a home for the seed plants when the time comes so nothing will be lost.

Im thinking I'll flower them out in hempy buckets, I built a LED light a while back from Bridgelux EB Gen 2 strips it only take up about an inch of head space and has dimming so I think with restricted pots and flowering from clones I should have everything under control, can always start bending them if I need and from what ive seen of others grows of the doors it doesn't stretch as crazy as other haze dominate strains.

Your dead right any weed is better then nothing but I've found sativa dom stuff the best at controlling neusea, increasing appetite, giving me some energy and putting me in a happy place, indica stuff is great for at night mind you.

I don't take opiate medications, the doctors are always trying to push that stuff on me but I really hate it, it makes me feel horrible and the amount of people I've meet who are addicted to the stuff no thanks doc I'll stick to weed.

I'm not shy to tell my doctors about my weed use they all say it's fine and it won't do me any harm, none of them really know anything about its medical uses or if they do they can't say anything because they legally can't it's not on the list of approved medications, it would also be illegal for them to nark on me anyway.

Any use of weed is alternative in my country, I'm not asking about using it exclusively for treatment just along side chemotherapy.
 
Hi Dkeppel,

I don't post much here, mostly I lurk about listening and learning but your post struck a cord.

I also live under prohibition and have seen too many fall to cancer, including family so now I just say fuck it, I'm listening to the herb, she knows.

If I were you I'd be ingesting as much cannabis as possible, grow 1:1 varietals, and juice and make smoothies from leaf, trim, bud, make your own oils.

If you don't have time, get a hold of some oils and start taking as much as you can, high THC & CBD.

Go for it, we are here for you brother.
 
You have been in my thoughts a lot lately, Dkeppel. I'm not very religious but I'm praying for a good outcome for you. Keep on growing, brother, and stay strong.
 
Same here brah, prayin’ for your recovery. I have seen positive results with many different disease states, all coming from this venerable plant.

Shaka
Mu
 
Thank you all for your support, I'm on my 4th day of a 5 day course round 3 of 4 chemotherapy today not feeling so well today, nausea is hitting me hard and I've had a cold all week that's not helped me any.
 
Cheers for your support Canna, no way I'm losing to this cancer, I've got a wife and 3 year old daughter to support.

It's a real shame my goverment is to shit scared to just legalise medical at the very least, a lot of people suffering and the herb works for a lot of us.

Fingers crossed for next years referendum, I'm not holding my breath the referendum isn't legally binding and the oppersition is looking like a shoe in for goverment, they have said they will not honour the referendum regardless of how much support it has.
 
I am around again sort of, I've been growing a local breeders strain, just harvested and was just to dam lazy to journal it.

MNS is up next, I'm waiting on my order it was shipped 3 weeks ago so should be here any day or it was caught at customs, if it was caught I'll be growing NHxMango if not, I don't know I'll have so many great strains to choose from !
 
Glad you are still around brah! What did your MNS order look like? Looking forward to you sharing your upcoming grow.


🤙
Mu
 
Hi Dkeppel

i read this thread and feel honored in a way to hear how you and other members share and discuss things. Did you receive your beans? Always happy to help those with real stories like what i read here with with advancing beans for home grows...so keep up the great discussion and i am sure our community can lift all our spirits when we discuss openly all things...all the best Shantibaba
 
Kia Ora Mu and Shanti,

I've got NL5 x Haze, G13 x Haze, Mango Widow, Angel Heart and Critical mass in the post and I've got NH, NHxM and The Doors in my freezer.

I'm struggling to choose what to grow next but I'm leaning towards 1 of the strains that are in the post.

I got some good news today, I received an update on my parcel and its just landed in NZ. Should be in my hands by the end of the week.... Hopefully. 👍

Shanti, I'd like to take this opportunity to say Thank you to you and your crew for being understanding of my situation and holding my auction wins for me for such a long time I really appreciate it and keep up the great work.

Being able to grow my own medicine is extremely therapeutic and rewarding, It was the only thing I was capable of doing for myself, to help myself through chemotherapy and hopefully on the 30th of this month the recently held cannabis referendum will pass and everyone in NZ will legally have the right to grow their own medicine.
 
Hi @Dkeppel ,

I won the second place of the bud of the month contest.... The price is a pack of cbd crew seeds.... I grow mostly for recreational purpose so high cbd plants is not my stuff.
If you want it contact the MNS staff from me and they will ship them to you.
Wish you the best.
 
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