Long term Pain control SHTF
Things have been changing at The Medic Shack. New job(s) changes in the laws on herbal medicine and health issues.
With the change in the administration and the feeling of euphoria that the country has it has been difficult to do what I love. To teach people how to care for themselves when there is no one else. I have had have said And I quote” Things are getting better and we can spend money on other things that we had to for go because of the end of the Obama Administration
So I am going to be changing the website and discontinuing some items and doing more of a medical blog
My beautiful bride of the the last 25 years, Christine has had back issues for the last 5 years. And it has been progressing at a fairly rapid rate. Currently her not so good days are outweighing her good days and being it’s my job above all to care for her, well it’s kind of put a damper on The Medic Shack. She is disk herniation of L4-L5, Osteoarthritis, Spondylolisthesis, (This is where 1 or more vertebrae “slide” forward toward the midline of the body) Spinal stenosis, and some missing bone in her back. In addition to some lingering problems from a hysterectomy and pelvic mesh implant and redo of the failure of the mesh. You all have seen the commercials of DID YOU OR A LOVED ONE DIE FROM ……..
Needless to say my time has been devoted to her and the house job and kids. But it’s a job I love. Caring for family is everything to my faith.
This newsletter is not a pity party. It’s designed to bring up the discussion on SHTF HAS HAPPENED. No it is not the election of President Trump, nor the leaving of President Obama. But in the wholesale ruining of health care in the country by the prior administration and the lack of a published plan and knee jerk reaction of the new in removing what is here now.
As TMS readers have know SHTF hit me in September. I lost my job of 17 years and with that the health insurance we had. We made due with preps and carefully “hoarded” medications some off the grid food gathering and savings. One thing we have been working on is caring for her back without the modern meds that she and well I need.
Caring for chronic injuries or illnesses is not something that a lot of us focus on. And this bout of unemployment made me realise that I can handle emergencies, I can handle basic family care.
And I found out that I could NOT handle my wife’s, and yes even my chronic health care needs.
NOTE; POSSESSION OF CANNABIS BASED TINCTURES, GLYCERITES RAW PRODUCTS IS ILLEGAL IN MOST OF THE US STATES. POSSESSION OPIUM TINCTURES GLYCERITES OR ANY FORM OR MANUFACTURE IS ILLEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES
So while we can, and before insurance providers changes again or goes up or down We are working on alternative means of treating the symptoms of her back issues. The hardest is she is on chronic opiate based pain medications. First off. Opiate based medications are actually pretty easy to make SHTF. We have had the technology for making that class of drugs for centuries. The issue is in non SHTF times, (IE today by most people’s reckoning is not SHTF, but tell that to someone without or not enough health insurance ) the manufacture of opiate based medications is illegal in the US. And in most of the US it is illegal to make cannabis based medications.
In the Victorian era Laudanum was the painkiller of choice. But it is a risky drug and it’s HIGHLY addictive. Some say it is worse than morphine. In reality it Morphine is MUCH stronger.. Laudanum is 10% opium by weight. Properly made Laudanum is 1% morphine by weight.
The danger of addiction is not so much the opium it’s the combination of 75% ethanol AND the opium. Properly prescribed opiate based painkillers are not addictive IF both the patient and the prescribing MD follow the rules.
So now that the history lesson is done. What can we do about chronic pain control ? SHTF, Post SHTF and just as importantly PRE SHTF.
Opiates
Above I mentioned Laudanum as a possible drug for pain control. It’s history is marred with the addictive power of 2 potent drugs mixed together. Ethanol and Opium powder. This is a Civil War era recipe for it:
Tincture of Opium (Laudanum), U.S.P., attributed to the United States Pharmacoepia of 1863: “Macerate 2½ ounces opium, in moderately fine powder in 1 pint water for 3 days, with frequent agitation. Add 1 pint alcohol, and macerate for 3 days longer. Percolate, and displace 2 pints tincture by adding dilute alcohol in the percolator.”
That is a far as I am going to go with that. Yes I know how to make it to modern standards, and sorry I am hesitant to relay it. The main reason is a little agency called the DEA and Prison Orange just totally clashes with my blue eyes!
Laudanum for all it’s issues is a useful drug, It should be used for SEVERE PAIN, not for light to moderate. Also the length of time needs to be controlled. The majority of post op pain can be brought under control within 5-10 days MAX.
Me. Yes me. I am not suggesting this to anyone but me. I would prefer to using a cannabis tincture as moderate
One thing that needs to be remembered is that right now in the US physicians are being for made to give less and less pain drugs to chronic patients. The reasons for this is the new war on drugs, and the abuse of prescription painkillers. It’s harder and harder on both docs and patients to control pain
Ok Back at the ranch.
Opiate painkillers are useful, can be made fairly easily without the need a chemistry set to a point. The danger is that the ones that are historically based IE Opium and High test Alcohol are VERY addictive. Does the average prepper need to have such potentially dangerous drugs? I feel they should. To be used under good supervision of a doctor, be they an MD, DO PA, FNP. Or a very experienced herbalist who understands the action of opiates and of alcohol.
So. Since in a way I am discouraging preppers from using them. What does that leave.
Cannabis.
Cannabis is one of the most useful of drugs. For 80% of pain control, nausea appetite stimulation in folks that are having trouble eating. The respiratory depression that is paramount in opiates is largely absent from cannabis. It does cause some respiratory depression but the amount needed to do so normally causes one of 2 things. The person falls asleep long before that happens or 2 The vomit. Cannabis tinctures work very fast and the effects are a lot less psychotropic than the opiate based medicines. Cannabis does not work as well on extreme pain as the opiates and is one of the reasons I like to have the knowledge to use them.
Back to the history books. Without question, the ancient Greeks/Romans made use of Medical Cannabis. However as stated elsewhere, both the Greek and Roman peoples had the great misfortune of living in a geography without the more medically useful Cannabis Indica plant, and were forced to rely on the weaker Cannabis Sativa. But be that as it may, for whatever reasons, Greco-Roman medicine did not seem to take advantage of the medical properties of the flowering tops, only the seeds or in some cases the roots of the plant. And then only to treat, what can only be considered, very minor ailments.
But by the early 19th century according to the 1910 textbook “Therapeutics, Materia Medica and Pharmacy” Medical Cannabis was recommended for a whole HOST of things that by the early 21st century we have found to be not so, er , um true. Examples are Gonorrhea Pertussis and corns. Today we know that those items are not affected by cannabis. We do know that it is fantastic for cancer patients people suffering from PTSD pain control diet stimulation and a host of other issues. But by the mid 20th century the big pharmaceutical companies had totally abandoned cannabis and pushed hard for it’s legal status to be changed. A lot of people in the early 20th century most of the pharmaceutical companies manufactured and marketed their own brands of tinctures, This page on the collection of the bottles lists some of the companies that survive today Antique Cannabis Tincture Bottles. (INSERT PERSONAL OPINION HERE) One of the reasons I feel that cannabis was outlawed was in those days the majority of local pharmacies made their own, and a lot of herbalists made their own. With a useful growing in the wild and their main customers the local drug store making their own, this MAY have been the reason why it was deemed Unsafe Not medically useful and Dangerous by the FDA of the time.
History lesson part 2 done.
So what does all this history and dancing around the main topic have to do with controlling the pain with my wife? And your long term chronic pain needs post SHTF? Everything. Look with the laws of this and most countries are written so that I can not come out and say “1 ml of 70% cannabis tincture mixed with Willow tincture under the tongue (Sub Lingual) has the same effect as a 5 mg Hydocodon/325mg APAP Lortab.” To do so would in effect have the FDA DEA, NM State Police, Santa Fe County Sheriff and Edgewood Police knocking at my door with an arrest warrant.
I am going to share this website Cannabis Tincture. There is some good information, but one thing I want to point out. 99% of web searches on making a cannabis tincture have on purpose and one only. To get you high. “Decarbing” cannabis means heat is applied to the plant and it breaks off a carbon atom and allows the THC to work at low temperatures. When you smoke it you decarb it. When you bake it you decarb it. And when you make a heated infused oil you decarb it. In medicine THC is not the cannabinoid I want. CBD or cannabidiol is the one I target. It is the one that has the analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-anxiety WITHOUT the “stoned” feeling of THC. In the past I have made both types depending on the patient’s needs. But the ability to make a pain medicine that leaves (heh heh) out the stoned feeling of THC and Opiates is invaluable. My grandmother is the one who taught me that difference. She didn’t use the modern scientific terms but she knew the difference of decarb and cold process tincture.
My main idea to convey with this newsletter is that you can make long term pain control medications. You can make severe pain, pain control medications. You just have to be aware of the dangers, limitations and LEGALITY of those medications. Folks that live in states that allow legal cannabis sales and consumption have the advantage over the rest of us. But first check on the legality of modifying the cannabis from it’s original form.
Pain control can make the difference in a useful productive life before during and after SHTF and a painful existence with no good outlook on life. Just take the time to learn How, Why, When and when to not use and to stop.