Autism, rage, marijuana, and heartbreak
It’s been a long time since an update, primarily because of the move. We’re now about a twenty-minute drive from Alex, so we can see him throughout the week instead of only on weekends. Of course with all the craziness of the move, we still haven’t seen him as much as I’d like, but that should change as we settle in and get more of a routine going.
Not a lot else to say – too much stuff to still take care of today. Here’s hoping things can slow down in the next week or two….
In the past ten or so visits, we’ve used the tincture probably six or seven times. So far, every single time we’ve used it, the visit has been really good. Continue reading “Could the tincture be the final solution?”
I’m only just starting to get everything back to normal after my medical issues (which started three months ago). I was put on medical leave for a month to try and heal up, and the situation still isn’t fully resolved (though I am better).
Even so, I need to put up some updates so here I am taking a late lunch break at work. I wish I had some video or even just a few pictures to go with it, but oh well. Continue reading “Medical situation”
It’s been a long time without an update, due to a complication with a “minor” surgical procedure on yours truly. Alex’s moods have been up and down, there’s not really much to say about them, but even so I’d prefer to say something certainly every month if not every week. However, I had a vasectomy recently and am one of the lucky few suffering a much longer than expected period of post-procedure pain. This cost me two visits with Alex, and has made other visits more difficult than usual. It also makes daily life very slow – my 1/2 mile walk to work (I work at a university, so I park pretty far from the building in which I work) is now about a 45-minute affair one-way. All of this combined has made writing about Alex one of the last things on my mind. Continue reading “What happened to February??”
With the recent surge in traffic I’ve seen variations of these questions posted as comments as well as asked directly. Some people think that if cannabis works to calm Alex, then we have no good reason to not take Alex home and just dose him ourselves. Back when Alex was first moved from Salem, one woman suggested, directly to my face, that if we cared enough, we wouldn’t keep Alex in a group home, and that we didn’t have any right to complain because we had made our choice.
I should note that some of the confusion may be due to the Treating Yourself article — as in any article trying to get a lot of information across in a concise way, there are a lot of details left out, and some elements are slightly changed to simplify the explanation of the situation. The article is a great way to expose people to the damaging effects of prohibition, but it does gloss over some details that can make our plight seem confusing.
Unfortunately, the story is a lot more complicated than it seems at a glance. I tend to sound like I’m saying, “cannabis is Alex’s miracle drug”, when I really mean that it is his best option, and probably better for his situation than any drug available. Cannabis is an amazing substance. But Alex’s situation is extreme: Continue reading “What’s the problem? Why can’t Alex just come home so we can figure this out?”
A bit ago I spoke with my grower (Alex’s grower, technically — but I am the caregiver so that has to count for something), and he mentioned eating hash usually requires a pretty large amount for most people he’s dealt with.
On Saturday, we tried out a whole lot more hash than usual. A typical amount is about a tenth of a gram. I gave Alex .15g, waited 30 minutes, and gave another .15g, for a total of three times our normal dose. He had arrived at 10am pretty upset, but had calmed down a great deal by 11 or 11:30. He went from needing direct, constant protection to playing a bit on his own. Continue reading “Saturday visit – mixed results”
Alex had pinkeye on Sunday, the day he was going to be driven up for a visit. This marks the first time since June of 2010 (the month I moved up to live near him) that more than a week passed between visits. It was a pretty bad day. Rarely have I felt worse about my decision to put Alex in a group home than this week. Continue reading “Some days just suck”
It sounds like the CBD-based medicines are the way to go for Alex, and that got me pretty excited last month when I read (and posted) about them. But after a bit, I realized it still doesn’t really matter. As long as prohibition of cannabis exists in the United States, it won’t matter what options exist, because we can’t get it administered in his group home. Continue reading “Eventually, reality sets in”
I’m tired of waiting.
ABC interviewed us in April. They were going to run a story about Alex’s situation, and it was going to be aired nationally, not just locally. I wasn’t going to say anything here until we had an air date.
But I’m tired of waiting. Continue reading “Weed Wars takes on the controversial stories ABC won’t”
My 4×10 schedule was a bust, Alex has been very up-and-down, and generally there’s been just a ton of chaos, especially with the new baby. There’s also just not a lot to say at this point. I still have no idea how to best help Alex other than keeping up on politics and trying to educate people who still think pot is dangerous. Continue reading “No, I haven’t disappeared”