146 CBD - THE GREAT EXPERIMENT

As you all know, my body is pretty screwed up due to my near fatal bout of sepsis in 2017.  All the details from that are available earlier in this Blog.  I have experienced so lasting and permanent side-effects from it.  I cannot feel my feet which makes balance difficult, but at the same time, they hurt deep inside.  Also, my right ankle, which I sprained prior to this whole episode starting has never healed properly.  In addition to other aches and pains, my hands have lost strength, I have very poor fine motor skills and they hurt a lot.

For months, I have been inundated with suggestions from my kids, friends, neighbours and various other associates, that I try cannabis.  I’ve never been a smoker and I’m not about to start now.  Even the media got involved.  Every week or so a supplementary newspaper about cannabis arrived at my home.

After a career spent fighting drugs and crime, I just did not want to go down that road.  Plus, I’ve never been a big fan of even legal drugs.  In the hospital when I was in agony, after a few injections of Hydromorphone I started refusing it and opting for Tylenol 3 and then stepping that down to just regular Tylenol.

So, I was not about to start using drugs, no matter how screwed up my body is.  Finally, it was more properly explained to me.  The cannabis they were suggesting, is not the psychoactive drug called THC in marijuana, but instead a completely different drug called CBD.  It’s got a long name that I can’t remember, cannabidiol or something.

So, I started researching it online and reading those newspaper supplements.  After reassuring myself that I was not going to become a raving pothead, I tentatively agreed to try it.  For anyone reading this outside Canada, cannabis is now legal here.  My son-in-law went to a dispensary and bought CBD drops while my son purchased a CBD infused topical cream.

They were extolling its virtues and promises of magical healing powers.  The research I did online was making the same type of promises.  Miracle cure for pretty much everything is what the research claimed.  I’m not even sure it’s proper double-blind scientific research studies, but who knows.  I remained extremely sceptical, because you know the old saying, “If something appears too good to be true, it is”.

Anyway, we booked a date, March 23, yesterday as it turns out.  The kids were coming over to assemble my new patio furniture and at the same time, I wanted someone with me before I took the CBD for the first time.  Just in case of side effects.  You know how in the medication ads where they talk about how less than half of 1% of people experience side effects?  I’m that half of 1%.  If there is a bad side effect to be had, I will have it.

Finally, it was time.  They gave me three little drops under my tongue.  I was expecting some wicked-awful taste, but there was no taste to it at all.  Backing up a little, I woke up in the morning with a “mild” migraine.  I still had vestiges of it, when I took the CBD.  I was also hurting pretty good all over my body.

After about 20 minutes, I felt something.  I can’t put my finger on it.  I just felt, strange.  Not unpleasantly, but I was not in any way intoxicated.  I didn’t really feel any improvement in my pain levels, although to be fair, it’s hard to quantify pain.  What for me would be annoying (I have a very high pain threshold) would be devastating to someone else.

Where I did notice something, is my hands had been sore before, seemed just a little less sore after.  I was having real difficulty bending down and picking things up, it seemed to be slightly easier after. So, at this point the jury is still out.  It certainly isn’t the amazing recovery that was touted in the newspaper, but I can’t definitively say it had no effect.  I can’t say for certain that it did either.

I may need a higher dosage, but I will build up to that.  It may also take awhile to build up in my system to the point that it produces therapeutic results.  At this point I can’t completely endorse it, but I can’t completely rule out any good effects yet.  I also rubbed some of the cream into my hands.  It didn’t appear to have any effect on them, other than to make my hands feel greasy.

I took a second dose just about 45 minutes ago.  This time, I did not experience the strange feeling that I did yesterday.  But, again, I feel like something is happening.  It’s by no means profound.  Just very subtle.  We shall see what happens.  I’ll continue to take it until I leave for San Diego, but I don’t dare take it across the border with me.

145 PACK MAN

The time for San Diego is fast approaching, roughly two weeks out now.  I’ve been busy packing and repacking the new photo back-pack.  The instructions for it say that it can hold a DSLR camera with a 200mm lens attached, but, with some judicious re-arranging of the Velcro spacers inside, I have gotten the case to hold something bigger.  I have my Nikon D4s, which is quite a large camera, to fit in the case with the Tamron 150-600 lens attached.  Down either side I have several lenses, a flash, noise cancelling headphones, my laptop and my iPad Pro.

BACKPACK AND D4s WITH 600MM LENS

The configuration is heavy but nowhere near as heavy as the rolling bag I took to Florida.  The other thing is that even with it fully loaded, it’s comfortable to wear.  Well, at least it is for the half hour or so that I walked around in the house with it on.  It maybe a different story when I get to the airport.

Initially the backpack will e riding on top of the “spinner” suitcase.  But once the case is checked in, the real test will start as I wander through the airport.  This time I will be doing a little more looking around.  Well, hopefully.  I’m hoping not to start off the trip sick this time.  Seeing some photos posted by friends, there is apparently an aquarium in the airport, so I’ll be looking for that.

I also want to leave enough time to hit the Maple Leaf Lounge and have breakfast there.  I chose an early afternoon flight this time.  That way I’m not trying to fight through morning rush hour to get to the airport.  The other method to my madness, is that the hotel I’m staying at doesn’t allow check-in until 4:00 PM.  Since my flight doesn’t arrive until after 4:00 PM it will save sitting in the lobby for 3 hours, like the earlier flight would have caused.

Being a slightly more experienced traveller now, I have a better idea of what I’ll be facing.  Last trip, I left my suitcase unlocked, even though it is equipped with TSA approved locks.  There was no problem with it, but I did not put anything in the suitcase of value.  I’m still trying to figure out the best course of action, but Facebook is being persnickety, and I haven’t been able to post anything for two days.

WATER POUCH NASA PATCH

POUCH  MEMORIAL PATCH

CANADA AND BC PATCHES

 The back pack itself, I have modified.  It is equipped with Molle straps which allows attaching various pouches.  I added a square one to the waist belt which can hold my cell phone, wallets, and Nikon A900 backup camera.  I also added a water bottle pouch to the right side of the pack.

To make things slightly more identifiable, I have added a few stickers to the big orange spinner suitcase.  On the backpack I added a few patches.  On the back I have a Canada Flag over top of a BC Provincial flag patch.  On the square pouch I have a Law Enforcement Memorial patch, on the water bottle pouch is a NASA patch and finally a Maple Leaf pin on the left shoulder strap.

COUNTER-ATTACK, UNDER ARMOR AND APPLE STICKERS

In order to help conceal what the backpack actually is, I will be travelling with the built-in rain hood over it.  On that I added a Canada Flag patch over the Lowepro insignia.  Now it just looks like an ordinary backpack.  As added security I will be locking the zippers to the main compartment.

PACK WITH RAIN HOOD UP 

I’ve even started packing the suitcase already.  Last time I had the camera bag packed weeks in advance, and I guess I do now as well.  But I didn’t even start packing my suitcase until the night before.  I’m also bringing things down to it, instead of loading it upstairs and having to drag it down two flights of stairs.

So, as I said, I’m a little more seasoned now and I have learned what I need to bring and what not to.  I will also no carry anything in my pockets and will put it all into the backpack pouches.  It’s much easier to throw one bag on the X-ray and search table, than it is to empty my pockets into a bin and then refill them after.  Less of a security worry as well, leaving my camera and wallets unattended in a bin, while the security people do the pat down.

I’m really looking forward to getting to San Diego and especially getting to the zoo and start taking photos.  I have a few “targets” as it were.  I want to get more gorilla and tiger shots, but I especially want to get orangutans, chimpanzees and panda bears.  Lions, giraffes and elephants, rhinos and hippopotamus rank right up there as well.