Cyclic vomiting syndrome and cannabis use | Ohio State Medical Center

The eighth in a series with Dr. V on cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS): Thangam Venkatesan, MD, a gastroenterologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and one of the world’s foremost experts on CVS, discusses the use of cannabis as it relates to cyclic vomiting syndrome and cannabinoid hyperemesis.
#cyclicvomitingsyndrome #CVS

[Ahgjlo]

I got chs and I did not know I had it. I smoked weed for 30 years everyday. My chs came about 3 years ago. The first thing that happened was I was smoking a spliff, and halfway through smoking the spliff, I had very bad nausea, stomach pains and stomach cramps and I then vomited, i didn't understand why i vomited so I continued to smoke. 3 months before this happened. My marriage broke down and I was missing my children so much I could not cope, so I was already in a bad state of depression and not sleeping or eating much. I continue to smoke after this first bout of vomiting. After this first bout of vomiting, i could not eat food, and my insomnia kicked in very badly. Maybe I'm just eating two spoons of my dinner per day, and maybe 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night. I continue to smoke weed. I worked through this whole period doing manual labour, and somehow my body was still functioning, and I felt strong even with lack of sleep and hardly eating food. I was functioning on Coca-Cola, Lucozade, and spliffs. Basically I was ill for 6 months and continue to smoke without knowing the reason for my sickness. 6 months later, I hit a brick wall, and my body started to shut down. I went from 17 and a half stone down to 12 stone in 6 months. I started getting stomach cramps, stomach pain, vomiting from time to time, gastro problems, hypnic jerks when trying to sleep, Tinnitus in the ears. once I did fall to sleep then I woke up with tremors. Muscle spasms. Muscle stiffness. Muscle pain. Bone pain. Muscle spasms in my back . Found it hard to walk. Numbness down my legs. Vomiting, nausea.Waking up with numbness in my arms and hands. Anxiety, Muscle spasms in my throat, throat tightening every time I lie down to try to sleep. Constipation, Haemorrhoids. I could not urinate properly. The Muscle spasms in my throat when I try to lie down were causing my throat to close. All this time, i was going to the doctor's and getting nothing back from the doctors with regards to why I was getting all these symptoms. The doctor was offering me muscle relaxant tablets but I could not take them because they made a lot of my symptoms worse. the doctor was telling me to sleep sitting up due to my throat closing when lying down. They sent me for every check-up you could imagine and found nothing about the causes of my sickness. They did find I had developed a hiatus hernia. As more time went past, the muscle spasms in my throat got so bad that I could not smoke because my throat started to close when standing or sitting. This obviously stopped me from smoking. My anxiety and depression were so bad from missing my kids and all the symptoms from the chs and I was still not diagnosed. I felt like I was dying. My nervous system was in a very bad way. I was researching everywhere and came across CHS. I then took this to the doctor, and they diagnosed me with CHS. I continue to work through this whole period. Looking back, I do not know how I got through. But I think the continuous moving of the body was helping me somehow. I started to eat a little better and slowly slowly I started to put my weight back on. After 1 year of me sleeping sitting up I was finally able to lie down without my throat going into spasms so I could lay down I started to sleep a little better slowly slowly. It's been 2 and a 1/2 years since stopping smoking. After 1 year, I was still in a very bad way, with many symptoms still remaining. After about a year and a half they found a 7 mm polyp which they cut out of my stomach. Through this whole period of me being sick with chs i had found having hot baths with Epsom salts was helping me a great deal. Putting warm olive oil all over my muscles was also helping. Drinking bone broth also helped a lot. After 2 years, my haemorrhoids started to calm down. I was able to go to the toilet better. Both urinating and pooing. It's been 2 and 1/2 years, and I still have tinnitus in the ears and spasms in my back and back pain, but it's nothing like the spasms and back pain I had before. I'm still suffering a little bit with insomnia. And when I wake from sleep, my arms and hands still go numb and numbness down the outside of my right leg mainly my knee and thigh. The biggest help I have found in my healing period was through cranial therapy. When I start to feel quite good, sometime I would try to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes seems to bring back some symptoms. I tried to drink sometimes to test my body. But then I realised I could not drink. Same with smoking cigarettes. Some symptoms start to come back. I have come to the realisation that I can not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. And obviously cannot smoke cannabis for the rest of my life. Even standing next to someone who is smoking a spliff affects me. I was always a very fit and strong individual and felt invincible. But this whole experience has humbled me. Please look after yourself and your health mentally and physically. The one good thing I can see about CHS is that if you stop smoking weed and live a healthy life it can go away. As I said I still have some symptoms. But I feel like if I look after myself hopefully I pray to God that all my symptoms will eventually go away. it is possible that there is damage done that cannot be repaired from but I am very thankful and go forward with a positive mindframe. It is very good to see that there is information out there for people to find. It did not occur to me to go on YouTube and type in chs back then. But even the videos on YouTube here do not talk about half my symptoms. I obviously took chs to the Brim. And maybe I'm very lucky. But it is very good to see there is information out there and people are learning more and more everyday about CHS. If you feel you have CHS the beginner of CHS or you feel you have had it for a while please stop smoking now. Go and seek help. As I said the best thing that I found helped me was cranial therapy and God. God bless you all out there, peace 🙏

[mac]

I was diagnosed with CVS back in like 2012, and the er doctors kept telling me it was caused by my cannabis use. So I quit smoking cannabis, yet the episodes continued, with increasing frequency, often occurring in almost exactly half the time since the last episode. I still have sever GI issues, but haven’t had a cvs episode in 5 years. Although there is blood when I use the bathroom now regularly… Doctors seem to have no interest in helping me though…