Too much pot?

Ojos_raros

Hi all, not sure I have the right forum here for this question but here goes... my mother was diagnosed with her2 positive 7 months ago. She finished chemo some 8 weeks ago after a truly horrific experience. I wanted to know from personal experience about lingering nausea. She still has it and has resorted to smoking pot to ease the nausea. Still still has no appetite and has nothing to do except lie in her bed. Today, her doctor recomended having a cat scan - it was negative (thank you God!) but the last few days she has not been making sense - her thinking and communication is quite poor. Doctors dont know why. She's still taking a plethora of drugs + the pot + heavy anxiety... its all taking a toll! Please advice with any and all comments! thank you!!

Moiralf

I'm so sorry to hear about your mum but I have to admit I have no idea what could be causing all this confusion. I have not done any pot for pain but know that others have. Do her docs ok this and do they know how much she is using?

It doesn't sound "normal" if you want to use that word, but things can be very different when you add cancer and cancer treatments together. At lest the CT scan is ok so that is reassuring.

Hope someone else comes along with more advice than I can give. Keep pushing for the docs to look for an answer, this is not a standard response to chemo etc but almost nothing about chemo is standard.

Something other than pot for the nausea might be worth a try. There are other meds that do work really well if she has not already tried them.

Keep trying and I'm sure there will be an answer.

Moira

Moderators

Ojos_raros, we're sorry that your mother and you are struggling! The main Breastcancer.org site has a section on Nausea that lists many breast cancer treatments that can cause nausea - perhaps you could check these medicines and treatments against what your mother is receiving.

The section also lists some practical solutions for managing nausea. As Moira suggests, there are many solutions for dealing with nausea; your mother's doctors should be able to find one that doesn't give her these side effects.

Best wishes,

• The Mods

mepic

Since I don't know how much or how often she is smoking pot I can only say that the effects of smoking marijuana alone start to diminish within a couple of hours at most so unless she is smoking it round the clock I can't imagine that it is the marijuana causing the symptoms you describe.  But the combination of marijuana plus her other meds may be the problem.  It's like marijuana with alcohol - the marijuana will enhance the effects of the alcohol which is why drinking and driving with marijuana in the system is so dangerous. 

Claire_in_Seattle

I would suspect the "plethora of drugs" a lot more than the chemo at this point for the nausea.  This is supported by your description of fuzzy thinking.  There could also be major underlying depression.

I personally had very little nausea with chemo, and certainly wasn't confined to bed.  I would go to someone who could sort out her meds, possible after-effects of chemo, and how to deal with any issues of underlying depression.

But not add to a list of medications.  The idea is to take fewer of them, and then ones specifically targeted at whatever her issues turn out to be.

One other thing I will mention is that the longer she is inactive, the worse the path to recovery will be.  So if you could coax her into some type of activity, it could help too.

Good luck.  I am so sorry for your mother, and so glad you are there to help.  I think you are right to be very concerned at this point. - Claire

Ojos_raros

thank you all very much for your replies!! She is dealing with depression which dates back to her childhood! She's taking meds for anxiety and for her heart + other meds as well. She's lost 30 lbs - from 140 to 110 and at this point, is still feeling very sick, no energy, no appetite with lots of nausea. Someone told me she needs to restart her digestive tract with probiotics and a clear liquid diet and she started that yesterday. Can we expect to see less nausea with the probiotics and liquid diet within 2-3 days?? Ive also thought about having a nutritionist coming to the house to conseul with the clear liquid diet and other issues but I dont know if we really need this + she doenst have the energy to meet with her.