Beka’s Canna-Story Part Two of a Three Part Series
At age 14, Beka was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This is her Canna-Story.
The Treatments Begin
Immediately upon diagnosing Beka with MS, the doctors started a high dose of steroids, which cleared her vision and enabled her to walk. However, there were serious side effects, such as extreme bloating, which caused her to gain 40 – 50 pounds. Steroids also cause agitation and personality changes, which impacted her personal relationships as there were days her mom would recommend her friends not visit. The doctors said the disease was so advanced that she would be unable to walk across the stage at her high school graduation in four years. Through the positive, strong-willed mindset that was instilled from her family, Beka walked across that graduation stage and wasn’t willing to stop there.
As her first course of treatment, she was prescribed Avonex, a MS Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT) used to treat relapsing forms of MS. The medication was administered as an inner-muscular shot once per week in hopes of shrinking and controlling further growth of the lesions in her brain. The only person Beka would allow to give her the shot was her sister, who would travel one hour each way to administer it. The shot was very painful and of course came with a myriad of side effects, one of which was extreme body chills. So extreme they would wipe out her already exhausted body. Later her doctor switched her to a different DMT, Rebif, which required 3 shots weekly. The shot came with an auto-injector and was administered under the skin, so it wasn’t as painful. There were still a myriad of side effects, including headaches and injection site swelling, which led to an abscess. Despite her strong will, her disease was getting more and more challenging to manage and her doctor started her on Novantrone, which was a form of chemotherapy she’d do every three months for two years. As with any form of chemo, the side effects are worse than the treatment. Her depression worsened, her fatigue increased tenfold, her memory was failing her, and simple acts of brushing her hair required the help of a nearby college friend because Beka hated seeing the amount of hair loss.
Beka was determined to complete college and went to a local University so she could be near family. She needed braces to help her with her abnormal gait, but because they were bulky and stiff, they also made it difficult to walk and she was falling a lot. She had very little strength to get herself up and would need to ask at least two strangers for help getting up. The numerous falls were causing injuries to her knees and wrists and after an incident where she was almost hit by a car in the traffic lane while crossing the street to get to class, her doctor insisted she start using a cane. She reluctantly agreed. Despite the many challenges she faced, Beka again defied the odds and walked across the stage at her college graduation.
Even with the cane and a new DMT, Gilenya, by 2012 (age 25) she could only walk 50-100 steps which would exhaust her for several hours. As such, she would wait to go to the bathroom, bladder spasticity being another symptom, and she would often have accidents. Embarrassed and frustrated she’d have to leave work. Life consisted of: waking up, getting ready for work, working, maybe eating dinner, if she wasn’t already asleep, and in bed by 630-7 because her body was exhausted. Thankfully, her mom would stay with her to help with day-to-day activities, but Beka’s condition was declining.
She had drop foot in both feet, which made it increasingly difficult to walk, even with a cane or walker. And she was still falling 3-5 times a day. She was told to start wearing Bioness nerve stimulators, which she referred to as ‘Shockers’, because they would shock the nerve to help pick up the foot. The nerve stimulators were painful and would leave burns on her skin, but they helped her to keep living her day-to-day life. MS injures the nervous system which causes neuropathy, which ironically helped dull the pain in her feet, but she still endured a great deal of discomfort day-after-day.
Then she met Andrew on a blind date. They got engaged in February 2014 and later married in 2015. Andrew worked in orthotics/prosthetics and understood what she was dealing with and was able to help her with physical therapy. He also saw potential in cannabis curing neuropathways, just having gotten his degree in neuroscience.
Read more about Beka’s Canna-Story in next month’s newsletter where she shares her experience as she discovered the benefits of medical cannabis.
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