Hi there I am new to this forum but not new to cancer. This will be a lengthy post, so for those of you in a hurry my message is, you can take a lot more RSO if used as a suppository rather than ingesting it directly, without getting stoned. Just don't put it up too high, maybe an inch or so.
I was diagnosed via an ultrasound in the fall of 2016 at 57 years old. I had stomach and digestive issues, weird symptoms that seemed heart related, panic type attacks, high blood sugar issues, all foreign to me (I have been healthy all my life up until now). I had bad gut pain that radiated to my back left kidney. After treatment with proton pumps (the usual gastric reflux pills failed to do anything and after ever increasing pain I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, a 2.5 x 4 cm primary tumor on the tail of the pancreas enclosing the splenic artery and one 1.5 cm tumor on my liver, and some suspicious lung nodules. The cancer was considered terminal, surgery and radiation were ruled out and so all that was left to me was chemotherapy with the expectation that it would make the end times easier but would not cure anything. I was very afraid of the chemo but the pain got so bad I had to do something, so I made myself promise to try ONE chemotherapy to see how it went. So I started Folfirinox in February of 2017, a cocktail of four drugs, considered harsh but the only chemotherapy which has produced a significantly longer life compared to previous drugs. The pain disappeared after only one chemotherapy session. I was able to take 3 treatments, then the dose was cut and I have been on a reduced protocol and have had 18 sessions. The chemo is not a cure the doctors tell me so like so many others I have turned to alternatives as well, including RSO, and a whole bunch of vitamins and other supplements. I figured they won't hurt and might help so why not have a go? May as well try to do some science in the meantime.
That's a bit of background. I got three ml. of RSO from a friend to start, which I started at the beginning of chemo, and I have a medical MJ prescription and grew 2 different types of strains this past summer- one, CBD Cheese, with 8% THC and 8% CBD and a high THC strain around 22% plus 2% CBD called Crown Royale. We harvested around 600 grams (dried) of flower buds from a combination of both varieties and distilled that down with 99% isopropyl alcohol to around 65 ml of distillate. It is thick, blackish green sticky stuff. I have no idea what the CBD or THC content is of this RSO I made, but it is very potent. I cannot seem to get "used" to it and eating very small amounts make me very stoned, actually feeling quite sick, which I hate. I was never into recreational smoking. I do have a vapourizer now, but smoking it is pretty useless for my situation and I don't like it anyway.
So what I do now is use the RSO as a suppository. I have some outdated omega 3 oils that were in soft gel caps. I cut the gel caps in half, squeeze out the outdated oil and load it with the RSO and in it goes. The trick is not to get it too high up, just past the sphincter is where you want it. If it's too high, I have found I get more stoned. But far less than eating it. If I ate what I get away with now, I would be lying on the floor, sick to my stomach, dizzy, and useless, for more than 24 hours (been there and done that, no thanks!!!)
so what's happening? I just had a ct scan and will know the results in early January. But so far, I am still here and doing well. Previous scans have shown that the liver tumor is gone, the pancreatic tumor did shrink a little, and there are no new metastases. Pancreatic cancer is pretty well fatal, particularly so without surgery and even then the 1 and 5 year stats are dismal. I have no idea if it's the RSO and/or the chemo and/or the supplements or the combination of everything, but I am feeling much better than a year ago. We will see in time how this progresses but so far so good.
The protocol for Folfirinox is every two weeks until it fails- either the body can't handle more (fortunately the only permanent symptom I seem to have, so far, is persistent neuropathy in hands and feet, with occasional low platelets) ) or the cancer becomes "resistant" and it's pointless to continue. Which to me, sounds crazy and I have taken chemo "Breaks" the longest being now, which will be at least 6 weeks. But I am continuing with the supplements and RSO.
I can take around a half gram of RSO and function. More than that, even using as a suppository, makes me feel awful. Unfortunately the toughest thing to find, even when I dig around in the literature, is a correct dose. I try to get most of my information from the pub med and other journal articles, but I don't have the luxury of waiting for the science so I have to go with the experiences of others and take my best guess. Even with purified THC and CBD Some papers report total mg taken, others mg/kg which is far more helpful but the amounts are all
over the map, anywhere from a few mg to hundreds. The RSO is a big unknown, I do not know how much THC or CBD "should" be in it, or the concentration of the other
terpenes etc. etc. But my "gut" feeling is, if it's actually the THC that cures the cancer it's so lipophilic that the fat must get saturated with it and a ml. might be more than what's really needed. what have I learned so far? These are my opinions and observations, your mileage may vary.... the only proof I offer is that I am still here, doing much better than expected, and should not be. Who do I thank for that? Chemo, Cannabis, juice, supplements, a good attitude and friends, prayer, all of the above, none of the above, who knows?
1. I am very glad I went with the chemo. Most people who say the RSO cured them had at least some chemo. Some of those people say the RSO cured them when the chemo failed. So I do not know if RSO would have done the job if they had not taken chemo. But cancer is such a complicated disease, I like the "death by a thousand cuts" approach so the more things that I can throw at this cancer the better, I think- I like the possibility of synergy.
2. Some papers report that THC actually encourages the growth of some cancer cells. This makes me nervous, but the ct scans and CA19-9 results show my cancer is just sitting there for now. So I assume at the very least, RSO plus supplements are doing no harm, and may be doing some good.
3. I agree that the impure RSO extracts probably have better therapeutic effects than the pure THC and CBD oils because of other probably therapeutic
terpenes and flavonoids and who knows. But the purified extracts are handy to up the CBD or THC concentration if needed.
4. I think the RSO takes a lot of time and patience to kill the cancer (if it does). Many studies investigating THC etc. on killing cancer in vivo, I think are not done over a long enough time. I started with the RSO, the tumor shrunk after the first chemo and RSO sessions, but after I ran out of the RSO I used the purified CBD oil (20%, one ml which is 20 mg or around 0.37 mg/kg and the THC which I could only handle a half ml. of ( 22% delta9 THC, 11 mg or 0.2 mg/kg. There was no shrinkage of the primary tumor, but in the meantime the liver lesion shrank from 1.5 to 0.5 and then it was no longer visible on the ct scans. But since then I have been taking my own RSO so the next ct results will be interesting.
5. I could not build a tolerance to the RSO past 0.5 ml which I take as a suppository and do fine with. Eating that would knock me flat for more than 24 hours.
6. While I do not feel addicted to it, I never crave it, there are definitely nasty symptoms if I stop taking the oil for a couple of days- panicky, irritable, strange feelings.
7. I believe the RSO lessens the side effects of the chemotherapy drugs I am taking. So if nothing else it has improved the quality of my life.
Hopefully this helps someone. I doubt very much that we will ever see a peer reviewed paper on the efficacy of RSO and so we cannot expect the medical profession to have much to say about it. I have seen a lot of evidence though, of closed- mindedness in the research /professional community who pooh-pooh the thought that cannibis may help cure cancer- they dismiss it just based on their "gut" feelings. So do not accept ANYONE telling you this does not work- while it's efficacy has not been "proven" per se, research shows that it does have some positive effects rather than showing it to be snake oil- and long live the placebo effect, it's cured a lot of people- But I think there's enough anecdotal evidence to at least try it.