FourtySecondRip

Hey everyone its been almost 2 years (20-21 months) since I have posted or smoked for that matter. I hope you are all doing well. Anyway onto the topic at hand.

How should I bring up the topic with my doctor? I am in Washington State. I have narcolepsy with cataplexy and sleep apnea and my medications cost me over 5,000 dollars a month. I lost my medical insurance when u turned 26 and contacted the company who makes the very expensive medication for narcolepsy. It’s called Xyrem and they agreed to give it to me for free for 1 year. I have been on it since I turned 18 so almost 8 full years with the same medication. I have other issues and symptoms that were handled very well when I was smoking daily while I was away at school. The symptoms include heartburn, restless leg syndrome and anxiety type symptoms.

The anxiety isn’t covered in Washington from what I can find but the heartburn and waking up multiple times in the night despite having the best sleep medication on the market were 100% helped by marijuana. I’m sure that I would benefit from smoking again but I don’t know who to go about bringing it up with my normal doctor. They are a sleep specialist, are independent and not part of a hospital or anything so I think that works in my favor but I don’t want to go in there and say hey look I used to smoke marijuana and it helped, and I want to start again can you help me avoid getting arrested?

There’s no medical marijuana card in Washington. All you need is a doctor’s recommendation stating that they educated you on the positives and negatives of using it and that it could benefit you.

I will be requesting my medical records from the front office at the same time as my appointment incase the doctor doesn’t want to sign a recommendation but this appointment is costing me $225 out of pocket and going to a "pot friendly" doctor that I've seen online will cost between another 100-150 dollars.

For WA the list of officially approved conditions is

Cancer, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or other seizure disorder, or spasticity disorders; or

(b) Intractable pain, limited for the purpose of this chapter to mean pain unrelieved by standard medical treatments and medications; or

(c) Glaucoma, either acute or chronic, limited for the purpose of this chapter to mean increased intraocular pressure unrelieved by standard treatments and medications; or

(d) Crohn's disease with debilitating symptoms unrelieved by standard treatments or medications; or

(e) Hepatitis C with debilitating nausea or intractable pain unrelieved by standard treatments or medications; or

(f) Diseases, including anorexia, which result in nausea, vomiting, wasting, appetite loss, cramping, seizures, muscle spasms, or spasticity, when these symptoms are unrelieved by standard treatments or medications; or

(g) Any other medical condition duly approved by the Washington state medical quality assurance commission in consultation with the board of osteopathic medicine and surgery as directed in this chapter.

Cataplexy is a spasticity disorder where your entire body goes limp and you may not be asleep in your mind but your body goes limp and you cannot move.

It’s not identical to epilepsy but the US military combines narcolepsy and epilepsy in their medical policies and denies the ability to serve for either condition because of the risk of you having an attack while holding a live weapon.

Does anyone have any experience requesting medical marijuana from their normal doctor in Washington State? Any tips you can provide on how to bring it up and how to explain your situation? I don’t qualify straight out based on the list of qualified conditions but I feel I could 100% benefits from it anyway.

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