– You’re listening to cannabis health radio.
Here are your hosts
Ian Jessop and Corrie Yelland.
– Ian: Welcome to another episode
of cannabis health radio, I’m Ian Jessop.
– Corrie: And I’m Corrie Yelland.
– Ian: In July of 1989 the life
of our guest today changed forever.
She was hit by a pickup truck
driven by an impatient 16 year old teenager.
Joining us from Illinois
to tell her story is Debbie Wilson,
Debbie thanks very much for doing this.
– Debbie: You’re so welcome Ian,
it’s my pleasure.
– Ian: Debbie how vividly do you
remember that day in July of 1989?
– Debbie: Actually very,
actually my whole family
was in at the place where I was run over
and I was in the process of changing a diaper
and I needed to wet a paper towel.
And as I was walking back to my vehicle
I heard a motor River and I could see I
didn’t have time to get out of the way
and before I lost consciousness I can
remember just being thankful it wasn’t
my husband and kids I don’t remember
anything much after that I was
hospitalized for months take us through
what life was like for you after the
accident well I really couldn’t do much
of anything I had to learn how to walk
and talk and write a sentence and I’m
very glad I didn’t have a crystal ball
I’ve ended up having to learn those
skills over and over again because the
thing with rain from many times it
affects our balance and we fall again
and again and if you have epilepsy you
bang your head again and again and so it
was a very very hard daily struggle no
prior to your accident you wanted to
become a lawyer and you were going to
law school is that correct yes I was
actually
in my second year of law school one of
those few times and I will never allow
myself to think this again I feel very
blessed today but back then I felt that
I had always wanted to go to law school
and it was one of those few times where
I felt like I had the tiger by the tail
and the world was going my way and in a
split second of time life is I knew it
changed forever
no Debbie prior to being hit by the
truck you didn’t suffer from epilepsy
did you no I did not mine
30% of brain trauma survivors have
epilepsy
Debbie you have also written that the
physician could do little but help
determine the areas I was deficient in
and that was the beginning of recovery
for me can you elaborate on what you
mean by that yes for instance you know
your brain well everything we know and
think and feel it all comes from the
brain you know your thoughts continue on
even after brain trauma
so for brain trauma survivors we have to
identify what areas we are deficient in
before we see where we have to work
extra extra hard I just had widespread
diffuse damage like many others and
there was really no area that I actually
didn’t score in the normal range in any
area of cognition any longer so I
couldn’t recognize road sign shapes I
couldn’t make a square I mean
basic conceptual thinking was just gone
and it looks like along without – were a
lot of other things like you were you
were having
bearable headaches nightmares you were
devoid of emotion you couldn’t cry
absolutely and there’s a lot a lot that
I don’t know I can only share what I do
know my emotions were really really
changed after the brain trauma I had
never had anger issue I never had a
problem controlling my emotions and I
threw six telephones and broke them my
first month out of the hospital cuz the
sound of the phone just absolutely
it made me irate it was a real trigger
for me and then there was a faint and
this is what I mean by identifying there
was a faint memory that I didn’t always
do it that way
it doesn’t mean I knew the right way but
that got expensive and I knew I was too
cheap to do that that’s what I mean for
instance when what you think doesn’t
come out the way you couldn’t you’re
pronouncing under the way your brain
feels like you’re pronouncing it it’s
called aphasia I had it in speech and I
had to Dan writing real real bad and
thankfully cannabis has helped me learn
how to write a sentence again but with
speech I noticed each time that I would
lose my ability to speak with a new hit
to the head after the first one that
until I could hear my mispronunciation
and hear that it wasn’t the word I
thought I was sending my brain was
sending to my mouth I couldn’t begin to
listen and fix it so for the sake of
listeners these new hits to the head
were as a result of seizures you were
having absolutely they were I was
diagnosed with a pretty severe brain
injury initially in 1918
nazy and said but seven years later I
didn’t sleep for ten days and ten nights
and my neurologist was the number one in
the Pacific I was in Hawaii a military
wife and he told me that it was it was
bodily death at ten days and he was
frantic and they tried me on seven or
eight different sleeping medicines and I
didn’t respond to any of them and I
finally fell asleep on the tenth night
and I only slept three hours and my
family was on vacation on the mainland
and I was home alone and I did notice my
balance was a little off because when I
look back I remember holding onto the
wall I wanted to change that moment in
time many times but I went in and sat
down at my computer I was writing back
then and in 1996 from the medicine
side-effects when I got up out that
chair I accelerated backwards and
flipped over a loveseat and landed on
terrazzo floors over concrete and I went
from not being normal into any area to
scoring in the very low percentages in
the nation so you had a brain injury in
July of 1989 then seven years later you
had another brain injury yes worse than
the first July of 96 July is not a good
month for you no it is not that’s right
so what happens after the after your
second brain injury well they’re frantic
to get my seizure stopped because now
I’m having temporal I had specific left
temporal lobe damaged the second time I
was holding a pewter cup of coffee and I
just thought maybe my coffee needs
warmed up since I didn’t have good
balance and when I got up out of the
computer chair that’s when I accelerated
backwards and that full pewter mugs
hit me in the left temporal lobe and
that triggered seizures that would shut
my heart and lungs down and he was very
very honest with me he let me know that
they were life-threatening he asked if
he could send my records to UCLA and see
if they could do surgery and I agreed
and he said I’m twice and I was turned
down twice and my neurologist who I will
always admire and respect told me that
the reason I was being turned down was
that because I had multiple areas of my
brain that triggered seizures i affected
their research money because I wasn’t
seen as a positive outcome case because
they can only operate on one area of the
brain and at the time they didn’t know
what area was causing the majority of my
life threatening seizures you know
what’s interesting talking to you Debbie
because I would not even suspect that
you had a brain injury no or – matter of
fact no I wouldn’t either
you know amazingly and I’m so glad that
I get the opportunity to say this Cori
to you and to you Ian and knowing this
is my first time to speak out
internationally I was diagnosed with
rein trauma like I’ve had in the
constant hits over and over and over and
over I was taking my son said he stopped
counting at 20 concussions with loss of
consciousness from grand mal seizures
and then a specialist thought to tell me
I needed a helmet and it was before they
even made seizure helmets I went into a
skateboard helmet and then I got a
concussion inside that helmet or I
didn’t even recognize my son anymore and
that was in 19 I’m sorry 2006 was my
last
jury Debbie tell me about the experience
you had where you didn’t eat for two
weeks she made reference to the fact you
didn’t sleep for ten days and then you
slept for three hours but in you’ve
written that you didn’t eat for two
weeks and your husband came home and
from the vacation I suspected and he
looked in the refrigerator and the same
food was there that is correct and
that’s how I found out they told that
autonomic responses things that your
body just knows it needs like your
heartbeat your lungs
well hunger it I my brain no longer
evoked the thought to eat or any hunger
pains and I still don’t really get those
but I’ve learned that eating is
important I had to relearn how how to
eat basically in without supervision
I didn’t comprehend the need to eat no
how were you emotionally throughout all
this how did it impact your relationship
with your family I did it impacted all
of this my husband left a year after my
second injury my seizures were a real
disruption ambulances all the time I
would say all three of my children have
PTSD
as a result of their life with my health
so there was a lot of negative on the
flip side they’re all very compassionate
and understand that not everybody is as
fortunate you know it’s hard for me to
speculate I understand that I needed to
do this journey on my own I understood I
would be putting anybody in my family
and anybody who was a friend to me at
risk and actually with the kind of
damage I had
you know my Creator took care of that I
love had lost all my family and friends
except for my son so only one person had
a front-row seat to this whole journey
and it feels so special my mother who is
a cancer survivor now as a retired US
Marshal says now that Florida’s
legalized she may try the oil but now
none of my siblings will discuss it with
me
and two of my three children because
they have kids feel like it’s best that
their kids not have contact with me and
they are the parents and that’s
something I have to respect tell us
about your journey towards cannabis oil
I was also the first patient with
epilepsy to be evaluated for the vagal
nerve stimulator which is another
surgery only it sends electricity to
your brain every five minutes
many sever one of the vagal nerves to do
it but then it has a pacemaker that has
to be replaced every three years and the
greatest hope they give with a decrease
is 30% decrease in my seizures and I’m
from Florida and the Epilepsy Foundation
director asked me when I was discussing
the procedure with him he said Debbie
would you even notice a 30% decrease and
the second that was the second time I
was turned down in Hawaii the first time
because he had only done Parkinson’s
disease with the procedure and I no
longer lived in Hawaii back in Florida I
was offered it again
but I turned it down because I had to
admit to somebody who directed patients
that I would not notice a 30% decrease
so I was having horrible horrible they
call them post-traumatic headaches and
honestly I just always thought well
shoot if I could get
this headache I might be able to do a
lot more and you kind of have to fail
and everything to finally be sent to the
number one inpatient I was sent to
Diamond headache clinic and they were
able to help me and that was had
exhausted my last Western medicine
option and I was on a train coming back
it was a five-hour ride I was in a train
all by myself and I just heard my
creators voice say that’s man’s law not
my law and I went home and checked and
that was the gospel truth so my son came
down the next morning is that are you
ready to go back to Diamond and I said
no he said what are you talking about
and I said I need some cannabis he said
you’re kidding and I said no I’m not
and I was averaging partial complex
seizures which is really being not
conscious I could walk but not with him
balance it with spurred my speech wasn’t
right but I could clean basically that’s
pretty much all I can do I was heaven
thousands a week I mean seizure journal
was a joke to me I didn’t I didn’t even
comprehend but those weren’t the ones
that were I can’t hit my head on my
grand mal seizures when I go unconscious
and I average 16 months for a week of
those and from the first time I tried
cannabis for my headaches
I went from four seizures a week grand
mal seizures to for a year the first
year in Wow how much oil were you taking
Debbie I was an on oil yet
that was just baking oh I see okay just
a vaping and you vaped everyday how many
times a day did you vape I baked I did
it good I did this journey alone and I
didn’t have my computer skills yet so it
wasn’t an easy journey for me I just was
told by my teenagers that they thought
cannabis would help my headaches they
didn’t have a clue because I’ve asked
them that they would help my seizures or
they would have told me long ago I
assure you
but so actually it was my own kids who
brought the information but I had been
in law enforcement my whole career
through law school so for me it was a
real huge to make a decision to
purposely break the law
my dad was a had been the supervising
federal probation and parole officer in
Tampa and me and breaking the law was a
big deal at my house let me tell you
guys and my dad had passed and my mom’s
retired and this was just when it did
that for my seizures it didn’t get my
life-threatening partial complex
seizures that kept shutting my heart and
lungs down but I got the opportunity to
go to Michigan and do a trial and I was
able to get some CBD oil there and I did
not notice it it was my son and
caregiver Cody that did he came to me
and we had we had realized we may have
to move because he knew I wanted to tell
the truth because I was a writer before
my second brain injury
and I didn’t know if I could ever learn
to write and share my journey but just
in case he knew I wouldn’t be quiet
about this was too good a hope for
people that had never been giving given
any hope and I knew that because there
was no part of the journey I didn’t
experience getting there and anything
that can reduce those kind of seizures
that quick I knew I knew that the
answers were in that plant now my son
came to me two weeks after trying the
CBD and said mom we’re gonna have to
move and I said what are you talking
about
and he said you’ve gone two weeks
without partial complex seizures and I
said so
and he said mom you’ve never gone over
three days and that was a well moment
for me as well because my awareness was
that diminished as a result of the
thousands of seizures a week I couldn’t
have told anybody how often or how many
I had I was that diminished capacities
how do I look at it did you go from
vaping to taking oil at all or do you
still face this is how I did it um
I couldn’t get the oil I needed and I
started my journey seven years ago so
you all have time frame I learned with
vaping seven years ago I didn’t get the
opportunity to move until two years
later but I got to go do the trial in
Michigan so I knew that it was going to
take other components of the plant but
by then I had detoxed out of all of my
pharmaceuticals except for one and I’ve
now gone from eight milligrams to one
mill
am a day of my very last pharmaceutical
from 44 a day just coming off having the
ability to come off of those medicines
I’ll be honest with you I was I could be
triggered and I was angry and I was
trained by the Department of Corrections
and I just didn’t hurt you as look at
you if you’re unjust to anybody I really
could not control my temper I tell you
cannabis and my son said mom babe just
don’t bother your antidepressant because
70% of brain trauma survivors end up in
prison and I need the statistics I had
worked in the prison system and I was
the special-needs case load counts were
so I walked with people in my
circumstances before I was in the
circumstances and one thing we just all
needed was hope and this ended up being
my antidepressant and controlling my
seizures and then after all the head
hits you know that’s gonna bring on
dementia type symptoms statistically but
now I was diagnosed with CTE which is
what you see the professional
ballplayers being diagnosed with from
repeated head traumas I removed in 2012
to Oregon and a cannabis practitioner
actually found me and said I think that
I can guide you well at that point I
wasn’t really getting anywhere nobody
was really giving any information I
didn’t understand how to find I had
found the biggest people before I ever
moved so then I was kind of stuck I’d
gone to the west coast for direction but
nobody knew how to guide a complex case
with every organ pretty much compromise
like mine
and I promise you my doctors really
don’t know what to say about any of my
success and at this point I’m having a
real hard time they don’t have a choice
but to give cannabis credit because I’m
not on anything except one other pill so
everything that but used to show what
wrong in my Bloods all is coming back
normal within normal range my
neurologist had to say something about
my blood pressure she couldn’t even say
couldn’t find anything to say about my
brain and that was in December that’s
that’s quite remarkable you said you
were on 44 pharmaceutical pills in one
day yes three handfuls is the only way I
can describe it a day but in you know
how we were talking about I didn’t know
how to eat today I couldn’t I didn’t
know how to inhale either so I started
this journey seven years ago but the
first two years my son had to shotgun me
until I learned the how the body
manually inhales you’ve had a remarkable
journey and you’ve made just
unbelievable progress over the last
number of years do you agree with the
fact that you you’ve you’ve come a long
way absolutely in I’ve got to share a
couple of really unexpected healing
experiences because I know that that
there are patients that need to know
this I had I broke my neck when the
truck hit me I think I didn’t mention
that but I had revoked it again when I
have started on this cannabis journey
and I had been told I would stay in that
back in neck brace the rest of my life
well two and a half years ago I was able
to come
out of the neck and back brace that I’ve
been told I could never come out of
because I wasn’t out shovel surgery and
I’m so thankful today for all the
surgeries I wasn’t eligible for because
it took time but now my neck and back
I’ve been out of the races and I’m
getting more and more mobility well then
I had had totaling complete loss of
feeling in both of my hands all those
years and two years ago something about
me that I put in the microwave and I
thought oh they had to be my imagination
I can’t feel pain well that happened a
few more times water said now that’s not
my imagination
I actually got feeling back in both of
my hands that had been gone for a
quarter of a decade two years ago now
the icing on the cake my son and I
hypothesized once you get feeling back
can you get fine motor skill ability
back and we didn’t know well last week
for the first time I was able to pick up
one of my cannabis seeds and my son
looked at me and I looked at him and he
said you couldn’t pick up the Pete a
penny off the floor if you tried 10
times you can pick up seeds and so we
are seeing that yes fine motor skill can
also improve well it’s it’s neural
plasticity of the brain isn’t it yes it
is you’ve got it yeah and I think a lot
of people the medical profession was
unaware of this I believe until maybe
several decades ago a few decades ago
that the brain can actually adjust and
it does that during the course of our
lifetime and it can either be a positive
adjustment or negative adjustment it’s
not a static
piece of mass in our head any longer
that’s our understanding and you’re a
perfect perfect example of that in in
that the number of traumas you’ve had to
your brain and the recovery that has
occurred for you over the number of
years particularly when you have
consumed cannabis it is honestly as
recommended for surgeries and nobody
ever mentioned cannabis that was just
for my epilepsy I wasn’t eligible for
most of the surgery for my spinal issues
and the truth of it is if somebody hits
a cannabis will do it I’ve done that oh
but we all know it’s not that easy so I
had been a mainstream medicine who had
never tried cannabis and I had no
preconceived ideas other than it may
relieve my headaches I had no idea I
would get all this brain healing but my
specialty is neurology and I deal with
fellow brain injury survivors and I knew
they deserved to know and not go through
the hell on earth that I did because of
laws and ignorant that all patients
deserve to have access to Dobby do you
take just CBD or do you take THC as well
um actually I take THC a twice a day
okay I take it in capsules
I take CBD I don’t need CBD THC a
eventually took the place of CBD from my
partial complex seizures and there are
patients that need to know that because
back then I thought I needed CBD THC a
ended up doing the same thing for me but
once I got the
dementia diagnosis raw cannabis is what
was recommended and I’ve been doing that
for three and a half years and we’ve
really seen some enhanced healing Debbie
what message would you like to give
listeners about life itself given the
traumatic injuries that you have
sustained over the years I would say
take time to take your face out of your
phone and look around there are broken
people walking all around you that just
may need a smile or may need to help you
tan and and if you get to talk and share
the absolute miracle of this plant
because we all deserve the knowledge
Debbie you’ve written a book haven’t you
I have thank you can you tell us the
title of that book for people who might
want to find it well I don’t
it’s called life has changed and I’ve
got another one ready which is a sequel
to that one collagen ounce of hope and
eventually I will get it out but I have
pretty much focused on talking in the
first person since I certainly never
expected to be here seven years later
and realized that my poems and prose are
in there on the internet and they’re
forever
Debbie it was a pleasure to talk to you
you’ve you’ve made remarkable progress
and you’ve still you’re going to make
remarkable progress in the years ahead
and by the way you’re a wonderful writer
thank you so much Debbie it would be
nice to have you on and say a year and
see see what’s changed for you yeah
that’s right hey that would be great I’m
so glad you guys thought of that because
I’ve been calling United patients and
saying hey
the the medical professionals and the
patients need this stuff and so I’ve
been looking for a think-tank
or I could pass off neuro healing to the
people that you know that that do
understand into cannabinoid system
Debbie great to talk to you we’ll we’ll
be in touch and we’ll continue
monitoring your journey in the months
and years ahead absolutely thank you
both so much
Thank You Debbie and that’s it another
edition of cannabis health radio
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