TOMMYE
Telephone
interview with Charles, friend of cancer patient.
January, 2001
Tommye was a 37 year old female living in the Houston Texas area.
She was very respected, and had a very large funeral. She was very
athletic and spent more than a year volunteering for the Red
Cross. She was married, with no children. She was diagnosed
with cancer, specifically carcinoma, which started in the lymph node and
spread very fast. She was ill for 1 year and during that time she had
chemotherapy and selective radiation treatments. She died in January,
1992.
"Could you describe the prescription drugs used and their effects (good or bad)"
She took liquid morphine. There was a wide assortment. The marijuana was the most useful. None of them saved her but the pot helped her suffer less.
She took Marinol to help with nausea, and morphine for pain. The morphine was helpful but she said Marinol was "garbage and a big rip-off." It bothered her that the Marinol cost about $80 per pill and had almost no effect.
She had a friend, who was a DEA agent, and he brought her some marijuana. She said it took about 70% of the agony away. She went from being completely nauseated to feeling good enough to eat and speak and sit around and watch TV. The difference was stunning.
The marijuana also removed the malaise and depression. Who could be so utterly cruel as to deny someone using something so helpful? Something so useful? They should be forced to watch something like this happen.
She lost use of her legs near the end and all of her
hair. People have no clue. They have no idea how bad this can be and how
important it is to be able to feel good enough to eat, to sleep and to
have a little comfort during a lengthy battle with something like this.
"What factors influenced the patient's decision to try
marijuana?"
Pure, absolute agony and the expense of the pills that did almost nothing to help with the agony. Her condition was constant agony and desperation. She heard marijuana might help, she tried it, and it did.