CANNABIS CANNABIS SURVIVOR SURVIVOR
BY SLOANE SIMON
S
ince transitioning from my job out of the grow to a
new dispensary out in Choctaw, Oklahoma, known as the Lettuce Bar (check us out on Insta @the_lettuce_bar), I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with several cannabis patients and hear their stories. One day in early October, a new patient came in, and my assumptions got the best of me. Being out in Choctaw, not far from Tinker Air Force Base, we have a large percentage of veteran patients. Those patients receive a discount, so honestly, I was trying to hook her up. Lindsey came in and was asking questions about different strains we have, some of our concentrates, etc., so when I came from behind the counter and noticed she had a prosthesis on her left leg, I, incorrectly, assumed that she may have been a veteran. Thus opened our conversation for what had happened, and the trauma that her body had been through since 2014. Lindsey, almost nonchalantly, started to tell me her story of what had happened. She had gone in to deliver her second child after a normal, healthy pregnancy.
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While in labor, one of the nurses went to check how dilated she was, and inadvertently infected Lindsey with Strep A. Lindsey remembers labor going well, but then that evening, her and her newborn baby girl started having symptoms of infection. Of course, with a newborn, any sign of infection is troubling, so it is somewhat safe to think that the staff was much more concerned about a new baby. Tests were run and antibiotics administered to baby Paisley, and she went home from the hospital healthy. Meanwhile, Lindsey was having excruciating headaches and abdominal pain. Despite her daughter testing positive for Group A Strep, two days into increased blood pressure, headaches, and abdominal pain, there had yet to be bloodwork done to determine what was wrong with Lindsey. After two days, Lindsey was finally transferred to OU Medical Center, where, within thirty minutes of arrival, a diagnosis was received. By this point, Lindsey was experiencing sepsis, an infection in her blood, and was needing an emergency hysterectomy to remove the source of the infection.
Lindsey was under the knife within an hour of being transferred in order to literally save her life. Due to the sepsis, her body was beginning to fail her. After surgery, Lindsey was placed in a medically induced coma for three weeks in order to help her body rest and heal. During this three week time, she was off and on life support, with more bad days than good. After waking from the coma, the repercussions of the sepsis became the focus. Lindsey had necrosis, or tissue death, all over her hands and feet. In fact, her doctor expected her to lose both hands as well as both feet. The sepsis also caused her kidney function to stop. Because of the decreased kidney function, Lindsey was 23 years old with a newborn and two-year-old son at home, doing dialysis three days a week. Lindsey spent two months in the ICU, followed by another two months in a regular room at OU Med. So, after giving birth, Lindsey was finally home, 4 months after her initial entrance to the hospital. However, one month later, she was back in for an amputation of her right leg, just below the knee. Because of all of the necrotic tissue due to the sepsis, Because of all of the necrotic tissue due to the sepsis, Lindsey’s leg ended up developing gangrene.
So, the leg had to go, as well as all of the toes on her left foot and partial index and thumb on her left hand. On top of the amputation, Lindsey also has severe arthritis in her remaining ankle, causing pain that requires steroid injections every three months for joint degeneration.
