Last year I went in for a colonoscopy on July 28th to find out the best treatment options for my diverticulitis. I had been dealing with stomach issues for several years and had to be hospitalized a couple of times due to what the doctors thought were flare ups. I weighed 225 pounds at the beginning of the year, but by July I had lost over 50 pounds. When I saw my GI doctor, he said I’d have to learn to live with it, to which I replied “Live like this? I am dying!”, so he ordered a colonoscopy for two weeks later.

When you have a colonoscopy someone has to drive you home, so both my mother and father came with me but had to wait in the car due to covid.

When they were wheeling me into the operating room I made sure to let them know that I had a beautiful wife and son at home that I needed to see again, so please make sure I wake up. When my eyes opened, the doctor was standing next to me with a look of concern. I jokingly said to her “Was it really that bad up there”. To which she replied “I’m so sorry, but you have cancer”. She said the tumor was massive, so she didn’t need a biopsy to know it was cancer.

At that moment the world stopped. Even though I was lying down, I felt like I was sinking into the earth. A piece of my soul broke off and was forever trapped in that moment in time. I felt like I had been found guilty of a crime and had just been sentenced to death.

Telling my parents was intense, I sobbed like a child as my mother just held my hand and promised to be with me the whole time, no matter what. Over the next couple of days we would discuss plans for my funeral in case I didn’t make it through the surgery. I told her I wanted Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Izzy to be played, which she had never heard before.

A week later I had a 9.875 inch tumor removed from my body and half of my colon removed. The tumor was perforated, meaning leaking, and was about the size of a pot roast. One of the doctors commented on how remarkable my tumor was, and went on to say that they couldn’t figure out how I wasn’t dead already. That’s when I let her know that I smoke copious amounts of cannabis and that could be the reason.

I went home from the hospital 5 days after surgery with several pain medications, but not only didn’t they help with the pain, but they constipated me. The last thing a person wants who has a colon resection, is to be constipated. I mean, it was years that I couldn’t properly go to the bathroom, so I wanted to try out my new exhaust, but the pain killers wouldn’t let me.

Luckily, I have very good friends in the cannabis industry, and one of them had already shipped me 60 grams of Rick Simpson Oil that arrived the day I got home. I had planned on starting the cycle a couple days after I got home, but I can remember sitting in my recliner telling my Mom that I couldn’t take the pain and constipation, so I was stopping the pain killers and starting the RSO early.

I took about a quarter of a gram and ate it. At this point my back and stomach both hurt like hell and I was extremely constipated. Roughly 30 minutes later I noticed the pain subsiding and I turned to my Mom and said, “I feel like I need to poop”. 15 minutes later, I had my first proper poop in several years. I will be the first to tell you, a good number two will make you feel like number one.

That week I had to go visit the Oncologist to hear my diagnosis, which turned out to be extremely high risk stage 2 cancer. He suggested I start chemo therapy immediately due to the fact that the tumor was perforated and leaking. He said that microscopic particles of the cancer could be floating around and this was the only choice that I had. When I declined and let him know that I would be using RSO instead, he was adamant that I was making a big mistake.

The suggested cycle of RSO is 60 grams in 90 days, but considering the aggressive nature of what I had, I did 60 grams in 60 days. I was very tired at first, but sleep is what I needed anyway at that time. At first I would do .25 grams four times a day, but by 15 days in I could just eat the whole gram at night.

The doctor at Cooper agreed to monitor me even though I wasn’t doing the chemo, and promised to document my cannabis treatment outcome, but I wanted a second opinion. When I told the second doctor that I wasn’t going to do the chemo and instead use RSO, he scolded me like a child and said he would refuse to even monitor me if I chose the path of no chemo, so I stayed with the first oncologist.

I was monitored very frequently with blood tests to check on my CEA levels and my white/red blood counts, each time showing no signs of the cancer returning. At the six month maker I had to get another colonoscopy, CT scan, and test my blood again. When the colonoscopy doctor saw me, she let me know how great I looked since the last time we met, and immediately said “You didn’t do Chemo, did you?”. When she told me I had cancer, I let her know that I had a play book ready for this exact situation and would be using RSO, which is something that she had never heard of.

Three weeks ago I met with my Oncologist to hear the results of all of my tests. When I first met with him I was 160 pounds and frail, on this day though, I weighed in at 193 and looking like a million bucks. He admitted that if I had done the six months of chemo that I would not have gained back that much weight nor look as healthy as I did. He went on to say that all of my tests were clear, with no signs of the cancer returning, and at this point, I was CANCER FREE!

It felt like I was in prison and the Warden just called to stop my execution. I was FREE!