Covid and CBD: A Love Story . . .

To share my story with you, we will need to go back to 2019 when the stresses we faced seemed to be sprinkles on a scoop for what was to come. I had already noticed changes happening in my body in addition to the effects of living in a socially heated climate day in and day out. My clients shared this sentiment and we were one big family getting through the chaos of the daily surprises while reporters became talk show hosts for an unbearable reality show. Point is, we were already stressed before covid decided to rear its ugly head.

Meanwhile, like a perfect storm, I started noticing changes in my own body. Universally speaking, energy changes, and old injuries popping up from the past. It's a right of passage we all go through. You can run but you can't hide from chronic pain. You see in my 20's, just as I was about to start the adventure of a lifetime, I almost lost my life. Just before I started school at San Francisco Art Institute, I had some time to explore when I wasn't working at Buffalo Exchange on Polk Street, the coffee shop I managed just down the street, or my work study program at SFAI. I met a thespian who took me to the esteemed Cafe Trieste for a couple glasses of wine that turned into an uninvited marriage proposal. Fleeing from the scene, in attempts to lose the company I was with, I took a turn and a tumbled down Kearney St. Thats the street Tom Hardy has an epic fight scene on in the movie Venom. Ahh, memory lane and the closest I'll get to Mr. Hardy. As I tried to flee my company in my platform combat boots, I pirouetted around a telephone poll, landed on concrete stairs and did a real number on my arm, resulting in a compound fracture that was a hair away from severing my artery, permanent range of motion loss and a souvenir of gravel they could never fully extract. As the doctor put it, I will take Kearney Street with me wherever I go for the rest of my life.

For some, these terms may sound foreign, but for those who know, it equals a lifetime on-again off-again pain. Then some years later, I was living in Hollywood, California. I had just picked up my check from Tower Records on Sunset Blvd where I was working at the time, and on my way home I was hit by a car on my bicycle. I bicycled everywhere back then, and this time I wasn't getting up from my fall. I ended up in L.A. County Hospital with a broken leg and I don't recommend visiting the ER of that hospital as I thought I was in an infirmary during the 1800's with gurneys and blood everywhere.

At this point, friends and family started to worry if California was an accident prone state for me. Fast forward to my present day, 23 years later and between the broken leg, an old compound fracture, 20+ years of doing hair, arthritis of the lower back and hormonal changes, you could say I struggled more than I wanted to. Those who understand broken bones, chronic pain, hormonal and emotional changes know the plight I speak of.

The first time I tried CBD, is was an old bottle my dad had lying around in the kitchen. I tried it and thought it tasted absolutely horrible! It tasted so bad that I forgot to pay attention to any effects it may have had. That was because it had alcohol as a carrier instead of oil.

Then years later, I heard of a CBD store that opened down the street from my salon in Oldtown, Alexandria. I was suffering from carpal tunnel and went there in an attempt to find some relief. Honestly, I was skeptical and probably put way more ointment than i needed on my wrist to try it out. To my amazement, it worked! I began to trust the integrity of this magical flower called hemp. I then became highly interested in CBD, but it was all still very foreign to me. I didn't understand all the letters and what they even stood for. I then made a big purchase while on a trip in Asheville, NC, and started to take it daily to get relief from the pain and anxiety I experienced frequently at that point, the effects of gravity, too much news and old injuries coming back to say "hello."

CBD became a companion in my daily regimen and I noticed I would take CBD instead of grabbing a glass of wine, or CBD instead of the extremely frequent and high doses of ibuprofen I was relying on daily for the unknowing arthritis manifesting in my lower back. CBD became a game changer for me in the best of ways. It was then that I had to learn all that I could about CBD! I needed to know what all the letters meant, and how to pronounce all the cannabinoids and their nature. Little did I know that the more I learned, the more I would fall in love with this beautiful plant.

**Blog stories represent my own personal experiences and are not to be taken as medical advice.