Hurdle #1

Oregon law requires that you have at least three visits worth of doctor's notes from the last three years, one within the last 12 months. 

This was a difficult one for me because it's been more than a year since I saw my last doctor and told them I am not going to try anything else except Cannabis. I tried to get the doctor to help me figure out how to dose it correctly, but was practically laughed at. 

I called around to all the clinics in my area, looking for a provider who accepted disability health insurance and the clinic was either not accepting new patients or there were not any openings for many months.

So I went into a walk-in clinic to get a new documentation of my illness, as required by state law. I was discussing my condition with the doctor on call, a little dowdy lady with very cold hands. I discussed my use of medications before and after my diagnosis. The pain killers like Oxycotin, Percocet, Darvocet, Hydrocodone... The Elmiron, the anti-histamine cocktails they gave me through a catheter, diet, physical therapy, and eventually back to Cannabis. By the end of the visit, she had offered me prescription pain pills, anti-spasmodic, and anti-inflammatory meds. I finally agreed to with Naproxen, an anti-inflammatory that I rarely ever take (only when meds run out for a long time) 

I had just begun to get a cold and shamefully admit I am a cigarette smoker. She also prescribed an inhaler and told me to quit smoking cigarettes (of course!) . Then she told me to stop using marijuana because it causes lung cancer...

I could barely hold in the flood of information about cannabis and cancer but decided that I would just say that what she said was ironic cause Cannabis kills cancer cells (plant a seed!). I figured since I knew her name, and where she worked, I would just mail her some information later.

After the appointment, I put in a release for medical records to provide to the doctor I will see when I get my medical marijuana referral. The guy at the front desk said I should have it within a week. It took 3 phone calls and a trip back to the clinic, but I finally got my records.

And of course noted at the bottom: