Alicia Maher is a Cork woman from Mayfield who uses cannabis for treating her chronic pain.
Alicia's problems started aged 17 when she went in for a routine surgery to have her tonsils removed. She had complications afterwards when the left side of her throat opened up first, it haemorrhaged, and she had to go back for further surgery. A week later, the other side of her throat opened up as well, so she had to go back for a second surgery to have that side closed up. She was an inpatient of the South Infirmary for a couple of months because I had to be treated with antibiotics. But when I was in the South Infirmary, I started bleeding from the bowel. They then transferred her to CUH to see a specialist but when she was an inpatient there, she got toxic megacolon, so her colon haemorrhaged while she was in the hospital. She had emergency surgery then and they removed my entire colon and she woke up with an ileostomy bag.
She then received more bad news when pre-cancerous cells were found in her rectum, meaning she underwent a proctectomy to remove her entire rectum and anus.
While recovering from that, she contracted MRSA and began to experience chronic pain. This led to her having to take up to 30 painkillers a day.
Her whole life then revolved around every four hours having to take the medication and forcing myself to eat every four hours, otherwise I would get sick. It was absolutely horrendous. I've spent the last two years at home not able to do anything
Increasingly suffering from fatigue and forgetfulness, she was referred to her pain management clinic for an urgent appointment last year. However, her pain consultant had left the department and hadn't been replaced, so all future appointments were cancelled.
It was then she turned to the cannabis vape.
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-Martin Condon
