When the Cure is the Cause 

Soooo many people come through our ER for this; they won't accept that it could be all the weed they're smoking. Doctors must have the patience of Job.

A friend of mine is an EMT and after they legalized weed where we live he has responded to lots of calls from people having a bad reaction to marijuana. As a doctor who has a radio show in my area says, "if it's strong enough to help it's strong enough to hurt."

A lot of people frequently comment on these videos about bad experiences with doctors taking shortcuts so I'd like to point out a few things here: - In this interaction, Doc Schmidt isn't taking shortcuts, he's assessed the pattern of vomiting and associated features, and noted that it fits a very specific syndrome that's highly associated with THC - He's heard out the patient's concerns and ensured he's not missing other features, and he's specifically addressing the thing that's worrying the patient (the vomiting) - He's requested the patient try lifestyle changes but also has diagnostic testing for other causes in the event that the most likely cause doesn't turn out to be the issue Some doctors do absolutely take shortcuts and miss things, but if your doctor is taking an approach like this and has a staged plan with a specific problem they're attempting to manage (in this case CHS), rather than just being casually dismissive and sending you away without follow-up, then that suggests they've properly listened to you and are considering the symptoms properly rather than just trying to take the easy route.

"It's not a drug, it's a way of life." 😂😂

Absolutely anything can cause side effects. Even overhydration is a thing. Be safe, be honest, and listen to your doctor without interrupting them. Also, ask if you don't understand something.

I have the disorder that is often confused with this video…I have cyclic vomiting syndrome. I have never touched a single non prescribed or non recommended OTC drug, but every time I ended up in urgent care it was always asked if I used marijuana. Nope, never, just have had cyclic vomiting syndrome off and on since I was a kid…it sure sucked growing up.

I think my daughter has this, but she won't listen to me. What do I know, I am just a Registered Nurse.

I've worked as a crisis counselor in emergency services for 30 years and I can't tell you how many times I've heard this conversation.

Had a friend suffer from this, it’s really awful

You know I can't blame him. The doctor is right here of course. But the stigma is real. I don't smoke it myself but I am overweight which has similar issues. It can feel really dismissive if a doctor is unwilling to focus on issues beyond their biases. But like shown here it doesn't always mean a doctor is just being biased. Sometimes it truly is the cause. It's just as patient who is uninformed how are you going to tell if you are dealing with a doctor who is biased or actual good medical advice? Makes things hard. But this doctor is also a good example of how to handle that. Take the concerns of the patient seriously, acknowledge the biases present in the field and explain your reasoning. That makes people much more willing to accept what you are saying and is also just good practice in general. Great vid!

Oh my goodness, great modeling of how to relate to this patient respectfully!

If it doesn't have side-effects it doesn't have effects.

Serotonin syndrome is real. I appreciate there’s not a “side” taken, Doc just talking science. It’s important (and life effecting ) to be open and honest with your health care providers.

I smoke weed almost daily, but if I knew it was causing me issues, I'd definitely tone it down or take a break. Yes marijuana *can* be a way of life, but it is always a drug.

I'm an EMT and I've seen mj cause a ton of problems and most of the patients refuse to believe that it was the mj causing it. It's not a harmless drug and now we've got "frequent flyer" patients (I'm a volunteer in low income area and a lot of our traffic are people using us as health care) and we try to get them to switch to edibles, but several of the diehards say they get h1gj faster from sm0king it (?).

Yep, sometimes you are causing the problem you are trying to treat. It sucks. I had to figure this out myself as a teenager because my pain was getting worse, but the doc said to just keep taking the med (it was a prescription NSAID). After googling it I learned I was likely having rebound pain and decided to just stop. After a few awful days I finally started to improve.

Even if you don’t have full on CHS, ingesting too much highly concentrated THC can cause some degree of these symptoms - speaking from experience. Now with more moderation I experience this issue very little, not to a problematic degree at all

Marijuana raised my blood pressure so high i kept getting nose bleeds. I felt so relaxed. The least anxiety in my life even the day after smoking, aches and pains got better but my blood pressure was crazy. Like 2 days after the last time I smoked it went down to normal. I miss it so much tho 😭😭😭

I'm an MA in a gastro clinic and have seen this several times, usually with younger patients, it seems, like the 18-27 group. Its pretty interesting that for some Marijuana can help with nausea, and some causes the opposite.

Why is this so accurate 😂

The outfit is spot-on

I love him & the wig! This is great!

Cannabis literally causes me pain. My entire body hurts and I get this horrible burning ache deep in my abdomen that doubles me over in writing pain. I have not found any form, strain or permutation that doesn’t cause this pain. I cant smoke it or eat it. I can’t take pharmaceuticals that have THC or CBD in them. I’ve tried edibles with extremely low THC and larger amounts of other cannabinoids like CBG & CBN, but they all cause the pain. I’m not mad that I can’t use weed, but I’ve always wondered why it happens.

I’m in psych and we have similar conversations: yes, I know people use cannabis for anxiety. But it can cause paranoia and even psychosis in some people. It may be safer than alcohol but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you, especially in the long term.

As soon as he said hot showers, I knew he was smoking weed. That’s a classic trait of CHS.

I’m an RN and I’ve had a number of patients with this. They were pretty heavy weed users, not occasional or first time users. Really strange to witness almost uncontrollable urges to take hot showers every half hour or so to feel better.

In real life the patient wouldn't have given it up and he'd still be vomiting. It's just how healthcare is.

no doc ever told me this and i went to ed multiple times was even admitted did all sorts of tests was told it was psych ty

So real!!

I try to be aggressively honest about this - where we DO have data about cannabinoids, and where we don't. I hope it lends some mutual respect to a conversation where the patient can default to defensive. Things like some studies show that longterm/regular use of cannabinoids can increase, or not help anxiety symptoms. Or that they can alter the impact of anesthesia meds.

Who's the other guy? That can't be you right? He doesn't look or sound like you at all, unlike your other characters

Does this patient know that both weed and he himself are made of chemicals? XD

After 13 years of ibs, I got a diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency with ibs, why did it take 13 years for me to get some digest capsules

Scromiting (screaming vomiting ) hot water relief a clue! My ex had extreme sweating and freezing, thc

I sometimes get a laxative effect if I consume over 150mg THC(+CBD+CBN) concentrate at once. I just cap my dosage at 50mg so I don't have to worry about it. Thankfully I'm spared any other side effects. I've already had other gut problems my whole life prior to consuming cannabis and if anything it might've made me a little less constipated at best.

I wish a month break was the cure. It comes back, and it comes back with a vengeance. The only way to get rid of it as of right now is to fully stop using marijuana, and it suuuuucks 😢

I can smell this guy from over here.

how did a heavy smoker end up quitting marijuana cold turkey? he didn't suffer from withdrawals?

These are the kinds of people who say weed isn’t addictive

User: It's never the weed.🙄

😂

As a Dutch daily smoker of mj, I will stand by the fact that it's a *soft*drug, some ppl can't handle it, and it's not their fault, but cases like this? The denial is hard, and sad...

Saying mj is safer than alcohol is a really low bar.

The poor stressed out doc😢

I don't like how glorified the drug is. When it became legal in my state I tried edibles thinking "what could go wrong this drug is safe and not addictive, according to literally everyone" and then I became addicted to it. Not saying it should be illegal but the drug being glorified made me way less cautious trying the drug and it being glorified made it harder to stop too. 21 full days sober as of this comment.

I can't stand these people.....

Stoners in a nutshell

So often GI cannot dx source of pain. But they hear weed and less than 1% there’s their out. It goes like this. You don’t smoke weed do you?? And quicky turf to this bogus for an easy way out. Lazy medicine at least do the CT scan

"And he still hasn't tried the patient's MJ" suspiciously specific denial 😏

My doctor is so afraid of tramadol he discontinued my less than one pill a day and now I’m having to take bottles and bottles of gabapentin, ibuprofen, aspirin, and am decompensating rapidly.

Patients stop self-reporting MJ once they find out that doctors aren't using it themselves... so the data is not to be trusted (about vomiting continuing even after discontinuation). However, we DO have non-substance-related social issues and it all revolves around the same bad friend groups which everyone has (because we're all held back by those weirdos who appear to have been unaware of what perfectionism even was, all along). So, in essence, any ACCESS to medical services itself IS a privilege to them, rather than a human right, because of how they've shown an unprecedented lack of bravery and have let everyone down. ...Not to mention that these individuals, no matter how superior at living off the grid to their libertarian peers they might be, are ordinarily averse to contributing to their future while using MJ (and MJ represents laziness for them). Well, at least we know why OF took off so fast: THOSE GIRLS are at least doing SOMETHING while they smoke. It's full-blown. It's like full-blown cancer. Who can we hang for this?

Yeah right. Many prescribed drugs cause chronic severe constipation etc.

Ginger can cure nausea, but in some people, it can cause nausea as well. A LOT of things that don't seem like drugs can have actual medicinal effects, but every effective cure has side effects. If it didn't, it wouldn't be strong enough to help. It's important to remember that!