Frumgirl

Hello, everyone. I have fibromyalgia and have resisted taking pain meds since the pain started (about 2 years ago, I think). I am currently taking Cymbalta twice a day and take diclofenac as needed, and for the past week and a half have been vaporizing very, very small amounts of marijuana before bedtime, but it has been giving me horrendous heartburn.

Please do not suggest any narcotic painkillers that might help: When I was a teenager I was injured and put on painkillers, became physically dependent on them, and not long later was addicted to heroin (IV). I recovered with the help of drugs like methadone, suboxone, subutex that I bought off the street. Hopefully this background gives you a little insight into why I keep refusing pain medication. When I went to a pain management doctor and told her that I did not want any opiates or anything addictive, she basically told me that there was not much she could do for me. Another background note: I had never ingested marijuana in any form until 1.5 weeks ago, so I've had none of the "prior experience" with it that lots of people get during their teenage years.

My husband and I finally decided to go with medical marijuana, as it is not supposed to be addictive and its not an opiate. I do not like that it makes me feel "different," but it really does help the pain. Here's the thing: it has been giving me massive heartburn. I had an ulcer about three years ago and really do not want to head down the box-per-week-of-antacid path again. I had not had heartburn since the ulcer was at its volcanic height, so I am confident that it is the marijuana causing it and not something in my diet (which has not changed in the past 1.5 weeks of marijuana use).

Is it normal to have such horrendous heartburn with it? It also makes me feel really nauseous. I cannot keep taking it if it might give me acid problems, but I'm just baffled. I don't want to swap one type of pain for another.

On a slightly separate note: is anyone aware of anything I can do to combat the "high" feeling from the marijuana if I choose to keep taking it? I would like to be able to function normally if/when I choose to take it.

Chaya