An Activist’s Fight Against Cancer: June 26
This is an ongoing column we will be posting from David Williams as he shares his point of view during his fight against Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Portland. David and his wife Heather founded Coma Treats, a medical cannabis edible company, in 2013 and contribute recipes to our publication. You can follow his progress and see facebook live video updates at https://fb.me/DavidWilliamsFight
June 26, 2018 —
From caregiver to patient … now I understand why many of you looked at Heather that way!
There is a strange look people give my wife when they meet her. I never quite understood it till now. It’s a look of pure gratitude on one hand, and on another it’s like they have a secret. These interactions bring out very strong emotions in everyone. When it happens, they find us all sharing horror stories of bad health and, of course, appreciation for her medibles that she produced for years, most recently under the name Coma Treats.
We are always honored by the shared stories of overcoming health issues and humbled to hear about those that her marijuana infused foods helped like the loved ones who just had a little more time to visit with less pain. In case you’re new to cannabis, we left shortly after the recreational laws for a variety of reasons but since so many people bought our treats weekly, I do want to take a moment and apologize to our pre-rec fans for leaving. We absolutely love you, and all your stories, and apologize for leaving the cannabis world. We had quite a few reasons, but it was really focused around the fact that we had just healed Heather and found ourselves working over 80 hours a week to barely pay just the taxes and fees that lawmakers felt the need to push onto those who were trying to help others.
So what now?
This week I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I am starting to really understand those looks and how important cannabis can be to a healing regimen for those that are dealing with serious illness. It’s funny, how you can think you know something, but until the doctors said those 3 words–you have cancer–I was just a caregiver to Heather and never got the true fear of the dreaded diagnosis. It makes me even more sad we couldn’t keep Coma Treats going.
Since so many of you have shared your story, I hope to share mine with you.
Today was the first day of my chemo regimen at OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) and, besides the incredible fear inside me, it all went well. While trapped here on the 13th floor, for a minimum of 30 days, I’m sure each story I share will get progressively worse. I am otherwise in great health, which should make it easier, but as so many of you have shared, its going to suck. Ill be raw with you and share my experiences as real time as I can. You can contact me with your experiences or questions at anytime.
I would like to thank Keith from Oregon Cannabis Connection and many others from Oregon’s incredible medical cannabis community for the knowledge they taught us. It helped save my wife’s life and now hopefully mine. Oregon has truly always been health focused and I hope it never loses that now that rec is king in marijuana.
Peace,
David
You can contact David at 911cannabis@gmail.com. To help him with the massive costs associated with his treatment, please visit his GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/help-david-get-chemotherapy
