Hey, I see a lot of you are wary of first time posters but honestly apart from medical papers, forums have been the only other place to find any information at all.
I am 26, smoker for 7 years, had been dabbing since springtime in conjunction with some heavy therapy I was going through for PTSD. BHO helped me get through this hard time and now that therapy is over I had gotten up to about 3 or for sessions a day doing two small dabs through water with a glass nail and a butane torch.
Around the middle of november I was seeing the second GI doctor in a month, I had to get a second opinion because the first doctor took one look at my symptoms and had no idea, suggested I begin nexium and take a fiber supplement (even though I had no BM complaints).
Basically, before halloween I began to have a gnawing pain at the top of my stomach that felt a lot like a hungry and empty stomach. Normally I would wake and dab it up, at first the nausea occurred while I was sitting after I had coughed it out so I began to be understandably concerned about the use of BHO and the blowtorch. I knew where my shit was coming from and it was properly purged, spent like 60 hours in a vacuum oven and was produced by a medical producer.
I went to the doctor but did not quit my use because I thought as we all did "if I have a stomach problem cannabis is probably the way to go in treating it" so I continued my routine. changed things like i stopped eating at least 2 hours before bed, took my nexium, elevated my pillows to prevent reflux and tried to eat something mild like a plain egg/cheese on toast. it was hit or miss whether I could keep the food down and honestly it seemed like my body required me to empty the contents of my already empty stomach for me to go about my day!!
I did not have symptoms during the day or at night except for maybe once or twice, all of the vomiting was confined to the 30 minutes after waking. I did not make the hot shower connection but I had bruised my tibia and had been taking VERY HOT baths nearly every night for that since the first week in october and I just felt great after!
I cut back on my dabs but not a lot. a week here or there would go by without symptoms but then a morning would come (followed by 2-4 more) where I just needed to empty my stomach.
a relative said that it sounded like cancer and even though I am not usually prone to that sort of logic i scheduled a second opinion with a different GI doctor at the same office because I was still in the dark 100% about my symptoms.
when I got there he said he had gone over the records they had and spoken to the first doctor, he asked me to describe for him one more time what was up and when I had finished he had two questions:
Was I taking a lot of hot baths/showers and was I doing it because it seemed to help the nausea?
(this was inconclusive because I was bathing a lot because of my bone bruise)
AND
Did I regularly use marijuana? he caught me off guard and I attested that I did.
Until Dr. Matlock (not kidding, that's the spelling and everything) told me about CHS I had never heard of such a thing! I asked if it was from concentrates and he said as far as he knew it happened in people who even only smoked once a week? I wasn't so sure about that.
he asked me to stop in a way that I kind of felt like he knew I was a worthless stoner who probably wouldn't stop, but said it is "really just a quality of life issue".
I thought about stopping, didn't think I could because I was still in therapy and simply cut down my use (I was using BHO exclusively). My sessions were over at the end of the year and between new years and a week ago I didn't really have symptoms.
on the 12th of this month my chest was hurting something awful and I didn't know why and I began to panic about my use and basic abuse of BHO. I saw a new primary care doctor who informed me the pain was muscular and not in my lungs. I told her about CHS and she said the only thing she heard about it was that abstaining from smoking was the only way to find out for sure if cannabis is the culprit.
on the 15th I got rid of all of my dab shit, gave it away to happy friends who were horrified at my story. I picked up a Sonic Vape as a fail-safe in case I was too weak to go without my crutch. I smoked once with the vape on the 15th and felt queasy the next morning so I kind of got a hint that I need to get a grip and give quitting a try, if not forever just to know for sure that cannabis is the cause.
I have read this entire thread and many others on grasscity and bluelight. I see that compared to many others my symptoms look like a pony-ride (being confined mostly to the morning, being still able to eat and hydrate) but I don't think that rules CHS out because many report morning symptoms.
How I feel, and this is just based on what my body feels like and what I have read, is that I have saturated my body with THC through heavy use of concentrates and when I wake up my body runs through the checks and goes "WE ARE OVERLOADED WITH THAT SHIT MANG". I hear the Hypothalamus controls the endocannabinoid system (pardon if I am wrong) and things like sleep temperature and specifically the esophageal plexus (don't know where I read it so again, pardon errors).
usually the pain in my stomach lingers until I cough and when I do I gag to vomiting, so the retching seems to originate from my esophagus since nothing comes from my lungs and I do not immediately empty my stomach as I normally would if I were sick.
I went cold turkey on the 16th so I am 4 days in an yesterday I had more queasyness than ever and was feeling super anxious and paranoid, a friend then forwarded me some shit about cannabis inducing schizophrenia and psychosis which is the least helpful shit in the world lol.
I realize I most certainly overdid it with BHO, it helped me survive difficult therapy but I really have no excuse to continue use, especially if it could be the cause of my mystery symptoms.
I am seriously hoping that after detoxing until my followup in march I can return to use in a very moderate manner with my brand new Sonic Vape... 5 years back the benzos they prescribed for my anxiety gave me 2 seizures and SSRIs made me feel like a robot, Mary Jane is the only thing I had found that could make me look on the bright side with minimal symptoms and I might have gone on fine if I didn't discover the wonders of BHO (which I don't think I will ever use again)
was queasy when i got up, forced down some oatmeal and have felt fine since. wanted to post here for anyone else who is digging for information on their mysterious symptoms!! thank you all for posting!!
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