Sarah Trask had childhood cancer 32 years ago and had four brain surgeries.
Sarah is a survivor. As a result, epilepsy is the side effect she is living with.
Sometimes it may last for a couple minutes. Sarah has experienced status epilepticus a couple times in her life.
Status epilepticus occurs when a person has continuous seizures and has a hard time getting out of the cycle of seizures. People have died from this condition. She has tried many medicines to make the seizures stop but none has worked.
This was until November when medical marijuana was approved for use to manage her status epilepticus in her home state of Florida. Sarah stated that they allowed the first few people to try the oil and she was one of the people selected. THC is the active ingredient. It can either come in an oil or tablet form.
Sarah has built up an immunity to her seizure medicines, which causes the seizures to come back more quickly. With marijuana, she can increase the dosage without becoming immune to it. Even with having serious seizures, it is still difficult for her to get medical marijuana.
Right now her only other treatment option is to get vagus nerve stimulation surgery. The surgery is supposed to reduce the number of seizures a person has. The concept is that when she has a seizure, someone nearby will hold a special magnetic wand over her chest to stop or slow the seizure down. There is no guarantee that it will work.
Now, Sarah has a new doctor but there’s a waiting period before she can receive a prescription for medical marijuana.
Click here to watch her clip.
