Testimonial: Mary Jane’s Medicinals Topicals Greatly Improved My Quality of Life During Chemotherapy
A note to our readers: At Mary Jane’s Medicinals, we regularly hear from customers who use our cannabis-infused topical products for a variety of ailments.
Meagen Fraker was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 at the age of 28. Throughout her six rounds of aggressive chemotherapy treatment and following her double mastectomy, Ms. Fraker found that Mary Jane’s Medicinals cannabis-infused body lotion and topical tincture provided significant relief from the skin-related side effects of cancer treatment and post-surgical neuropathic pain.
Here is Meagen’s story, in her own words:
Marijuana and Chemotherapy: How Cannabis-Infused Topicals Helped Me Through Cancer Treatment
By Meagan Fraker
Chemo is hard. It is a brutal treatment for a brutal disease. But there is a source of relief for some of the harshest side effects of chemotherapy, and it’s cannabis.
Despite being so taboo for so long, emerging research and countless anecdotal reports have begun to shed light on how and why cannabis and its derived products can, indeed, benefit many cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. I’m adding my voice to the chorus of anecdotal evidence that shows cannabis can be a helpful option.
Cannabis has always been a huge part of my life, but I never could truly comprehend the medical and wellness benefits of this plant until I was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive breast cancer at the age of 28.
I was lucky enough to be working in the cannabis industry when I was diagnosed, so the benefits of cannabis for helping provide relief for chemotherapy side effects was already on my radar. I also thought I knew a lot about cannabis already, but once diagnosed, I went into full research mode.
At the time of my diagnosis in May 2016, there already was considerable scientific evidence to suggest that cannabinoids such as THC and CBD may help cancer patients manage the pain and debilitating side effects of chemotherapy treatment (and these findings have continued to grow).
As an adult resident of Colorado—where cannabis is legally permitted for medical and adult use—I was able to access and test out a wide range of cannabis products throughout my aggressive chemotherapy sessions.
The days following my first round of chemo were the worst. My body hurt. My head hurt. Even the sun hurt when it touched my skin. I almost immediately developed folliculitis, a painful rash, all over my body. Clothing chafed my newly sensitive skin. My doctors prescribed a steroid cream, but it only made the rash worse. The only thing that helped was a cannabis-infused body lotion made by Mary Jane’s Medicinals. It was pretty incredible, considering nothing else had worked at all to ease the rash, but the cannabis-infused lotion actually gave me relief.
It took me almost two weeks to rebound from that first round of chemo, and I felt pretty miserable. My head was constantly pounding, everything I tried to eat tasted like chemicals and I had to force food down. I was hesitant to use high doses of cannabis following my first round of chemo because my oncology doctors told me it could interfere with my ability to analyze my recovery and hinder my awareness of my body’s response to chemotherapy.
After my second round of chemo, my hair started falling out in large clumps. I could see scabs on my bald spots where I was developing a painful rash. I used Mary Jane’s Medicinals salve on the rash, and it helped so much. I was very weak and achy after my second round of treatment, and my skin itched all over, especially my torso. After trying a few different treatment options, I found that rubbing a mixture of the cannabis-infused salve and castor oil onto my skin eased the itching considerably.
I was feeling so crummy after the second round that I decided to try consuming more cannabis to see how it made me feel. I figured it couldn’t hurt me any more than I was already hurting. So every day I started putting CBD-infused honey into my green tea, and consumed about 10-20 milligrams of THC via edibles. I still felt awful, but utilizing different forms of cannabis—on my skin and in my body—definitely seemed to help.
By round three, I began increasing my daily CBD and THC consumption to 30-60 mg of each. My recovery was much quicker than the first two rounds. Perhaps my body was adjusting to the chemo regimen, but I like to think cannabis played a role. I rebounded just a few days after treatment, and I was able to eat much more than during previous rounds. And while it may seem like a small matter, making sure you eat enough during chemo treatment to maintain energy is one of the most important things you can do. So anything that makes eating less miserable is huge.
By round four, I decided to consume much more CBD and THC before and after my chemo treatment. And this time after I left the infusion center, I literally ate dinner and went to a work conference. I felt great and slept through the night—something I could never have imagined possible following my previous chemo rounds. I started smoking much more flower and eating plenty of edibles, and three days later, I felt well enough to get back to work. I felt basically normal again.
It was incredible.
All told, I had six rounds of an aggressive chemo drug combination and a double mastectomy. And in my experience, cannabis proved to be a godsend.
After I ramped up my consumption of CBD and THC, I was able to maintain my weight. My vitals and blood work stayed in the normal range, and I didn’t become as sick as many patients do during chemotherapy treatment. I used the cannabis-infused lotion and salve on my head and all over my body on a daily basis, and it minimized my painful, itchy rashes and I believe it even helped my hair stop falling out. In fact, my eyelashes and eyebrows never fell out, and they remained thick and healthy throughout treatment—my nurses said they had never seen that before in a patient undergoing my particular chemo combo.
Two years after my diagnosis, I am happy to say that I’m in remission. I’ve still got some residual discomfort from my surgery, but I’ve been using Mary Jane’s Medicinals cannabis-infused lotion and salve regularly on the surgery scars, and it seems to have a positive effect with the lingering pain caused by nerve damage, as well as helping the scars fade. I put the lotion and salve all over my chest and back, and the weird itchy feeling from the neuropathy doesn’t bother me as much.
Cannabis helped improve many aspects of my wellness during and after chemotherapy, but one of the most noticeable benefits I derived was from applying cannabis-infused topicals to my skin.
Oh, how my skin hated chemo. But Mary Jane’s Medicinals infused topicals soothed my skin like nothing else. The fact that the products have all-natural ingredients was key for me, because my body pretty much couldn’t handle any artificial chemical ingredients during chemotherapy. The lotion was great for my itching skin, which is an awful side effect of chemo. And the salve let me take a localized approach when I felt pain in my hands, feet and legs, as well as for my post-surgery scars.
There is actually a lot of evidence to support the use of cannabis topicals for a range of different skin conditions. Medical literature suggests cannabis may be a particularly effective treatment for pruritus, a common side effect of chemotherapy that causes severe itching like I experienced. Researchers believe the anti-inflammatory properties of cannabinoids may explain these skin benefits.
There is also mounting evidence indicating that cannabinoids help relieve pain associated with neuropathy, which was certainly my experience.
I am just one case study. And I recognize that what worked for me may not work for others. But I want others to know that cannabis might help. I’m not going to lie, chemo sucks—with or without cannabis. I felt terrible. I was excruciatingly tired. I had pain at a level I never imagined possible.
But cannabis made that pain bearable, and infused products improved my quality of life during chemo more than I ever could have imagined.