Hello,
My name is Victoria Barksdale, the slightly larger brunette to the right of your screen. My younger sister, Alexandra Barksdale or Lexi, is sound asleep in the photo. If this is the first time you’ve made your way to Texas Tonix, and the Texas Tonix Blog, welcome! Most of the time, I’m only interested in education, information, and how CBD can help you. But this CBD blog is different from the other ones…
I’m writing this blog to convey what Lexi, my family, and I have been through as a family. Spoiler alert! This blog is emotional, graphic, but necessary. I have seen first-hand that Cannabis can help heal the stomach.
2017
We lost several young people with charge syndrome, a.k.a chargers, several were due to Ruptured Bowel Syndrome- when the intestines burst with compacted waste. When I found out about the losses, my mother and I were at the National Charge convention in Chicago, I asked her if a ruptured bowel could happen to Lexi? Lexi, my sister, has Charge Syndrome. My mom looked at me and said, “absolutely, why do you think I worry about whether she uses the restroom daily?” After hearing this, it was one of the few times that Lexi’s condition has truly scared me.
Perhaps it makes me a flawed human, but my ears have always perked up if there’s a condition that can negatively affect someone I love. Charge Syndrome is very complex, and every person with Charge has similarities and distinct differences.
After the National Charge Convention, it’s as if I was seeing Lexi for the first time, how distended her stomach would get, how she would lay on her side and cry for hours, how perspiration would build on her little forehead when her whole body pushed to excrete fecal matter. I have seen her pass something as big as an 8 oz Coke can. My thought at the time was, why is there no blood with this? I remember looking at an x-ray that was illustrating the S-shaped curve in her back due to scoliosis and how it bends her rib cage. Yet, the more puzzling issue in my opinion, was what looked like a cobblestone pathway from my sister’s throat to her pelvis. My mother very casually stated, “oh, that’s just the gas and remnants of food compacted.”
All of this information made me realize that my sister could die from a ruptured bowel.
January 2019
We were always concerned about how much pain Lexi was in and if she had used the restroom. One day, my dad began talking about how he wanted to give Lexi cannabis to help with her pain and possibly her digestive tract. My mother was skeptical, and so was I, with common questions like, will this make her high, or turn her into a hippie? At that point, we were both adamantly opposing this treatment option!
Yet we finally gave in; my father took a thousand-milligram isolate (at the time this was legal in Texas) and started administering it every night along with her other medications. Lexi was taking or on a rotation for her digestive tract: Probiotics, Magnesium citrate, glycerin suppositories, Polythene glycol, and stool softener at that time. After a few days, my younger brother Cole called my father and demanded to know what my father had given Lexi. To his surprise, he changed multiple diapers that day and these diapers were perfectly normal! We were all astonished and so happy for Lexi! We noticed that Lexi was moving around more, actively getting into things, wanting to engage with the family! She even stopped holding her head in pain as much, (she’s non-verbal).
After seeing my sister’s results, both of my parents started taking it themselves, and the rest is history. I am so very thankful that we could see results and the benefits of cannabis use for my sister.
What brought me to want to put this blog together and tell Lexi’s story with Cannabis in graphic detail and clarity is that an 8-year-old Texas Charger passed away last week. It reminded me of how Cannabis has touched and blessed my family. I don’t know if Cannabis could’ve helped the little girl, but I do know that I need to be more vocal about what CBD has done in the lives of my loved ones. Society sometimes overlooks people like Lexi. Anyone with a rare but severe condition is dismissed or only brought into the spotlight if the situation happens to someone famous. That’s why we got into the Cannabis industry.
If the condition your loved ones are suffering from affects the endocrine system, then the chances of CBD helping you or your loved one are excellent. For further information on the effects of CBD for stomach conditions, check out our blog page.
I sincerely hope that my journey with Cannabis has been helpful. If you have any questions about Cannabis, give me a call, I would love to talk to you.
Sincerely,
Victoria Barksdale
