When she gets the chance, Shawna Du tells every woman to check herself for lumps. That’s how Shawna discovered she had stage 2 breast cancer this April – she found a lump and just knew. It all happened fast – just like Shawna’s recovery, thanks to CBD oil.
Shortly after her diagnosis, a friend recommended that Shawna should start using hemp oil. Shawna, resident of Azusa, California, began using it before her mastectomy on May 18, right around her 40th birthday.
“When you have a mastectomy, sometimes they take lymph nodes out of your arm,” she said. While she anticipated some of her body’s changes after the mastectomy, she didn’t know her arm would grow to three times its usual size with inflammation from the removed lymph nodes.
“But my husband snuck me my CBD oil,” she said, “and within 24 hours my arm was back to its normal size.”
She uses Real Scientific Hemp Oil in Gold, taking the drops under her tongue with iced tea.
Using CBD hemp oil throughout her cancer treatment has led to quick recovery times that have surprised both Shawna and her doctors. “Within a week of my mastectomy, I was driving my car,” she said. While many women have to measure fluid draining post-surgery for up to four weeks, Shawna was done draining in one week, she said. “I believe without the CBD, I wouldn’t have drained as properly.”
Besides the physical benefits of using CBD, Shawna said she has noticed that “CBD oil makes a difference in treating trauma from extensive surgery. I used it to calm myself and get me to sleep. It was such a valuable tool to help me relax.”
“The sleep you get during treatment is inconsistent, and the CBD oil causes you to relax and get to sleep.”
She said CBD helps her mind from cycling through anxious thoughts. “It makes you feel like you did before everything was on your shoulders.”
Shawna’s life changed quickly after her diagnosis – within two weeks she was approved for surgery. “I have a special needs son who’s six years old, and even his therapy has been put off. I’ve had to put myself first for the first time since I had kids,” she said. “It’s a weird time, a selfish time, but somewhat necessary.”
Shawna said she would recommend CBD oil to other women having surgery. “Women should consider that surgery is so hard on your body,” she said. “It helps heal your body and lowers the inflammation. It healed me really fast. It’s an ugly scar, but it never got worse – it never got infected.”
“I have a real heart for women now,” she said. “I talk to a lot of women about checking themselves for cancer. Sometimes women are scared to do things for ourselves and take care of our health issues. I want each woman to take steps to take care of herself.”
In her own treatment, Shawna said she became aware of her compassion for other women. “I realized how many times you get pricked by a needle – little injustices, yet it’s the little things that can really make a difference to people, like teaching someone with no eyebrows [from chemotherapy] to draw them on.”
Shawna plans to start a non-profit for women supporting women in both preventative health care and treatment. “I want to provide women with whatever tools and support they need to care for themselves, whether it’s treatment for injuries from domestic violence, or women in treatment.”
SOURCE: cannaeffect.org
