Genevieve’s Progress: Cannabis For Severe Autism & Epilepsy

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Severe Autism, Epilepsy, and O.C.D. don't define Genevieve. Her smile and her laughter do almost as much as her warrior spirit.

She fights through life with a big grin and such willingness to learn more. Genevieve makes every day brighter. I wanted to share some videos from my YouTube channel that rarely get viewed. The first was almost 2 years ago and it was so amazing that she was verbalizing this much even back then. She’d been using Full Extract Cannabis Oil and CBD both for the past 9 months before this was taken – we had no idea what would happen by now – over 2 years later. Her progress was incredible at this point, but nowhere near where it is today. I made a decision to do a video after she asked me to get up on a horse and ride with her. It gave me chills to see her communicate in such a way – verbalizing, using sign, and her iPad. There was no way I wasn’t going to get up on a horse and go for a ride with her! Next week the fair comes to town and we’ll do what we’ve come used to doing – riding together and laughing as we feed her horses.

What came over the next few months was a series of changes that were more than mind-boggling. When I first met my daughter I was only her compassion provider and had no idea this amazing child would someday be my girl, at the time she wasn’t able to manipulate an iPad well enough to watch much or use the voice-to-speech app well. She was a zombie on pharmaceuticals that weren’t working and was seizing most of her days. She had serious problems with side effects from seizure medications that included increased seizures. Most of her days were spent on the floor laying on sheets her mom would lay out for her as she’d take a few steps and fall. The day I first saw her it almost made me sad to see how much her mom got excited because she was able to use her iPad to tell me she was happy, I knew the potential she had and knew what Cannabis could do for her. What I didn’t know is someday soon she’d call me Daddy. Her journey with Cannabis oils has been an intense one that is deserving a book rather than an article, these rarely viewed videos will give you a much more candid look into how she’s progressed. The following was done after she started using 2 devices at once all the time, and would ask for 3 occasionally. More than once I’d go into her room and find her looking at the same video in English, Spanish, and many times also in Japanese. As if she was teaching herself to talk by using the videos she loved the most.

What’s followed has been her intense desire to share what makes her happy – which isn’t seen a whole lot with severe autism – if at all. She’s also known to show a great deal of empathy now. Her daily routine of Infused MCT oil that’s subtle but brings her a nice dose of THC, CBN, and often a tad of CBD has without a doubt shown to be the cause of these drastic improvements. We also believe love is a huge element as she went a decade with no daddy before she decided to adopt me – because that’s basically what Genevieve did. There’s something about her that’s also magical, her ability to thrive when many think she’s just surviving. From the first moment I was around her I knew I belonged with her which was a very strange feeling after 2 decades of representing kids all over the nation with various disabilities. She’s also developed this sense of empathy that’s also reported back to us by her teachers and aides at school. She used to want to be away from everyone no matter what – especially her little sister Sydney who’s now 8. Over the past two years they’ve grown close, very close. If Sydney is crying for some reason, or if anyone anywhere is for that matter, Genevieve will seek them out to actually comfort them. She’ll extend her arm and put one of her gentle hands upon the person – literally anyone crying or appearing sad. It’s literally miraculous to see a child with such a severe disorder that always creates a distance between the outside world and them to actually want the outside world in her life. In this video, she plays with Sydney and they talk about what colors they’re using. This is something that never happened at all before Cannabis Oil and is something that brought us to tears, it was hard to film. Now it’s something we see regularly as Genevieve has grown to depend on her ‘little big sister’ for help that Sydney is so willing to give her.

And this was 11 months ago! We’ve got a video camera set up now so we can catch a bunch of candid moments as Genevieve will go through periods where she’s so verbal she will not use her expensive Dynovox speech device or the iPad to speak with – she wants to talk and does. Now I can’t say we always understand “Uhh bob boba bob ahhh dada bob” but it generally means ‘Daddy I want to see a different sponge bob video’. What we’re doing now is putting those phrases into the more expensive device that she’ll use over the next few years for the icon to speech – it allows her to press a few buttons and out comes a very clear voice. At some point, we’ll be able to upgrade to the one that actually records and uses her voice.

Genevieve will now independently go after her food – not just the bag but bowel and a spoon and more. She’ll get the accessories she needs and actually try to prepare her things at times. It’s nowhere near perfect or workable so to say – but it’s an attempt that we’d never expect. Just today her mom was amazed at how she independently attempted to fully dress herself after a bath. That may seem minimal to many but we’re talking about severe autism and wearing a diaper – normally it’s a tantrum kind of situation trying to bathe and dress the child regardless of age. Genevieve understands with no hesitation and is aware of what rewards are, she will comply with just about any reasonable request to gain one – and it doesn’t have to be food although she does prefer food as a reward for positive behavior. That’s the basis for teaching kids like her, negative behaviors don’t get you in trouble beyond not earning anything. At the very most negative behavior may cause the subtle loss of privileges that would come with positives, but the very heart of her therapy is giving her a reward when she does something positive – and it works. Often I’ll have to pull a phone or iPad away from her to get the verbal responses or requests that I know she can make. Although she has devices to use to request everything under the sun if she can even attempt to say the word I’d much rather have that and build upon it, so that’s how her ‘program’ works.

This video a year ago was so intense to do – Genevieve going into 7-11 with us to get her ‘large cherry squishee’ (what they call a Slurpee on “The Simpson’s which she loves to watch). For many that have followed Genevieve, this is yet another landmark video as it shows her ability to go into a public store and get what she knew was her reward – but although it’s only a year old when we look at a video from just last week it’s an incredible difference. Nowadays we don’t have to use 4 aides walking her down the street – she walks herself and we guide her. Now she’s learned that you have to pay at the convenience store and has learned how many dollars it takes to get her drink. She’s learned to wait in line and learned that you can’t just walk out. This is where Genevieve herself challenges every last expert about Cannabis and development delay/gains. I simply do not believe the studies stating cannabis causes developmental problems in children – especially about THC as that’s Genevieve’s favorite cannabinoid. If it’s not in the mix things aren’t working out well – everyone around her that knows her protocol knows this fact. So in our house, we don’t buy what feel is propaganda in studies that claim cannabis will hurt a child’s developing mind as we watch it save Genevieve’s. Before the plant’s awesome extracts in the cleanest of forms, Genevieve was ‘institutionally bound’ according to her state-level regional center – which means that parents will hold out for as long as possible but a percentage won’t be able to manage their adult severely autistic child. Genevieve no longer falls into this category as we plan for her long-term care at home as her permanent guardians. Cannabis saves lives in more ways than one. What many will never grasp is that I was no hero that saved Genevieve and her future, she’s the hero whose love has saved mine.

More to come…