Sad day. Diagnosed with aneurysm. Think I have to give up weed.

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Originally Posted by Dave Byrd

Could you think about humoring of us more traditional medical types and maybe not eat any cannabis either until you've checked with your doctor? Seem like you'd feelbetter being safe than sorry where your neurovascular health is concerned. That's your brain. That's where you live. Why even chance it?

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i dont see what smoking weed woudl doo to an anerism(sp?)

Smoking weed, especially at first, raises pulse rate and blood pressure. When you have a weakness in a vessel--a little balloon like an aneurysm--that's not at all a good thing. Smoking raises the risk of rupture, particularly during the initial, vasocontrictive post-smoking period.

Eating weed is likely safer, which is why the others were recommending that. But Dave, who is a man who deals with blood vessels for a living, wondered if it might not still be minimally risky if, say, the eaten weed were a heavy sativa and caused even some slight risk of some vasoconstriction/raised BP at it was first being digested. The problem with street-bought weed is that no one really knows with real accuracy what strain it is, so unless she's grown it herself and knows it to be a wholly relaxing, vaso-dilating indica, he was simply questioning taking that risk at all. It's a legitimate question to raise.

Wow...you know one of my docs (I haven't seen the neurosurgeon yet) seems to think I might have had this thing for many years. I have been a huge pothead for 15 years. So far, they're telling me it is small. I guess I'm pretty lucky nothing has happened up until now. I am going to the neurosurgeon in a week and I am going to ask him. I'll let you guys know what he says. The funny thing is, I had no aneurysm symptoms and got the MRI because of some weird tingling that is probably unrelated. I heard lots of people have them and don't even know it...I guess I'm lucky, although right now I don't feel like it :( Hopefully he will give me the go ahead to at least eat some weed.

But...is it safe to even ask a US (University of Virginia) doc if weed is OK? Will I get in trouble?

Definitely it's safe to ask. They're not cops, and although many docs aren't up to speed on the fact that weed is not only mostly harmless (except from a heart-vascular standpoint, sadly) but that it's even beneficial, the ones who often tend to know more about it than others are the ones who deal with neurology and psychiatry, interestingly. I guess that's because they've had more in-depth study in the effects of both substances and diseases on the brain. I'm guessing a doctor at an academic/teaching hospital, if that's what yours is, is going to be even more likely to have some knowledge because he'll be more likely to have immediate access to research.

Definitely check it out. And yes, if you read about aneurysms, you'll see that they're not new developments. They form over long periods of time and they're often vascular weaknesses people are born with. Seriously, if you were in any significant danger, they'd have you in the hospital now. The no-straining/no-excitement/no raised BP precautions you're under are just standard procedure. Good luck!