{"id":20369,"date":"2017-11-23T22:55:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T05:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20369"},"modified":"2017-11-25T23:44:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T06:44:32","slug":"cancer-survivor-evangelizes-for-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/11\/cancer-survivor-evangelizes-for-medical-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer survivor evangelizes for medical marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Clinic\"<\/a>

Kari Denison<\/p>

Kathy Albertson celebrates her “cancer-free” diagnosis outside Billings Clinic in May of 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019ve met Kathy Albertson, chances are you consider her a friend.<\/p>\n

The retired Billings cosmetologist knows how to make an impression. Like a talk show host, she\u2019s unafraid to start up a conversation with anyone, and she knows how to keep that conversation going.<\/p>\n

She may surprise you by asking a question you wouldn\u2019t expect, catching you off guard. Even if she interjects, she won\u2019t strike you as impolite or intrusive. Her genuine curiosity and gregarious nature excuse her nosiness.<\/p>\n

At the age of 74, Albertson doesn\u2019t get around as much as she used to, but she\u2019s just as curious as ever, conversing with anybody and everybody.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll talk about her family, she\u2019ll talk about her travels, but, more than anything, she\u2019ll talk about what saved her life: medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

Raised on a ranch in Absarokee, Albertson never thought she\u2019d owe anything to \u201cpot.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0While living in Sidney, Savage and Billings Heights (where she raised her three children), she had no desire to get anywhere near it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought marijuana was bad, bad, bad,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I was told by law enforcement, the media and people I knew. I was convinced it was no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that perception changed. When Albertson was diagnosed with stage-four colorectal cancer in May of 2015, it was cannabis that came through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told it would help and research backed up what I was hearing,\u201d she said, \u201cso I got a medical marijuana card. The card was actually for my glaucoma, which has significantly improved since I started treating it with cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Once cancer treatments began, Albertson used medical marijuana to assist with pain management, often in brownie form.<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t believe the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked so well I stopped taking my pain medications entirely,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is just crazy to me. We were raised to think we have to have prescriptions. We were told that would fix us, but I disagree now. I\u2019ve learned otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going through chemotherapy was the hardest part of her battle with cancer, Albertson said, and medical marijuana was there for her, giving her the strength she needed to push through and not give up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have it, I\u2019d be dead,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m sure of it. That last round of chemo was so hard. I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But through edibles, vaporizers and pills, Albertson pulled through and didn\u2019t give up hope. By May of 2016, she was cancer-free.<\/p>\n

Albertson gives much of the credit for her survival to marijuana, especially the strands high in CBD (cannabidiol), which relaxed her body and mind. The CBD also helped her appetite return.\u00a0For Albertson, marijuana was the ultimate pain reliever and muscle relaxer. She didn\u2019t use it to get high; she used it to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not turning into an old hippie druggie,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that kind of thing. I just know how much better I feel now versus when I was doing prescription drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankful to be alive, Albertson said she has a new purpose: to spread the word about medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my job now to let people know medical marijuana offers many possibilities for our health and for our livelihood,\u201d she said. \u201cThis experience has changed my perception and I know others can also benefit. I was wrong; marijuana can be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albertson hasn\u2019t wasted any time getting her message out there. In October of last year, she let her voice be known, encouraging the people of Montana to vote \u201cyes\u201d for Initiative 182, which passed, repealing the three-patient limit for medical marijuana providers, so Albertson and others like her can continue to get their medication.<\/p>\n

Albertson just wishes she knew about the benefits of medical marijuana earlier. Maybe then she could have helped her cousin Wayne, who was also diagnosed with cancer in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish he would have considered [medical marijuana] before he got so bad \u2026 for his pain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wayne died in 2016. She doesn\u2019t know if it could have saved him, but she is certain of one thing: she doesn\u2019t want to let another opportunity to help pass her by.<\/p>\n

So if you meet Kathy Albertson, chances are she\u2019ll tell you her story. She won\u2019t preach, but, before you know it, she\u2019ll be sharing, and you\u2019ll be listening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve met Kathy Albertson, chances are you consider her a friend. The retired Billings cosmetologist knows how to make an impression. Like a talk show host, she\u2019s unafraid to start up a conversation with anyone, and she knows how to keep that conversation going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":20370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16,14],"tags":[322,3949],"class_list":["post-20369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","category-news","tag-billings-clinic","tag-medical-marijuana","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20374,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20369\/revisions\/20374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}