Jul 31, 2022

Kush Hemp Farm | Interview

“Mommy, I love you.”– Kush

We first introduced readers to Kush in 2020, when he first appeared on our February 2020 cover. Kush is the inspiration for the first boutique hemp farm in the state of Arizona. At the age of four, Kush was diagnosed with a growing Arachnoid cyst in the side lobe of his brain. At the age of seven, Kush had his first surgery to remove the cyst. After the cyst was removed, he developed debilitating symptoms within three days of the surgery. Kush began suffering from seizures and recurring episodes that his parents could not explain. He would drift off into his own world, unresponsive and unable to talk for hours at a time. He was suffering from sleep issues and headaches, and his mother suspected he was having seizures even in his sleep, but there was no evidence to prove it to the doctors.

The initial surgery in 2017 was to remove the massive arachnoid cyst attached to the front left lobe of Kush’s brain. It was braided through his brain and attached to the spinal cord. April allowed Kush to try two different pharmaceutical medications that made him vomit, his head and eyes hurt, and gave him severe mood swings with suicidal thoughts, which is extreme for a kid his age.

Most recently, on April 29, 2021, Kush had a shunt put in to drain the fluid that builds back up in his brain. This drainage system is like a jellyfish shape in his brain, which filters to the back of his brain and down to his spinal cord. When the doctor’s emptied the container and looked at the fluid inside, it was a mixture of bone and blood. While there is no infection, the cyst continues to fill and put pressure on his brain, causing symptoms of mental and physical distress. April said the third day after surgery is when he started with the “Mommy, I love you” seizures… these seizures in which he would go into a trance, and that was the only thing he was able to say. This happens in the front lobe of his brain while he’s awake.

In 2020, Doctors submitted Kush to his first eight day PUMA sleep study to measure his brain patterns. Nothing abnormal was seen on the tests, so the doctors began to assume Kush was just seeking attention from his parents with these episodes. It was hard for April to explain in a clinical setting because the seizures hadn’t been seen or recorded… but she knew her son wasn’t making this up.

I also find this hard to believe after visiting the farm, and seeing Kush laughing with his family. This beautiful family spends time together on a property that would make most kids jealous. Kush stays busy with a homemade go-kart track, his tools, pets, and five brothers and sisters to explore with. Kush took me on a go-kart ride around the acre-sized lot where he explores. Kush presents himself as a totally normal boy, but things can change in an instant. During the seizure episodes, Kush can get ‘stuck’ in his own brain, leaving him unable to play outside or even speak intelligible sentences.

April tried her hardest to figure out if some external stressors in the environment were bringing these episodes on. She would notice Kush dazed into a trance saying mommy, “I love you.” Then he would fade into a seizure episode, unable to respond. April would ask Kush if he was upset about something or stressed, or maybe he was dehydrated from playing too hard. He couldn’t figure out what triggered these episodes in such random ways.

Kush’s family noticed when he’s really worn down that the seizures come on more frequently. So, before the last round of sleep tests in 2022, they made sure he was physically and mentally drained. We stopped the CBD oil regimen for 3 days prior to the sleep study. This time doctors had him hooked up and were monitoring him for less than 3 hours when Kush turned to April and said, ‘Mommy, I love you.’

“I knew a seizure was starting right then and finally the doctors could see this. I pushed the nurse button and the doctors came running.” April said Doctors had finally captured the abnormal brain activity on the monitor after over five years 2017-2022.

Kush began to cry, saying his teachers, doctors, and every other authority in his life had not believed him. Now doctors could see clearly that Kush was having seizures while he was awake and even more so in his sleep, unbeknownst to his parents April and Ed.

Part of the caveat about insurance paying for tests, and doctors signing off on a diagnosis, is the patient agreeing to take experimental medication to treat these largely misunderstood conditions. There is no medicinal playbook; rather, a new experimental batch of drugs is released each year, in hopes of finding the next wonder drug. Something April and her family have fought against for years.

April began treating Kush with Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) and high CBD extract oil because of a farm in Oregon that they had linked up with in 2017. April noticed that with each consecutive doctor visit, the swelling was going down to the point where doctors wondered if Kush was faking his symptoms of seizures completely. The doctors kept him on experimental drugs that would affect any normal person. At each new appointment, doctors and nurses would have some new experimental anti seizure medicine to replace the last batch of experimental drugs. This is how she realized that the doctors may not know much about this brain condition and that she had to perform her own research for the good of her son.

The family felt like captives in the hospital rooms when doctors would force them to sign discharge papers, including legal agreements to take experimental medication, in order to take Kush home. Sometimes even at the threat of CPS being involved.

During years of working in hospitals, I’ve seen this pressure myself. The drug reps for pharma companies are relentless sales people who prey on doctors. The pharmaceutical company knows what doctors will respond to, whether it’s a beautiful woman in a silk pencil skirt delivering bagels for the whole office, or a fast talking businessman chatting up a doctor like old colleagues. These pharma reps are paid commissions for each prescription. The doctor may also be given a kickback depending on the medication. I can remember working at the hospital, in 2004, when doctors were paid $11 per prescription of the newly released painkiller Celebrex. This is where the lines of patient care become obscured as doctors are heavily incentivized to be drug pushers.

The pandemic lockdown in 2020 was the best thing to happen to Kush and his family, because in-person doctor visits switched to Telehealth zoom calls. April realized that hospital staff were holding his son hostage before. In order for Kush to be discharged from a hospital visit, April and Ed had to legally agree to administer Kush a new experimental medicine. Over Zoom calls, this pressure was not part of the appointment, giving the family more say about what medications Kush ingests.

April firmly states that CBD oil helps Kush the most and therefore she keeps him on a daily regimen of full spectrum CBD tincture doses. This helps keep his seizures at bay more effectively than any other medication she has experimented with.

As this family moves further into growing craft hemp flowers, they realize how important the genetics were to the quality of the finished CBD oil medicine. This family has three girls and two boys ranging in age from ten to twenty years old, who all contribute to the bustling energy of this mountainside farm. Together, they grow the medicine that successfully keeps Kush healthy and happy. April is passionate about helping others by sharing her CBD formulas with those who have tried other things in the past. She gives donations to willing patients and nothing is ever for sale. She is also available for consulting about hemp genetic phenotypes.

To contact Kush Hemp Farm with any feedback, please reach out to kushhempfarm@gmail.com.

If you are interested in craft hemp genetics, clones, or learning about CBD medicine feel free to contact April from Kush Hemp Farm AZ.

Instagram: @kushhempfarm or @kushhempfarmaz