My lunch break had begun. I took a few swigs of iced coffee, three bites of a Cliff bar and opened the car door.  Pre-Op physical with my doctor was just a few minutes away. I checked in, and before I could sit down a voice chimes, “Mary Holladay...”

I greet & follow the nurse, off load my shoes, and step onto the scale. 

“Follow me, have a seat.” These were the robotic commands I was oh so familiar with.

Blood pressure, EKG, and 10 minutes later, I am standing in an empty room with my back against the sink cabinet reading my Lobby Day copy of New Leaf magazine.

A soft knock on the door, as it opens the doctor steps in, offers a handshake, and I toss my magazine down onto a chair.

Hmm, eyes, ears, nose. All good.

Heart, lungs,  healthy and now we’re all done.

As the doctor begins to take his seat, he motions me over to the chair that my magazine is in.

He glanced at the magazine, began to type and  then asked me, “what is Weed Map?”

Anxious to comply, I gave him a brief summary of this impressive marijuana app and how important it has become to many people.

There was a pause as he nodded his understanding of my answer and resumed typing notes into my chart.

I smiled and then asked him a question, “what is your position on medical marijuana?”

He stopped typing, wrinkled his brow and said he really didn’t know much about it.

He knew it helped with glaucoma, and was good for people that couldn’t eat because of the strong medicines they were on. 

I nodded and remained silent.

The doctor then asked me, “what are your thoughts about it?”

Loud trumpets sounded and I saw a bright light! “Well…,” I said, and took a deep breath.

What followed was a single run-on sentence that included 20,000 documented research reports, 100-years of research, Israel, veterans, PTSD, children, epilepsy, non-toxic, native to our bodies, and finally the backwards laws that keep all of us from natural medicine we should have the freedom to use.

As the doctor finished typing up the orders for my blood test, I pointed to the screen revealing my “Current List of Medications” and bluntly stated, “my plan is to eventually be off all of those, and replace them with medicinal cannabis!”  (I might have had a scary wide eye stare going at that moment, not sure.)

The doctor’s response was sincere. He said he might need to look into it more.

Wait! What? That was awesome!