Cannabis for Chronic Illness: Finding Hope with Plants

Emily: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Well With Cannabis Podcast. I am so excited to introduce you to today’s guest. Her name is Carrie Turpin, the Green-Eyed Cat, Your Oasis for Wellness. I am so excited to welcome you; hi, Carrie!

Carrie: Hello, I am so excited to be here, Emily; this is just wonderful.

Emily: Thank you so much. Now you have quite an interesting and long story. I really want to start out by, it says, it sounds like you started out very young with autoimmune issues. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Carrie: I have what they call the early onset autoimmune issues, and they just kind of compounded, starting out five with Crohn’s disease.

Emily: Oh my God.

Carrie: Then a burst appendix. By my teenage years, I was having thyroid issues. By the time I hit my early ’20s with the pregnancies that turned into Hashimoto’s. The gut issues, it just kind of compounded.

Then it kind of eased up whenever I started hitting my mid-’30s. I was racked with migraines and found myself recklessly pregnant again at 35 with a 14 and 11-year-old. Quite shocking.

Carrie: Something that you cannot have babies without no periods. I’m just going to tell the world this too. Never, ever, ever give up on anything, okay? That if it has to happen, it’s going to happen.

The day that she was born, something went wrong within me. I mean, she was actually my easiest pregnancy and easiest childbirth even being high risk, the doctors, I kept telling them something was wrong. They didn’t believe me until I turned blue. The next thing you know, I’m unconscious for several days.

I remember them sticking the tubes in and them telling me that I needed blood transfusions immediately. I was actually down to just one pint of blood. But this wasn’t something to do with an autoimmune issue because I’d never bled out here either. I went to a severe state of leukopenia, which is what happened; it’s a white blood cell thing. We don’t even need to go further into that.

So, I get done with that. I come to, for about a day, I could only say the word dentist; I have some pituitary damage from that, but we’ll talk about all the healing that’s happened since then. Just couldn’t get to feeling good; I was in severe pain. I was having these autoimmune issues hitting my eyes. I also get episcleritis, uveitis, and things like that. Well, that wasn’t going away.

Carrie: Yeah. So, you know, crawling around on floors, basically trying to raise my kids and had some wonderful help from my older daughter, they took my younger daughter in as her daughter. That way, we could get her into childcare. The teachers there I had gone to school with. So several times a week, I’d get a call, “Carrie, we’re taking her home today.”

I wasn’t the be the best mother that I could have been, but I did this because they told me I could beat this if I really pushed through. I did, I did beat Hepatitis C genotype one, which is not supposed to be beatable, but we never would’ve found, well, I never would’ve had it had I not had the baby.

But we never would’ve found it had I not continued to have these problems; I would probably just now be having issues from that. That was almost 16 years ago now, 15. So we get through all of that, and we’ll just say on here because try to be no shame. I have gotten expungement, but I became a marijuana felon. I got caught with over a pound of weed.

Carrie: Yeah, well, it really helps me to understand what people are going through, too, you know? As I said, even though I am expunged now so that I can continue on, I feel like I should let people know the truth. I understand. I know what happens when we get in trouble for this plant that’s literally growing from the earth, okay?

So anyways, I get to go back to work, so I’m in trouble now and I’ve got to be on my best behavior. There is no cannabis now at all. Can’t hardly stand up to do a haircut; go down. They’re telling me that I have this severe nerve and spine damage from all the chemo, and I had lots of other issues with it too. They had me on tons of scripts and the whole shebang.

I went to get the steroid injections and the nerve ablation so I could get back to work because now I’m not being able to do my herbalist thing. I became a victim of 2012 fungal meningitis. The day that I got that done, the medicine that was injected into me was made in contaminated conditions. You can literally Google the 2012 fungal meningitis epidemic. It hit just under a thousand of us. It gave me fungal meningitis, I fought that for 15 months.

Finally, one day I went down to the eye doctor because my eyes were messing up really badly again. And he’s like, “Carrie, I cannot help. You need to go to the hospital now. Something is seriously wrong with you.” He said, “We know there has been, but because of the effect that this was, we didn’t get the right treatment as we needed.” And he’s like, “Well, do you want me to call an ambulance?” I was like, “No, no, I got this.”

Okay, this is how really out I was at this time. I was on a hospital campus but literally drove 45 minutes to another hospital campus. I was dead within an hour; my heart stopped twice. I had two strokes. That is why I’m still visually impaired. I only have 30% of my visual field left from that.

Then once I came out of this and the prescriptions and all the calls telling us, you think you’re going to die, you need to get everything together. And just more and more prescriptions to the point that I couldn’t even pee on my own. I had to use catheters for almost four years. Just barely able to function and to the point that I lost everything waiting for trying to get through all of this.

Then one day, I decided it was the prescriptions, and I wasn’t going to do it anymore. I would go to jail if I had just to have my cannabis and my other plants back. That’s when I started my journey, replacing each prescription with an herb and using cannabis as my side to work through all of the side effects and all that. Because when I had the baby that I woke up from, I had a fentanyl patch on when I woke up, and that was still on me ten years later. And doctors would not help me get off of that. They told me that they would kill me. The liability was too much.

So, you know what I said? I’m not living anyways; let’s just do this. And here I am, and I’ve decided that I will advocate for cannabis and all the other plants that are illegal and the ones that are legal too. And let people know that we need to blend this together. This is a synergy. But you also can’t rely just on the planet. It’s a whole lifestyle. You have to heal your mind, your body, and your soul to come to this. And cannabis is a perfect plant to help bring that together.

Emily: Wow, I mean, I am so sorry to hear everything that you’ve gone through. I just, I mean, and I think the thing that makes me the most sad is that there are so many stories out there of people just like you who have been harmed by our traditional medical system. And it’s just, I mean, you had to choose, like going to jail versus feeling better.

Carrie: I still choose that, to be honest with you. Even getting the expungement, I have what they; my doctor aids me with medical marijuana necessity. But I have a legal cannabis company, so I can help people to what degree I can. And for those that are just wandering about it, so, medical cannabis isn’t what it was 30 years ago.

We can’t be having grandma out there unless she’s having some. If grandma just has a little arthritis pain or something, she needs more of your hemp, CBD; again, we need to look at each person individually to find out which chemovar they need. What else can we do to help aid this? And how far are you willing to go if you are asking to step into the illegal world, you know?

I can tell you what to do, and I can tell you the states to go to to get it, but I can’t provide that for you. But I will teach you everything that you need to know to make your own medicine as well; you don’t have to buy it from me, that’s fine. If you need to learn, I will teach you how to because nobody should ever have to go through all of this.

But I honestly believe that had I not gone through everything that I have, I would not be able to help people as well as I had today. I’m very spiritual as well before all of this, a psychic medium also. I pull that into my business to help people, also.

Emily: That’s amazing.

So I really believe that all the things I’ve gone through, it’s been my karmic path. Once I re-remembered that I was able to go forward, I got to rehab for blind and no vision; they helped me understand that. Where I thought I’d just turned stupid because I couldn’t read anymore. I’d have to learn how to walk again, right? And do all of these other things.

It turns out it was the brain trauma; the blindness took my whole left visual field, the whole pathway, literally; we have a right and a left in each eye. So that whole side is gone. Then it left me with like doubled and tripled here. But I have found my community for the reiki healers and healing in that. My remaining visual field has been improving and getting better. we’re going to keep on our path and exactly what we’re doing, including our use of cannabis, to continue to heal even ten years later now.

Emily: I am so happy that you have this happy ending if you will. I’m so sorry you went through what you went through, but really to be able to come out on the other side and say, I’m better off because of this, and now I’m here to help others, is truly what I want this podcast to embody. thank you so much for sharing that with us. I truly believe it’s women helping women and men, turning around and holding a hand and saying, I’ve been through what you’ve been through; now let me help you. I can get you through this. thank you so much for the work that you’re doing because it really is so important.

Carrie: Well, and that’s my main goal, and when people come to me for a consultation, what do you want? Tell me what your goals are, and then I’m going to tell you your options, and I’m going to tell you when your options cross border lines of legalities. I will still help you figure out how to take care of yourself as well. Everything, as I said, it’s a whole cumulation of finding you and being okay with you that gets us ahead.

Emily: Absolutely, I could not agree more. Now if you’re willing, say there’s somebody here listening today who is on the pharmaceuticals, who feels like they’re on that hamster wheel of Western medicine, and they haven’t made the jump to cannabis yet, and they’re really, really scared. They don’t know what to do. Do you have any advice for them, or how did you make that decision knowing it was the right next step?

Carrie: Well, and I was raised; I want everybody to understand I was raised where we go to the doctor; what the doctor says is what you do. that’s where I bet I; I’ve always known since a kid that the plants did something—even starting my journey of herbalism at 18 years old before I became a cosmetologist. I want people to understand, first of all, that every prescription out there started out as a plant, and they isolated a chemical out of that plant to make it then. They can make a synthetic THC and prescribe it, so don’t be scared to try the original.

Now, and also, even though I know we are about cannabis here, I’m also going to tell people, if you’re worried about stepping into there, two other plants in this world have cannabinoids in them.

Hops is one of them. So let’s say you’ve drunk a beer and you’re worried about the feeling of cannabis, let’s compare that slightly, not completely, but that’s the closest thing that I could tell you. If you drank a couple of beers in that summer sun and you get that little, I just want to talk to people, and I just want you, it’s a social plant too. That is what you need to understand and start low. You don’t have to get high to get benefits.

Emily: Such good advice, the best advice, truly. Because if you start low and you go slow, you alleviate that risk of feeling unwell. I think that’s what most people are afraid of. If you could just skip that altogether, that’s the best case.

Carrie: Don’t go straight because, oh well, so and so said that this helped them, and no, let’s talk about this. There are three different, you know as well as I do that Indica, Sativa, hybrid, yes. It means something for growers, not sure us; we go those chemovars, you need to decide which one do you need to go into.

How much THC do you need? First of all, how much CBD do you need? Secondly, then you need to decide your states where your legalities are. You and I both work in a business where we’ve made our products legal for everybody. But you know what, if there’s a cancer patient coming towards you, we need to teach them what our scientists taught us about this. we need to show them where they can cross that state line to find what they need legally.

Emily: Absolutely. Now, if someone is listening here and they currently use cannabis and their interests just peaked, you are talking about herbalism. Can you share a little herbal wisdom with us or how you incorporate herbalism with your cannabis lifestyle?

Carrie: Well, it’s not; my body took a toll, and many other people out here are going through the same thing. it’s not just about the fact that, oh yeah, cannabis is that plant out there that has a lot to do with fixing other things. But we have a lot of body systems. We have to keep ourselves in synchronicity. We have to keep ourselves in this perfect homeostasis, for those that, synchronicity, for those that don’t understand homeostasis.

By using other plant medicines on a regular basis, you’re able to help achieve that goal. Plus, let’s not forget that the use of cannabis does build up. You’ll eventually get a tolerance, and so do other plants. Personally, I take at least a three-day break once a month. during those days, I reevaluate. if I am having too much pain or I’m not getting my focus, I’m going to use another herb to help bring that tone. But once you get to that point, you’re really, you’re going to cook, and you’re going to eat your medicine.

And your dessert, maybe your cannabis or your part of your meal. Maybe cannabis, some white willow, let’s throw some garlic, garlic, and cannabis are amazing together; I think, though, there we’re fighting all of the bacteria and fungi, but we’re keeping good fungus in our body too. Or good bacteria, not fungus. We don’t need fungus inside of us. Trust me, that didn’t go too well on my end, yeah.

So, but yeah, and I’m able to keep those things under control. I even had, within that steroid injection, there were just all kinds of contaminants. But I even had survived anthrax within that. It was basil osteoarthritis. I did have a friend who did pass away from the exact same thing.

His wife was in the room whenever I died. I mean, he was upstairs in another room. So, by keeping other plant medicine going as well, I’m able to keep homeostasis and keep everything under control within my body. But that’s not to say don’t listen to your body. Because sometimes you just got to go to bed, and you just need to accept that too; if you are chronically ill, we can get you to a place where you are really good. But if your body says rest, go rest. Because in the long run, it’s what’s going to help you build to that point that you will be eventually.

Emily: Thank you so much; I mean, I am very interested in herbalism. After I’ve learned everything about cannabis, I’m like, okay, all plants are obviously magical, and so I’m really, really interested in learning more about herbalism in the future. Thank you for dabbling because I feel like that really goes so well with cannabis. What would you say the three your three favorites have on the medicine cabinet herbs are for a newbie?

Ooh, okay. And this is going to; people are going to say what, really? I’m going to say thyme, just like what you cook in the kitchen. You know what I’m going to change at thyme or basil, one or the other, okay?

Emily: Either one, yes.

Carrie: Then I would say garlic. If we’re not talking about cannabis, but we’re talking about other plants as that for me, ginkgo, because ginkgo helps with head flow. I am a stroke victim. Stroke survivor does not use that victim’s word. That helps me with the flow. it also, I believe, helps because my blindness is a brain trauma; there’s nothing wrong with my eyes, the occasional inflammation, but it’s just the brain cut off.

That helps keep that blood flow going because while we work on my spiritual healing, I want my body to be able to hold up the best it can. Because we can’t expect everything, if you screw up your body, you are going to have to heal it to get the most benefit from your spiritual healings as well.

Carrie: Magic mushrooms were part of my healing, and they were part of my first journey on keeping some of my remaining vision and starting to get it to make sense because I just, blindness is a whole nother other thing and is so misconstrued, I don’t always understand what I’m seeing.

Then I have what’s called Charles Bonnet syndrome. I have visual hallucinations. My brain sometimes will try to fit something in, so I may see a squirrel run across the kitchen floor or the pile of leaves always looking like birds to me. Little things like that it is what it is. But yes, and I actually have an appointment with my lawyer at the end of next month because I’m looking into getting what type of protection I could get with a church to be able to bring psilocybin therapy to my area.

I already have people wanting it, and I’m trying not to go to jail just yet when I’m starting the business. I know that it’s going to. I believe I’m going to have to have an FBI liaison and have specific plans on how I bring everything here. But that is part of my goal up here. I’m literally building on my property as we do this. I’ve got a lot on my plate, and I’m at the end of school last semester, so I’ve got this, and yeah. But yeah, so yes, Emily, as a matter of fact, I’m trying to build an entheogenic church. I actually want it to be more than just mushrooms. I believe in all of the entheogens.

Emily: I am fascinated. I cannot wait to see what you build so I can learn. I know nothing about psilocybin or mushrooms, and it’s something I need more education in.

Carrie: You send me a message when you get some free time, and I will send you some information. I believe you can even take the micro-credential that I did without attending. I attend the American College of Healthcare Science. That’s where I’m getting my certifications are being changed to associates in complementary alternative medicine. With that, I have my micro-credential in psilocybin, a micro-credential in cannabis, and a micro-credential in using aromatherapy in cancer.

If people want to know where to go, I very much recommend the American College of Healthcare Sciences. Doreen Peterson, back in 1999 when I first, well, I started in 1997, began that journey. That is why it was a different school. But everything is accredited now, but other people can’t take the micro-credentials and do not have to register for your full courses. So get in touch with me, and I can get you that information, girl.

Emily: Thank you so much. I mean, you are such a success story coming from almost dying to be here. You’ve all these credentials; you’re graduating from school. I’m so proud of you.

Carrie: I was dead twice. It was quite confusing coming back out of that, but I’m not; the strangest thing is because I did hear myself flatline even, but it was a, yeah, very. Yeah, just like I said, my beliefs and things that I’ve always seen since I was a child and all of that. I’ve just really brought everything together. I’m cosmetologists that we’re just going to say, working on that associates, we’re not going to name off all those certifications.

They’re getting ready to be that; I’m a minister also, so that I can do alternative weddings, psychic medium empath. right now, while I’m still building up here, I’m going out, and I’m guessing, and I have a couple of booths at places. I have my cannabis line, I have two essential oils, and then I make bath and body products and just kind of whatever I can do right now to keep things going. I’m making some teas; I just make skinny witch tea.

but my main concern is to finish school. I always put it on top. I’m building my foundations with everything else as we go so that once I graduate, it’s ready. I’ve got a full summer of places to go to through the weekends, the farmer’s markets, some music festivals, and motorcycle festivals. I’ve got two weddings that I will be officiating, a couple of weddings I’m in, the whole, so it’s going to be, I just keep telling myself, just quit being impatient, work on this school, you know what’s going on with the business. Everything is good.

The faiths just continue to hand me what I need every time I think I’m going to have to get another job on the outside or something. They’re like, nope, we got you. I don’t have, I’m not going to say I have savings, and I have, but I have absolutely everything that I need with very little debt, considering what all I’ve started. So I’m good with what I’m doing and with the work I’m putting into my land to build it all.

Emily: Oh my gosh, I just, I feel like anybody listening who has ever thought that cannabis users were lazy or not productive, you just blew them out of the water. I mean, look at all of the things that you have accomplished. It is such it should be put on a pedestal that cannabis consumers can do amazing things.

Carrie: Well, and I always tell everybody, if they came to me if the government came to me and said, “Carrie Turpin, we will let you have your legal medical marijuana in your illegal state, but you could never, we’re going to put it at this limit, and you can never have your buzz.” I’ll say okay.

But we all know that part of the socialization and the part of the aid that you get for your mind with cannabis is because it does help you start socializing again. many of us with chronic disease and illness tend to cut ourselves off. It makes you want to talk to people again. It makes, it helps you get out of bed in the morning; call me a stoner; call me what you will.

But you know what? I’ve accomplished a lot, and I’ve done all of this since 2019. Don’t tell me we can’t do anything. I had to understand who I was and remember what I could do again. And remember what the earth really has given us. I just got a little sidetracked, got a little scrambled, and I’m still a little scrambled. We will never say that, but.

Emily: Those words I hope will be heard by somebody living with chronic illness, not living their best life. They were, they’re going to hear your words and take them to heart and make a change and, hopefully, find cannabis to bring them the relief that you have. So thank you.

Emily: that’s even up here, I hope to have a building someday up here that people will be able to come and stay up here, and if the church does work, that will probably be, I think that I may have to bring people up here for like, retreats to do that. I don’t know yet.

if anybody’s listening and they want to give me any advice, I’m just trying to take this from step one and be as within our rights as humans because we know it’s not legal, but it is becoming more open. I’m trying to help people to understand that. when people see me like, and that see me whenever I couldn’t get out of bed or I couldn’t even make a whole sentence again. For them, as they slowly find out, my God, you do mushrooms, cannabis, you know, create, what in the world Carrie, but it’s not just that, come and eat with me.

You’re going to find that my meals are full of all of the good stuff that we need. I’m not going to say I’m perfect on eating. As I should, everybody’s diet should be different. But 75 to 80% of the time, I’m making the best foods that I can and staying away from those things that do make me ill, using my cannabis with it, using my extracts to help me be able to digest and to keep that going with the Crohn’s disease.

Before COVID, I’d even had Crohn’s in commission to the point that I forgot that I had Crohn’s and COVID reactivated it, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was like, oh my gosh, I done forgot that that was something I needed to continue to pay attention to. It just, I say, got COVID threw everybody for a loop.

Carrie: Well, on that, I even took my little notes here, so let me just put my glasses on here. So I’m the most proud of, says I am proud of the person that I am today and the business that I am forming in order to help other people become their best person to them.

Emily: That is beautiful. I just, every person I talk to, just like you, is just now dying to help as many people as possible because they’ve seen the light. So it just, it makes me so happy that that’s where you are at. If you never found cannabis, what do you think your life would look like?

Carrie: Well, I definitely, yeah, that’s what I thought, would have more days of pain. I do not believe that I would be where I am today because I also have anxiety and PTSD from the medical things that I have gone through. that helps me; there are even still lawsuits going on with the fungal meningitis thing. it really helps me to keep my mind in the right place while helping to keep my body.

Emily: It’s a beautiful thing. It’s amazing. If you could sit down with yourself 10, 20, or 30 years ago and give yourself a piece of cannabis advice, what would it be?

Carrie: Well, 30 years ago, I would’ve told myself to keep going because there is, you do know what’s going on here. 20 years ago, I would’ve told myself to quit listening to everybody else telling me that I was just doing a drug and that I was trying to get high. And ten years ago, I would’ve said, do not go for that steroid injection, girl; you can fix this without that.

Emily: Last but not least, and I kind of want to lump this all in, so I’m going to say, if you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be? But I want to tie that in with The Green-Eyed Cat and talk about what you are doing in the cannabis space that is so exciting.

Carrie: I put continuous efforts into raising awareness of cannabis and other plants that the government has put on and have incredible healing capabilities. then in my effort to bring them as a normal everyday society thing through the Green-Eyed Cat and what I am building for others to come up to.

Emily: Let’s talk about the Green-Eyed Cat. Say somebody is listening here, and they’re like, I have to work with Carrie. What does the Green-Eyed Cat do? How can they find you? Give us the full spectrum.

Emily: Well, it’s the Green Eyed Cat, Your Oasis for Wellness. We are in a little southeastern town in Indiana. It is called Hazleton, a very personal town. I have managed to purchase about an acre on a hill that’s not far off the highway but still country enough to step on back. Up here so far, I have a beauty salon that doubles as where I make my bath and beauty, and my soap products right now.

I also have kind of made it my office for all my cannabis products and my essential oils and just everything I have going on. So we hope to build and continue to grow and, like we said, maybe even possibly a church. We’ve got to talk to some lawyers and see if that’s going to come up or not. we’re going to have separate buildings for each of the different areas of wellness that I hope to be able to tap into people, eventually having a different place for all the bath and beauty, a different place for all of my herbal things, I hope to have an anti-gravity flow and a Himalayan salt cave.

As I said, a building up here or two for people to be able to come to everything passed out. I have a main office up here. I hope to have a little building for art so people could come in and do have if we ever get legal, our little wine and cup and vegan and just where people can come up here to enjoy half of the property I’ve built for myself. I’m working on building my home too, so once I get out I’ve made a little home out of a 10 by 13 of the little small homes.

I’m in there right now. And this summer, we hope to start building my home and then continue to grow the rest of this. As it comes, people can come to me if they’re looking for help in holistic care. If you’re looking for readings, if you want a consultation that involves the readings with holistic care, I have been finding that I’m able to combine them and get a little help from your guides if you need to.

If you just want your hair cut and you need some good talking, just come on up. As I said, we want to help you find your wellness as you see it. And body, mind, spirit, I will start next month with my reiki, so hopefully, by the end of summer, I will be a, or we’ll say by the end of the year, I should be a reiki master. then not only will I be able just to do the energy healings that I do, but I’ll be a little bit more focused and be able to bring that into. If you need to talk about different plants, whether they’re legal or not, I am more than happy to share with anybody the information that I have or to send links to start doing your own research, and trying to figure, find ways to bring it to the, to here without us going to jail all the time.

Emily: I’m envisioning maybe, hopefully, I got this right, like a Disney world for health-minded people where you can go and just have all of these different options. I just have this vision of it.

Carrie: That is it? What do you need? Do you want to paint? Okay, paint. Do you want to go meditate? Well, come on. Do you want guided, or do you want not guided? Do we need to do some psilocybin therapy? Do we need to go into the personal office where I will sit there with you and only if you need me? That is, do you just want to have a blue-haired dye in a mohawk? Okay, if that’s what makes you feel good, come on. We got you.

Emily: Oh my gosh. I feel like so many people are just going to be in love with this. I hope I get to see it in real life when it comes to fruition. You are an absolute inspiration. Thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing the good that you’re putting out into the world with us today. It was an honor speaking with you. Do you have any last words for our listeners?

Carrie: I just want everybody to remember that you do have the right to medicate however you want to, your job, yes. You don’t have; you need to watch that. But if you find that cannabis is it’s best for you, whether it’s legal or not in your state, find your doctor to back you and hold your guns because it’s only by us talking about it and continuing to tell other people what these plants are doing for us, that we’re going to be able to make it legal.

You can’t be quiet about it anymore. Don’t be scared. You have rights as a human being to use the earth’s medicine; you can’t be a criminal. That’s the key. If you’re really out for your own wellness, find your physicians, hold your guns and help us make this legal for everybody.

Stay Connected