TSC Talks had a fantastic chat with Cannabis Nurse, Carey Lee Leuer, R.N. recently. Carey Lee is a Registered Nurse, Iowa Green Nurse and Cannabis Nurse Consultant- Integrative Health, Geriatric’s, Mental Health. Here's some further info, snippets from transcript and time stamps.

From https://thegreennurse.com/cannabis_nurses/carey-lee-leuer/"
"Nurse Carey Lee wasn’t always a nurse. Her first career spanning over 15 years was in mortgage finance. Although successful, finance did not ignite the fire in her belly like nursing would. 20+ years after high school, marriage, three boys, and a dog named Cooper she took a leap of faith and went back to school to get her nursing degree. Her clinical experience ranges from emergency medicine, skilled nursing in LTAC, geriatric behavioral health & dementia, restorative nursing, and now her primary practice is holistic integrative nursing. “Nursing is my second career but my first love.”

Nurse Carey Lee also brings her perspective as a patient to the table. She has battled her own emotional health and has experienced incorrect diagnoses and pharmaceutical trauma. This led her on a journey to find ways of healing other than Western medicine’s first line of treatment-pharmaceuticals. She quickly discovered that getting back to the basics of self-care would become the foundation of healing & maintaining optimal health of mind, body, & spirit. She is passionate about educating patients of various healing modalities and showing them how to THRIVE by implementing a customized self-care plan she lovingly refers to as her Daily Five to Thrive. This self-care plan incorporates the basics: sleep hygiene, nutrition, functional exercise, sunshine, and mindfulness.

“Cannabis is one tool we can use to heal & maintain the health of our body, mind, and spirit.” Her own endocannabinoid system was depleted from all of the years of chronic stress that comes with complex post traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Thanks to medical cannabis and her daily five to thrive, her endocannabinoid system was replenished. She discovered that medical cannabis was the only way she found relief of the nightmares & terrors experienced most of her life. She also found relief from the chronic pain she battles thanks to Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy. The plant has also allowed Nurse Carey Lee to open up to explore and discover other healing modalities from Eastern medicine, mycology, reiki, energy healing, and holistic psychology."

From the transcript:
"I've been a registered nurse for three years, a little over three years now. My first career was in mortgage finance completely. You think it would be the opposite? And I did that for about 15 years, everything from like processing, underwriting sales, ended with the bank, owned my own mortgage brokerage firm with my sister and my husband. Wow. Yeah, VIP mortgage group. We ran it out of Elgin, Illinois. And I pretty much ran operations. I handled every aspect of operations and you can be really good at something and hate it. Yeah. And that was me. I it was not fulfilling to me it was it did not tickle my fancy in the slightest. I was miserable. And what made you get into it in the first place? I just kind of fell it fell into it. I actually had left and moved down to Florida after high school in the in the early 90s. And when I came back home to the burbs of Chicago, my sister's still there. She was just got into the mortgage business herself. Hmm. And so I was crashing at her pad. And she was just like, Hey, you want to come in and check it out? And so I did. And, you know, it just it found me It fell in my lap. And I went with it, you know, so I had a great career, I earned a lovely income and met, plus lots of great life experiences. But like I said, it just wasn't it wasn't feeding your soul. It wasn't feeding my soul."

Going back to school for nursing (9:54)
How she found green nursing (12:06)
Regular cannabis user and feeling the stigma (13:42)
“Coming out” about cannabis use (15:02)
Working in an ER with c-PTSD (20:23)
Struggling with traditional medical treatment and it’s limitations (23:10)
Cannabis and c-PTSD (25:08)
Cannabis, anxiety and nausea (27:22)
Spirituality, religion and the plant (29:15)
Working with Dr. Clifton (32:07)
Difficulty finding a certifying provider (34:27)
What happens when mom finds out (35:11)
Other family members reaction (35:49)
Carey Lee’s Vision (38:25)
Pharmaceutical trauma/polypharmacy (40:21)

Carey Lee's Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cannanursecareylee
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/cannabisnursecareylee
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carey-lee-leuer-24b8011a3
The Green Nurse: https://thegreennurse.com/cannabis_nurses/carey-lee-leuer/
Email/contact: greennurse17@gmail.com

LINK TO AI TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/3O1SSQ7maoWo8oIOdh-H-6KdK4s