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Undergoing treatment
On a recent afternoon, Krenzler placed a baggie of empty pill capsules on the kitchen counter and unwrapped a 10-gram syringe of cannabis oil, known among marijuana patients as Rick Simpson Oil.
Krenzler filled a capsule with a half-gram of the dark sludgy substance that friends had prepared and handed it to Mykayla. The oil smells bad and, says Mykayla, tastes awful. Krenzler got lime-flavored capsules to help mask the drug's pungent aftertaste.
Test results showed the substance had a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of 58.6 percent, a much higher concentration than in dried marijuana. THC is the psychoactive property of marijuana that gives users a high.
Mykayla swallowed the pill.
"First you get hungry," she said. "Then you get really funny, and then you get tired."
These days, Mykayla lives with her family in a 35-foot RV parked at a friend's home in Gladstone while she undergoes chemotherapy. Returning to Pendleton is on hold.
Mykayla went into remission within a month of starting chemotherapy. Cancer specialists say such a development is expected, but Purchase and Krenzler credited marijuana.
"She wasn't responding as well until she got the cannabis," Purchase said.
Mykayla continues to receive a half-gram of cannabis oil twice a day: once in the morning, and again in the afternoon.
Krenzler said marijuana can relax or energize Mykayla, relieve her pain, stimulate her appetite, ease her nausea or put her to sleep
When she first started using marijuana, it knocked Mykayla out. She'd nap for hours at a time, a sign that Mykayla's body was adjusting to marijuana, said Krenzler
"Once you get used to it and you gain a tolerance, it doesn't make you high," said Krenzler, who is listed with the state as Mykayla's grower. "You're functional."
Sometimes, if Mykayla is feeling especially lousy, Krenzler and Purchase offer her a cookie or slice of banana bread baked with "budder," made by slow-cooking butter and marijuana buds. Krenzler said she's had up to 1.2 grams of cannabis oil in 24 hours, the rough equivalent of smoking 10 joints.
Purchase has an associate's degree in medical office assistance but is out of work. Krenzler, 27, is also unemployed. The family lives on Mykayla's Supplemental Security Income and food stamps.
The couple home-schools Mykayla for now. She loves sculpting clay and reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." Her favorite book is "It's Just a Plant," a children's book about marijuana illustrated by the artist whose work includes the blockbuster parody, "Go the **** to Sleep."
Mykayla often reads the marijuana book aloud to her 17-month-old sister, Ryleigh.
"It's really fun," Mykayla said. "It teaches you about cannabis, that it's good for you and other people use it too."
The doctor's opinion
The faith Purchase and Krenzler place in marijuana's curative powers is not shared by the American medical establishment.
Purchase and Krenzler said Dr. Janice Olson, the medical director of the children's cancer and blood disorders program at Legacy Emanuel's Randall Children's Hospital, called the girl's marijuana use "inappropriate." Now they're seeing another Legacy pediatric oncologist, Dr. Jason Glover.
Both doctors declined The Oregonian's request for interviews.
Leaders of the American Academy of Pediatrics are circulating a resolution opposing the drug's use in children, prompted by the growing number of states with medical marijuana programs.
"The issue," said Dr. Sharon Levy, an author of the academy's anti-pot resolution, "is that marijuana isn't a medicine."
Much is unknown about marijuana's risks and potential benefits for kids, said Levy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the adolescent substance abuse program at Boston Children's Hospital.
Studies showing marijuana can be effective against nausea and vomiting have focused on adults.
Pot does not cure childhood leukemia, said Dr. Stephen Sallan, chief of staff emeritus at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Sallan, a pediatric oncologist and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, said he views the drug as "relatively harmless." He did groundbreaking research in the 1970s that found THC in marijuana helps prevent chemotherapy-related vomiting.
"If I had a teenager -- not a 7-year-old -- who kind of liked the psychological side effects, and it offered additional anti-vomiting protection, I would say, why not?" said Sallan.
On the other hand, Sallan said marijuana isn't part of the "first line of anything we use" when treating childhood leukemia.
Aware of the medical community's concerns, the couple has not discussed Mykayla's marijuana use with Glover, though they said the doctor is aware of it. Krenzler said he also didn't tell doctors when he gave Mykayla marijuana in the hospital.
"She has never asked for a pain pill," he said. "We're not going to stop what works."
Medical Marijuana
Mykayla's father said he was stunned to learn her oncologist was not consulted about the child's marijuana use.
Comstock, who works in a North Dakota oil field, pays Purchase child support and covers Mykayla's health insurance. He said he observed strange behavior during an August visit and took Mykayla to a private lab, where technicians detected THC levels of an adult daily marijuana user.
Gladstone police contacted the girl's mother, examined Mykayla's medical marijuana paperwork, then told Comstock there was little they could do.
Comstock, who used pot in the past, said he doesn't object to people over 16 using medical marijuana. But he worries about his daughter's well being and the potential for addiction.
"She's not terminally ill," Comstock said. "She is going to get over this, and with all this pot, they are going to hinder her brain growth.
"It's going to limit her options in life because of the decisions her mother has made for her."
Hope
Mykayla disappeared into the bedroom of a friend's home one recent evening and emerged in a pistachio-colored gown. Someone she'd never met had sent her 1,000 paper cranes that, according to Japanese tradition, offer a wish for healing.
The tiny cranes, fastened to strings dangling from a belt, rose as Mykayla twirled.
"When you get married," her mom told her, "you can wear it with your wedding dress."
Mykayla took a seat at the kitchen counter, where she eagerly pored over a stack of letters from her classmates at Sherwood Heights Elementary in Pendleton, closely examining their crayon illustrations.
"Dear Mykayla," she read aloud. "I hope you feel better. Do you like cats?"
Snacking on kiwi, she remembered the fun she had playing with friends and visiting the Pendleton Roundup before she got sick.
Mykayla will be the one to choose when to stop using marijuana, her mother said.
For now, Purchase hopes other parents won't judge her for decisions she made when her daughter was "walking a line between life and death."
"As a mother," she said, "I am going to try anything before she can potentially fall on the other side."
Mykayla's mother maintains a Facebook page dedicated to her daughter's health and use of medical marijuana.
-- Noelle Crombie
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Originally Posted by missbad
