Show notes
In this episode, my guest Sherri Tutkus, RN, BSN, Founder & CEO of Green Nurse Group, came on the podcast to share a powerful and inspiring mother son story that follows the timeline from receiving a diagnosis at birth of her son Nicholas with Branchio-Oculo-Facial Syndrome through current day. Sherri gives one of the most powerful illustrations over the course of the episode, of a mother's love, courage, compassion, resilience and tenacity that I've ever heard, and is a fantastic example of holding onto presumption of competence as a guiding light, against all odds.
Sherri Tutkus is the founder and CEO of GreenNurse Group, Nursing Director at Irie Bliss Wellness and host of GreenNurse on the Go Radio Show. Sherri is a cannabis nurse, patient and advocate. She earned her Bachelors in Science and Nursing from Boston College. She is highly skilled Registered Nurse with 30 years’ practical experience in various departments within the hospital and home setting. She is utilizing her expert nursing skills as a medical center specialist, clinical nurse liaison and educator to bridge the gap between patients and the cannabis community. Sherri has been educating and implementing holistic integrative healing modalities within her practice for over 20 years. She educates on the endocannabinoid system and the safe utilization of cannabis at dispensaries, hospitals, clinics, patients homes and she regularly does pop up events, seminars and expos. Sherri is an international speaker and she has contributed to the writing of the first cannabis nursing textbook with her cannabis nurse colleagues that will be available in nursing schools across the country. Sherri is a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and founding member of The Cannabis Nurses Network and was nominated as one of two nurses for “Health Professional of the Year” for the 2020 New England Cannabis Convention. Sherri brings passion and purpose to her work teaching bio-psycho-social-spiritual healing using cannabis as a tool.
In the first part of this podcast, Sherri discusses her own background and connection to cannabinoid medicine. The tools she learned in her own journey enabled Sherri to cope with frequent and ongoing surgeries, procedures, treatments for her son Nicholas and advocate vociferously on his behalf.
"When I'm presenting to people, I use myself as a case study. Because basically, prior to me getting ill, I had a history of migraine headaches, ADHD, and anxiety, that was managed with traditional medicine. I was functioning, I was healthy, single mother of three, child with a disability that we're going to talk about, but knowing that I had migraine headaches and at ADHD symptoms should have been a clear indicator that I had an Endocannabinoid deficiency. So everything that we do or don't do in our lives as far as health and wellness affects this neurotransmitter signaling system called the endocannabinoid system, and that the job of that system is to bring balance."
She goes on to explain, "By the end before I discovered cannabis. I was on over 16 pharmaceuticals. So, as I've learned over time, if you're taking more than 10 pharmaceuticals, there's 100% chance of having an adverse drug reaction. Polypharmacy. I fit into that polypharmacy category. I am not anti pharma. However, what is really essential for people to understand when they are being prescribed pharmaceuticals is to ask those critical questions and to look at what side effects there are to look at the blackbox warning Okay, how many people have died? You know, what are the side effects, what are the adverse effects, you need to have knowledge knowledge is power. The other thing that people People don't realize is that a lot of pharmaceuticals have a drug nutrient depletion"
She goes on to explain, " I have have a history of Polycystic Ovarian disease which is very interesting. And that yeah, that is considered to be a...
Sherri Tutkus is the founder and CEO of GreenNurse Group, Nursing Director at Irie Bliss Wellness and host of GreenNurse on the Go Radio Show. Sherri is a cannabis nurse, patient and advocate. She earned her Bachelors in Science and Nursing from Boston College. She is highly skilled Registered Nurse with 30 years’ practical experience in various departments within the hospital and home setting. She is utilizing her expert nursing skills as a medical center specialist, clinical nurse liaison and educator to bridge the gap between patients and the cannabis community. Sherri has been educating and implementing holistic integrative healing modalities within her practice for over 20 years. She educates on the endocannabinoid system and the safe utilization of cannabis at dispensaries, hospitals, clinics, patients homes and she regularly does pop up events, seminars and expos. Sherri is an international speaker and she has contributed to the writing of the first cannabis nursing textbook with her cannabis nurse colleagues that will be available in nursing schools across the country. Sherri is a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and founding member of The Cannabis Nurses Network and was nominated as one of two nurses for “Health Professional of the Year” for the 2020 New England Cannabis Convention. Sherri brings passion and purpose to her work teaching bio-psycho-social-spiritual healing using cannabis as a tool.
In the first part of this podcast, Sherri discusses her own background and connection to cannabinoid medicine. The tools she learned in her own journey enabled Sherri to cope with frequent and ongoing surgeries, procedures, treatments for her son Nicholas and advocate vociferously on his behalf.
"When I'm presenting to people, I use myself as a case study. Because basically, prior to me getting ill, I had a history of migraine headaches, ADHD, and anxiety, that was managed with traditional medicine. I was functioning, I was healthy, single mother of three, child with a disability that we're going to talk about, but knowing that I had migraine headaches and at ADHD symptoms should have been a clear indicator that I had an Endocannabinoid deficiency. So everything that we do or don't do in our lives as far as health and wellness affects this neurotransmitter signaling system called the endocannabinoid system, and that the job of that system is to bring balance."
She goes on to explain, "By the end before I discovered cannabis. I was on over 16 pharmaceuticals. So, as I've learned over time, if you're taking more than 10 pharmaceuticals, there's 100% chance of having an adverse drug reaction. Polypharmacy. I fit into that polypharmacy category. I am not anti pharma. However, what is really essential for people to understand when they are being prescribed pharmaceuticals is to ask those critical questions and to look at what side effects there are to look at the blackbox warning Okay, how many people have died? You know, what are the side effects, what are the adverse effects, you need to have knowledge knowledge is power. The other thing that people People don't realize is that a lot of pharmaceuticals have a drug nutrient depletion"
She goes on to explain, " I have have a history of Polycystic Ovarian disease which is very interesting. And that yeah, that is considered to be a...
