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A MOTHER WHO took her sick son to Colorado to avail of cannabis oil is finally coming home after being separated from her family for over a year.
Yvonne Cahalane had travelled with her sons Tristan and Oscar to the US state where the use of the drug is legal.
Now, after over a year of treatment, Tristan is well enough to return home. He has Dravet syndrome, a very rare form of epilepsy, and would have suffered a number of seizures every day.
His mother said he can now go months without having one seizure.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103’s Cork Today Show, the mother said: “The flights are booked and we’re coming home for definite. Tristan is doing amazing as usual.
“He’s just brilliant. He’s had more reductions in his medication and we’ve been able to take it down bit by bit. But we won’t be able to bring back his oils. But we are getting it made in Europe.
I can’t believe we’re coming home. It’s going to be the best Christmas ever.
Yvonne has been separated from her husband John since their ordeal started but the couple has been working everyday to take care of Tristan and make sure he gets the care he needs.
However, the distance was always an issue.
Yvonne added: “I think the isolation was the toughest aspect. If you’re having a tough day or you’re exhausted, you just have to get on with it. But it’s very tough. I think it is the separation and missing home which was the toughest.”
Tristan’s health has improved so dramatically that he will be sleeping in his own room when they return. Yvonne said she won’t have to jump up from the bed every minute to see if he’s still alive.
Yvonne added: “He’s a tough cookie. He goes through everything. He teaches us how to bounce back up and smile after it. He’s amazing.”
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Shows what he knows. The reason we have too many cars on Irish roads is because the public transport systems aw not fit for purpose
@Joe x: fewer cars = more room for public transport/active transport = better public transport/active travel. Sometimes the stick must come before the carrot.
@Name not provided: but then what happens if more and more ppl get out of their cars and use public transport and get rid of the car (many of course will still keep them) but revenue for Car Tax and petrol will decrease. Our carbon credit purchase will decline yes but you can be damn sure they will increase/tax something to bring it in somewhere else!
More like empty buses tailgating each other and preventing flow of other traffic.
@Mike 100: ah right, it’s too many busses that are the problem. Not all the queues single-occupancy vehicles I see every day on my commute.
Sure in Galway the traffic is stymied with hundreds of traffic lights strategically placed to prevent the flow of all traffic in the name of cyclists .. thanks green party … wasters of the hard working taxes
@Jimmy Wallace: try commuting to WORK sometime in Galway. I don’t have all day like some to make stories up Jimmy .
@Jimmy Wallace: they love an auld conspiracy on this forum Jimmy.
Cars have become a great litmus test for determining if a public figure is a bluffer or not. Anyone who says cars are the problem clearly doesn’t know what they are talking about. Its like saying the problem with hospitals is too many sick people. Why don’t they stay at home and google home remedies.
@Keyser Söze: Perhaps a better analogy would be that 50% of car journeys are like people overloading an A&E with minor sniffles and small bruises.
Definitely true, but we need GOOD public transit in order to fix the issue. We also need AFFORDABLE housing along public transit routes. Paying 1/2 million euro for a 1-bed hovel or 2,000/month for a glorified bedsit and absolutely having to bear the extra expenses of a car and parking in Dublin during the work day is insane. We need a revolution in public transit and a paradigm shift in housing.
@Todd Hebert: Nothing will be done, because nothing is what we do best.
Almost all the hospitals are city centric,do they think all patients are capable of walking or cycling in and out .. TOTAL CRASS Thinking
@Michael James Brennan: They don’t think that, that’s why you won’t hear anyone saying that cars should be banned from accessing hospitals (feel free to tell me who does). The reality is, that many if not most people visiting a hospital can do so using public transport, walking or cycling. I visit a hospital twice a year. I do so by cycling or taking the bus to it.
Decent public transport would help….
@Tom Newell: which requires fewer cars on the road.
Wasn’t bus connects supposed to sort out a lot of this? I know that it isn’t fully implemented yet. We have no metro and not much light rail. Alternatives are few and far between. Long stretches of little investment are coming home to roost.
Improve the public transport throughout Ireland, then there might be less cars. Start with the pricing structure.
He is right,there is way to many cars on roads
Maybe if your buses were punctual and reliable, people wouldn’t need their cars
Public transport where I live us fantastic, world class
That crash on the M50, I hope no-one was injured, took 7 of them off the road.
There’s been several very progressive and smart proposals put to Government over the last decade alone that would more than help resolve this issue. Proposals such as reliable park and ride facilities based on all the main arteries leading into the city, each dotted 10km or so outside the city centre is one that would easily work if operated properly.
Others such as ways to arange and incentivise car pooling in a monetary way could also work as part of an overall strategy. But it’s obvious to see even with the Greens in and these solutions being also pro – green, there’s no appetite from Government to do anything to implement and change the situation
Just to clarify and add to my comment.. Its the amount of single passenger cars
Is that the reason they Scrapped the X21 SERVICE GALWAY DUBLIN
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