cash hyde mike hydeThis is how long it's taken me to start writing this post: 10 minutes. That's because for 10 minutes I've been staring at the computer screen thinking to myself, "Please, please, god or whatever benevolent force there is out there, if there is one, please don't ever let either one of my kids get cancer. Please please please please." Over and over again.

If my child had cancer, I'd do anything -- ANYTHING -- to save his life. So I get why Montana dad Mike Hyde gave his 2-year-old son Cash medical marijuana. Not only do I get it, I'd do the same thing.

Little Cash Hyde was dying from the stage 4 brain tumor surrounding his optic nerve. After it was discovered last year, Cash went through seven different types of chemotherapy, went into septic shock, and suffered a stroke and pulmonary hemorrhaging. It's amazing that his tiny body endured that much, never mind the fact that the poor little thing was vomiting so much from the chemo that he couldn't eat for 40 days.

That's when Dad took matters into his own hands. Medical marijuana is legal in Montana, where the Hydes lived -- but not in Utah, where Cash had been transferred to the closest pediatric oncology treatment center. So Mike didn't tell his son's doctors when he slipped cannabis oil into his son's feeding tube, afraid they'd take it away.

What happened next is truly miraculous. Over the next two weeks, thanks to Daddy's Little Helper, Cash went from the point of "there's nothing left we can do" to sitting up, eating, and laughing.

Mike had been counting on the weed to boost his son's appetite, but Cash's tremendous recovery (doctors are shocked that the boy has no permanent organ damage) has him convinced that marijuana can actually cure cancer.

You'd think Mike's claim would be the point of controversy in this case (does pot really cure cancer??) but it's not. No, the medical community is all in a huff because Mike went and treated his son "behind the doctor's back." His son. HIS son. You get my point?

SO WHAT? A 2-year-old child survived a terrible bout with a brain tumor. I don't care what his father slipped in his feeding tube or whether he told anybody about it. It worked!

I'm really, really hoping that doctors and researchers don't write this off as a fluke simply because Mike Hyde didn't clear his idea with the medicine police before trying it out. Maybe this was a one-time thing, but maybe there's more to it than that ... I think we owe it to Cash to find out.

Would you give your child medical marijuana?


Image via ABC