Nicely done RedLeader.
Weekend: I had/have stomach cramps too. I thought I'd picked some bad mushrooms, but maybe it's kratom.
Does anybody have trouble thermoregulating during or after quitting kratom? I mean, I'm in the desert sun on the solstice at high noon wearing a black long sleeved shirt. It's 83 degrees and I'm freezing.
I've been using kratom for about 6 months to "fill in the holes" when my Suboxone taper got so low that I went into withdrawals and stayed there. I didn't drop any more and increased a little bit, but kept on the taper because my doctor wants to retire, and there weren't any other doctors here. I started taking my sub scripts too fast, and after the last script that was for 3 months ran out in a little over one, I couldn't handle the sickness, especially day after day for months, couldn't get any other drugs where I live, and tried kratom. It pulls me out of the worst of the physical symptoms, at least for a few hours--my insomnia, restless legs, muscle spasms, especially in my legs and hands, cravings, and just general sense of listlessness and fatigue were horrendous and just didn't get better for weeks or months.
I used my last dose of sub over a month ago, and haven't had anything to help w/d but kratom, so am glad it helped some. Actually it helped a bunch at first, but I developed a tolerance quickly and had to increase my dose. When I started I was only taking 3 mg twice a day and staying well mostly. A month later I'm taking more than double that and getting no effect except a reduction in some of the symptoms. Still can't sleep, have FLS despite taking a prescription drug, an herbal, and another OTC--at least I don't have the horrible muscle spasms--general feeling of restlessness, irritability, and discontent. And at this higher dose, I'm getting serious nausea and stomach pain. I also get the same thing every time I eat, and have been for a while, at least since I ran out of sub. I have to take a couple of antacids about 30 minutes after I eat or take kratom now. They still work, fortunately.
At first the kratom was OK--I didn't really like the way it made me feel, as it made me edgy and increased my anxiety. It must be different for different people. At least it got me out of bed, which wasn't happening without the Sub.
The question socko asked about temperature regulation I can answer, at least for myself. After I'd been on heroin (my first long-term opiate) for several years, I quit a few times and found that I could no longer regulate my body temperature at all. Then I went on methadone for about 5 years, and after I finally finished kicking that, my ability to control a lot of my body functions, including temperature, was permanently gone. It has never come back, and I don't know how much is from spending decades of my life on one opiate or another, and how much is from other health issues. I have cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C and B.
Personally I think it's just one of the changes that many years of addiction caused in my brain and body. I also can't sleep unless I'm on something, at least suboxone, have terrible anxiety that I can't medicate as my issues with benzos are worse than those with opiates. I have chronic pain in my back--I have a spinal deformity--and my right knee, which was shattered in a car wreck. I didn't have health insurance and it was never properly set; now the surgery it requires is too invasive for my lungs to tolerate. I have end-stage COPD/emphysema and that's another thing. While the opiates, Sub anyway--anything at a moderate dose--don't affect my actual breathing, they keep my anxiety and panic attacks under control, and those things are directly connected to my lung disease. When you can't catch your breath and feel like you're suffocating, that causes anxiety and panic, since it feels like you're going to die, then when the panic attack hits, it makes it even harder to breathe, and becomes a vicious circle.
So, I'm seeing my doctor Monday--I was supposed to see him Dec 11, but asked for an appointment sooner. It means he knows that I went through my sub faster than I should have, but since I'm going to tell him I don't want to taper off any more, but stay on for however long I have left, it doesn't really matter, I guess. A new clinic just opened here, so if he still intends to retire I do have options. I'm hoping to get back on a decent dose of sub so that I don't have to take kratom any more. It really doesn't feel very good any more, not like it did when I started. Not surprising that it builds tolerance quickly, since it's short acting. Originally I intended to go from the long-term sub withdrawal to a kratom withdrawal that would be much quicker, at least. In the end, however, I decided it makes much better since for me to stay on sub. I just hope to hell it's doable...
