Harm Reduction cotton fever cure

[splenda]

i have had cotton fever several times. it is by far the scariest and most painful experience ever. In fact it kinda ruined bangin dope for me because it is literally the most painful thing ive ever had to go through and ended up giving me a heartattach. Shooting dope does cause endocarditis and its no joke trust and believe

question tho...
EVERY time ive had cotton fever ive thrown up over and over and over again. And the headache that i experienced literally felt like the top of my head was breaking open. I dont know if every time was cotton fever. Because some of the symptoms just dont match up.

I know when the fever is coming on because about 10 to 15 mins after the shot i start feeling really really stiff...then my hands and feet tingle very bad and then i shake uncontrollably...and then comes the headache from hell and the non stop puking.

I think that maybe some of the times that i thought i had cotton fever, the dope was just bad because one time my face swelled up and i had a seizure...so that cant be cotton fever can it?

Sounds like sepsis.

 

[splenda]

Use a Micron filter, it's better and you dont have to worry about cotton fever.

Strange enough, getting "cotton fever"-like symptoms even after micron filtering with a .22um micron filter is very possible... I know several people who have had issues with septicemia type symptoms after IVing a drug solution even after passed through a .22um micron filter.

Weird, because .22um micron filters are 'supposed' to filter out bacteria.

 

[darkvein]

when i get cotton fever i do more dope, but if i don't have any (which is usually why I get cotton fever) then I go to sleep and wake up a couple hours later with a slight headache. sleep and more dope are the only two things that fix it for me.

COCAINE COWBOY: captain heroin has a WONDERFUL megathread on micron filtering you should check it out! I'm new here so I don't really remember exactly where I saw it but use the search engine and you'll find it.
And if you think you need medical help, go get it! duh! sounds like cotton fever except for the pants on fire thing to me tho. My head always hurts during cotton fever. But emergency rooms are for emergency, no one on here is probably going to give you medical advice, cause they don't want to be liable. you think you need medical advice, go to the hospital. there i said it twice, good luck

 

[cire113]

WTF happened

Ok Im iv drug user WTF happened to me last night


I had symptoms lasting several hrs it's now the next I feel better but kinda shaken up by this shit...

I had severe nausea,worst headache,puking for hours, little body twitches, cold and shivering, it felt like terrible wd but I know it wasn't


It was awful, I had to lay down in bed and still felt like shit...


It's like the next day and now I can't tell if I'm in real wd or still exp shit from last night....

I hope it was just bad cotton fever, if It was sepsis then I'm prob gonna die oh well

 

[lasthurrah19]

If you are concerned, please go to the ER.

high five south florida buddy!

 

[StarGazed]

had to respond... and yes, i know this is old, but the info is good!

now this will only work if youre not livin on the skreets an shit, ya know? and your hot water heater must be in good working order.

ive had cotton fever like many many times during the days when i was so poor id go through trash bag after trash bag and find every last cotton, cap, and bag with bits of powder residue in it and shoot the crap out of it and more times than not get the shakes like a squirell who chewed through a power line. it was welfare.

however, i discovered if i hopped in the bathtub, with water JUST under the "literally BURN your skin" level, after about 5 or so minutes the shaking would subside. continue soaking, and as the water gets cold, let some out and refill with straight hot water. after ab 30-45 minutes, if you hop out and get in bed youll sleep and feel fine. HOT BATHS CURE COTTON FEVER. at least for me.

try it out. then holla.

You aren't far off... you really aren't curing it, you're managing a symptom (the freezing you feel due to the fever). And while that hot water definitely feels GREAT, you need to be careful not to let your temp get into the danger zone. I also am the queen of new everything to avoid the fever or "the chills" as we call it here, but it still sneaks up on you if you are shooting heroin, or anything else that may have a filler. The only thing I can truly stress is to make sure you drink as much water as possible, because the headache you have at the end, is generally caused by dehydration. The only sure fire way to guarantee that you won't get cotton fever is to NOT SHOOT! But hey, we all know most of us are not going to follow that so be safe and use some common sense. Old filters obviously BAD.... Even certanin fillers in your drugs carry a bacteria that causes the phenomenon. Happy Trails..... or is that tracks.... hmmmm....

 

[ratgirldjh]

Geez
once I took my temperature when i had cotton fever (years ago thank the gods) and it was 104. then it went to 105. i was FREEZING. of course i wanted to take a HOT bath - but my temperature was soooo high!!! i took a cold bath instead to get my temperature down. it was so hard to take a cold bath. then i got my temperature down to about 102 and got under the covers (all of them lol) and finally got warm and went to sleep. when i woke up all wet from sweat i was back to normal. cotton fever sucks! i only had it bad once but i had it another time not so bad. i think it could kill you even if your temperature went too high. i would be afraid to get into hot water just because of this. anyone else tried taking their temperature during this? .... don't... it's like taking your blood pressure when you are on coke...

 

[dhopeless]

My cure for cotton fever is this (I only IV subutex)

Take 2mgs of Ativan (for shakes and comfort)
Take 400mgs ibuprofen (for fever and flu symptoms)
IV 2mg more bupe (or a high dose of whatever you shot that gave you the fever) (seems to kill the chills and the pain)

This kills it everytime for me. But I'll try the hot bath if I ever find myself in a situation where I don't have all these drugs.

 

[HYDRO_CHRONIC]

wtf ?? ive never heard of cotton fever lasting less than 8-12hrs ....and i remember only 1 time that i WASNT shaking like electrocuted and didnt have horrible projectile vomiting ...

what cured me? sleep i found it rather easy to fall asleep with cotton fever

i dont know what to say to people who say it was gone in 2 hours

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Hah, the cure is to try and force our idiotic junkie minds that pounding out the same cotton 5 times is useless...Anytime after the first cotton shot I do, if I were to feel I could reuse the cottons again, I just throw a new cotton on top of the old ones, pound them out, and then filter the pounded solution through a fresh cotton. No cotton fever. So if you feel the need to keep pounding old cottons, or any cotton for that matter that isn't fairly fresh, just re filter it through a fresh cotton and don't let your needle tip touch the old ones.

I got cotton fever twice, started doing this, never got it again. Thank god too because I'd rather a dose of narcan after shooting a bundle than go through that again.....actually, not too sure about that...they both fucking suck. Hah.

 

[KrinkleKutt]

I would suggest if the materiels are available is 1. wash your hands and site with a good antimicrobial and air dry ( don't use the bathroom towel)2.soak a qtip dripping wetwith alchohol place it on something to balance it from touching the cotton. 3.after the qtip is dry 30 minutes (if concerned wash out a little sterile water before you pull up)4 wash hands expressly your fingers not a rinse but a good scrub with alcohol under your nails and such ( sorry ladies this might mess up that mani. better safe than pretty.air dry your hands then pull your cotton off making sure that the rest off you equipment is safe this should reduce bacterious-viral transmissions by 85-95% Reference old street shooter guide gave out by the VA years ago.Please be safe and don't share them quipments....M. Edit 1Ileft out alcohol for the agent to clean with....M.

 

[rxpirate]

The best way to get rid of the fever is do another shot in the same vein. And if you don't have any more drugs to shoot just use some clean water. The water only works depending on how bad the fever is or if you catch it early enough. If I start feeling myself getting cold I know its coming on and do some water or if its already kicking and just a mild case water still works. If its a really bad one where you teeth are chattering and your shaking wrapped up in blankets just do another pill or bag or whatever your doing and you feel back to normal.

 

[Beerman]

+1 to the hot bath, it saved my life today.

There is my story.. I had what I guess it was "cotton fever" a couple of times a year ago or so, with mild headache and some fever, nothing special, in 24h I was perfectly fine.

Yesterday night I shoot some bupe and a-ppp filtering with a brand new cotton, different ones I used to use days before, (I know that I should microfilter it but I can not get those filters in this fuckin shitty country), and I get something like sore skin sensation (like when u have fever) bad headache and pain in the eyes. I slept like 12h (waking up every 2h or so, very bad sleeping) and I woke up more or less fine, only with slight headache. During that night came to my mind: "shit it may be the cotton fever again.."

As I was not sure if it was that I didn't heat the solution, or boiled the new cotton to try to kill any bacteria, I did again (stupid, I know) same brand of filter, new one, boil the solution and then boil a bit the filter... I took the shot and I thought "hm I think this time is fine..."

WRONG, 30-40min after I was starting having more headache again, feeling chills, and this time was the worse I ever had, I was shaking like a motherfucker and almost shouting WTF IS THIS OMG, strugle into the bed still shaking, then I remembered about the hot bath, it was fucking BLISS, 1h or so of bath and sackings gone, then some rest and now I have only some headache.

The idea I have is that it may not be the cotton, I'm quite sure it was the bupe solution I had made and used in this last shots, (2mg in 10ml) that was not properly "conserved" like the other times (properly closed and with some drops of alcohol..) because I read somewhere that you can get that "cotton fever" not because of the cotton, from using tap water or not cleaning properly your instruments, also the drug you buy may be contaminated, maybe is the new a-ppp I had... Or is it a different thing? Sepsis?

Well, now, I know it's going to sound so fucking stupid but I'm going to try to shot again some bupe with a-ppp, now just one tiny piece of pill with boiled for 10 min or so tap water (because I always use tap water and boil it in the spoon, years doing so with only a couple of issues so I guess it was not that the problem..)

Wish me luck lol

Cheers.

 

[effie]

^ full-blown sepsis lasts longer than cotton fever and needs hospital treatment.. but transient bacteraemia (a shower of bacteria into your bloodstream, which your body mops up) can give you fever/chills/shaking/headache etc and you can certainly get that from contaminated water/equipment/drugs, as well as from old cottons.

Remember that if the symptoms don't go away, you could be developing sepsis, so get yourself checked out by a doctor.. reusing cottons could potentially give you a serious blood-infection.

 

[Beerman]

^ Thank you very much for the information, it has been 20min since the last shot with different cotton brand (the ones I used before) and different bupe solution and so far I'm not worse.

So I guess it was or the solution or the new cotton filters I bought (I roll my own ciggies).

Again, I really apreciate the info, and I'll try to update with any news in the next 20min.

 

[paranoid android]

Ive only gotten cotton fever twice and it was twice in the same fucking day . I ran out of sterile water so i used boiled tap water for only 10 minutes and used that. Both times it only lasted about 5 hours maybe which is pretty short for cotton fever I'm told but that is probably because i tried to flush it out with water and cranberry juice which seemed to work. Cotton fever is hell on earth and i was shaking so violently that the bed was shaking with me. I had on a pair of jogging pants, a t-shirt and hoodie as well as a winter cap on and i was lying in bed with my g/f with a big blanket wrapped around me and i was still freezing! I have never used anything other then sterile water since because i never want to go through that ever again.

For anyone that get's cotton fever though id say drink plenty of water and cranberry juice and you might shorten the amount of time you have it. I find that opiates for some reason don't help cotton fever at all but benzos do help with the shaking.

 

[Beerman]

No issues so far!%)

Definetly I think it was the bad bupe solution, because the "new" filters I use which I suspected they could be the cause, I used them before in other times and they didn't make me any cotton fever, only sometimes if I reused them and keep them in not higienic places... Maybe this batch is contaminated... anyway I think I'm not going to check it lol

I feel so good knowing the reason of thist shit... thanks!!!

 

[Beerman]

Ive only gotten cotton fever twice and it was twice in the same fucking day . I ran out of sterile water so i used boiled tap water for only 10 minutes and used that. Both times it only lasted about 5 hours maybe which is pretty short for cotton fever I'm told but that is probably because i tried to flush it out with water and cranberry juice which seemed to work. Cotton fever is hell on earth and i was shaking so violently that the bed was shaking with me. I had on a pair of jogging pants, a t-shirt and hoodie as well as a winter cap on and i was lying in bed with my g/f with a big blanket wrapped around me and i was still freezing! I have never used anything other then sterile water since because i never want to go through that ever again.

For anyone that get's cotton fever though id say drink plenty of water and cranberry juice and you might shorten the amount of time you have it. I find that opiates for some reason don't help cotton fever at all but benzos do help with the shaking.

The BEST thing for the shaking is a hot bath, benzos may do the trick, but they take time to kick in, the hot bath is almost instant relief, you turn from being "OH SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK" to "OHH THANKS GOD!!" in a couple of minutes, at least me.

Awesome the hot bath, if you can't have a hot bath a hot shower also helps, but not that good, I can't believe how perfectly it worked for me today, seriously.

 

[swimfan]

i agree althou cotton fever is not caused by threads of cotton in your bloodstream but the chemical that is found rarely on the cotton in your cigs or q tips. i do not advise trying to boil the bacteria out as i just tried this and am sitting here regretting that decision. if u catch the fever pop some ibuprophen and hop in a hot ass shower and sweat the shit out... be sure to rehydrate... works like a charm

 

[adder]

I'm reading the thread and I've realized I had never gotten cotton fever. But I used street heroin for only 9 months (well, only because I've used opioids for years) and the rest of the time were opioids from ampules and opioids in bulk I knew there was no bacteria in. Anyway, I remember boiling small cotton bits, like 40 or so, with a pH a little acidic. I've never had problems OP described. On the other side I did it only as a last resort when I felt really sick and I knew I wouldn't be able to survive until I get some more heroin or some methadone. So cotton fever is completely unknown to my body. Veins inflammation so I couldn't straighten my arm, sure, but no cotton fever from using cotton pads or cig filters.