Back / Back of lungs starting to hurt

[Gumboots]

Hi, 22 y/o male aussie here.

Once every 6 or so months I like to 'treat' myself with meth, usually in small amounts (2/3 points over a week's period) but this time I bought myself half a gram of really HQ shit that knocked my tits off.

My meth history is very short, thankfully, and apart from when I was 18 and stupid, I've never used it more than 2 times a year (actually think I didn't touch it for a solid 2 years). Previously because I didn't own a crack pipe, I would always smoke it from either foil or a lightbulb. My couple points I smoked earlier this year left me with extreme pain in my back, on the right side of my shoulder blade for a solid week. I have also experienced this on a few occasions (but a bit less onthe pain scale) when I have an unordinary amount of bongs and cigarettes.

I have been a daily, heavy pot smoker since I was 17, and I am now 22 and I think probably last year is when this pain started occuring. 97% of my green was smoked out of a reasonably clean bong, although as of this month I have been smoking J's to 'ween' myself off the bud (((that didnt work, ordered a bong on tuesday xD).

The first few times would normally last a few days, and is generally pretty tolerable but very annoying, especially when sleeping, as it feels like someone is digging a knife into your lung or something (I know lungs have no pain receptors but thats what anxiety makes ya think ). Abstaining from ciggerretes and smoking a gram of bud less than usual usually did the trick to make it go away.

Anyways, back to the meth, after I smoked my shard out of foil and then later a lightbulb earlier this year, I found the pain returned but this time was more aggressive and extremely uncomfortable. Usually when I smoke shard I smoke hardly any pot, and I don't think I smoked too many cigarettes either (not a big tobacco smoker), but I remember being out with friends at a club and I simply couldnt stand the pain and went home to deal with the agony.

Now today, the pain is back and very similar to the episode i had earlier this year on the shard. Yesterday I bought half a G and had a session yesterday and today (maybe only smoked .1 all up?), but this time I had a crack pipe so I was no longer inhaling chemicals from the foil or inhaling melted pen toxin! I was obviously taking much bigger hits although, and today I woke up with the pain. I am very fortunate in the fact that I also bought 2 80mg Oxycodone's from my guy, thinking they were the ones you can crush and snort, but they turned out to be the new formula and slow release ones. They are a fucking godsend as they are bandaiding me through the pain + I get a little bit of a warm buzz from them.

I am considering storing away the .4(?) I have left as I simply do not want to go through the comedown / backpain combination, and I don't think my heart was too happy with me when I chewed 40mgish of the Oxy last night to try and get to sleep.

Ironically, not touching the shard is 100x easier for me to do than with pot. I am well psychologically and physically dependent on my weed, as when I attempt to quit, my stomach stops producing bile and makes it very, very difficult to eat and end up looking like a shard addict anyways. I also get sick, frustrated, unmotivated, extreme insomnia and total disinterest in life when I have no weed. I know this is bad and is certainly something I need to address soon, but for the time being I am looking for some answers to my back pain problem.

After a bit of research, my lung is either inflamed and pressing against a nerve or I've burnt a hole in the lining and liquid is seeping into it (is that what pleurisy is?). Can anyone share some advice on what this might be?

I am adamantly concerned about my lung health as you only get 2 of the damn thing's and is my favorite and practically only route of administration when I choose to partake in drugs. Is the the easiest answer just to stop smoking everything all together for a while and let my lungs regenerate a bit? Can any meth user's share some advice for optimum lung safety when having a session?

So far I only know that maintaining a germ smoking device, holding in smoke for less periods of time, and drinking green tea (flavanoids) play a part in lung safety, so I am embarrassingly a little Naive about further healthy habits to maintain a good set of lungs. Oh and exercise.

Any help is truly appreciated and sorry for the narrative I wrote, still got that talky talky meth buzz goin 8(

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Any difficulty breathing? Do you feel resistance when you move air in and/or out of your lungs? Wheezing?

Pleurisy is a sharp, sudden, stabbing sort of pain that happens when there's friction between the lining of your chest wall and the outer lining of your lungs. It's typically very reproducible by taking deep breaths. As you correctly pointed out your lungs themselves do not feel pain, but the outer lining of them (the pleura) feels quite a bit of pain.

I'm concerned that you may have severely inflamed a section of alveoli (the tiny air sacs at the end of your air passages where gas exchange happens), which abut the very periphery of your lungs. The most peripheral ones actually touch the inside of the pleura, and if they become inflamed for any reason, the section of the pleura that they touch will also become inflamed, which can definitely cause pleurisy.

I'm not convinced the pain you're describing is pleurisy, but I'm fairly sure its origin is in your lung, though. Allow me to explain. The same levels of your spine provide the nerves to your lung, your chest wall, and the vertical muscles around your spine between your third and seventh vertebrae on the side of your body in question. The upshot is, when the sensory nerves from your lung and/or your chest wall are carrying copious distress signals back to your CNS, the motor and sensory nerves to the paraspinal muscles at those same levels will also fire a lot, causing painful muscle cramping at, you guessed it, the area between your spine and your shoulder blade.

Eat the weed. Rub the meth on your gums. Switch to an e-cigarette. In any event take a few months off inhaling any drugs. If in 3mo the pain is no better, see a doc and get a chest X-ray.

 

[elvenflow]

Have you considered that your weed use may be masking an underlying disorder? For example, I have a motor neuron disease, and weed helps the symptoms so much that coming off is quite painful-as the symptoms of my genetic disorder return full force. There are a lot of non lung causes of pain in the lung area, too, if it keeps up after you stop smoking. One I get is Parsonage-Turner syndrome, which is very painful, especially at night. Another cause of pain in the lung area may be pancreas or biliary tract issues such as gallstones, which can also cause a lot of stomach problems. Stopping smoking will help sort things out, for sure. You'll be surprised how much you save on weed when you switch to oral administration only.
May also cause shoulder blade pain and is really helped by weed:
http://www.pancreasfoundation.org/patient-information/chronic-pancreatitis/

 

[ConkyMadeMeDoIt]

I have to say I had pluerisy in the past February, and it was pure hell. I developed it after having misdiagnosed pnuemonia for a month. My right lung started to hurt so bad one evening, I went to the ER for the first time in my life. It hurt for about 3-4 weeks, went away, and returned in the other lung a few days later, for another 3-4 weeks. There wasn't much they could do for me, other than give me pain meds and anti inflammatory meds to reduce the inflammation in the lung membrane. I was diagnosed by having X-rays taken of my chest, and a CAT scan or some shit. I forget what it was called

 

[black kat]

Id suggest you abstain for a little while from smoking drugs,not because i wanna preach that drugs are bad(lol) and crap like that,but because it seems that you arent addicted to that level where you dont have the choice to quit.
Its one thing to be risking your health cause youre utterly addicted and being dopesick is not an option,and another to compromise your health cause youre not willing to give up recreational use.

Stop for a couple of weeks(smoke like a joint whenever you feel its absolutely necessary) and see a doctor if the pain doesnt go away.
Youll be enjoying way more your drugs when you know youre healthy,your body can take it and there will be nothing to ruin your high.