hydroazuanacaine
bluelighter
- Joined
- May 17, 2007
- Messages
- 8,493
there are countless threads about this on drug forums across the internet. but they're buried under the more abundant threads talking about how great and, other than addiction risk, benign the drug is. making mine in the hopes that a few more people discovering kratom approach it with caution. it's foolish that this risk is not mentioned more often in kratom threads.
recently i ordered a couple ounces of kratom powder online. this was close to my first time. i took kratom once in college, and didn't think much of it. anyway, i was giving up green and thought this might help during that first week or two. i didn't think much of it this time either, but continued to take it everyday because it was alright and i had it. like 2 - 3 rounded teaspoons twice a day. started to get abdominal pain, and figured i was getting heartburn from the kratom. cut my use back, but continued taking it for another day or two.
the pain increased until i was waking up at night in horrible pain. stopped taking the kratom. continued having horrible pain. got worse and worse every night. i don't suffer from heartburn. people on message boards were complaining about extreme heartburn from kratom, so that's what i figured it was. i couldn't believe people with heartburn had it so bad. ended up leaving work early one day because it was too much. was pacing in my living room until it crossed a line and i realized there was no way this was heartburn and even if it was, i needed help. other than a few instances of blunt physical trauma that did not last nearly as long, this was the worst pain i've been in. got a ride to the ER.
told them about the abdominal pain, but not the kratom. they did blood/urine tests. told me i had hepatitis, probably hepatitis a. freaked me the fuck out because that's all they said. person who drove me to the ER was in the room with me. after doc left the room, that person explained hepatitis a was not like b or c and went away. don't know why the asshole physician's assistant didn't mention that. anyway, they did a hep screen and sent it to a gp. made an appt with that doc for a few days later.
in the meantime i did some searching armed with a new keyword. found so many people telling my exact same story. and so many heads saying it was impossible and kratom is perfectly benign. used common sense and figured i didn't have some third world disease and people complaining of the problem were legit. got hep a screen back, and yeah i did not have viral hepatitis. did another blood test and liver enzyme levels were moving in the right direction.
pseudo-metanalysis of drug forums suggests people are in one group or the other. i didn't see people saying they'd been using kratom for year before the pain appeared, only to discover how much damage they'd done during that time. but there's no research to confirm. levels of hepatoxicity could be more of a spectrum. i didn't give my leftover ounces to anyone because i don't think it's worth the risk. i'm glad it was two weeks and then unbearable pain. i can't imagine how terrible for my health it would have been if the negative effects were less immediate/pronounced and i made a habit of kratom.
it seems that in a small subset of users, kratom is very hepatotoxic. maybe like how some people can't break down codeine. if you start taking the drug and begin to experience abdominal pain -- different from nausea --- it's serious and should discontinue use immediately.
edit:
oh, and the pain became more bearable after a week or less of abstinence. though it peaked two or so days after i had stopped taking kratom. felt like shit for two weeks after. about a month after, i'm still not 100 percent but it's no longer a problem. have a follow up appt with gp again in a month or to make sure everything went back to normal.
recently i ordered a couple ounces of kratom powder online. this was close to my first time. i took kratom once in college, and didn't think much of it. anyway, i was giving up green and thought this might help during that first week or two. i didn't think much of it this time either, but continued to take it everyday because it was alright and i had it. like 2 - 3 rounded teaspoons twice a day. started to get abdominal pain, and figured i was getting heartburn from the kratom. cut my use back, but continued taking it for another day or two.
the pain increased until i was waking up at night in horrible pain. stopped taking the kratom. continued having horrible pain. got worse and worse every night. i don't suffer from heartburn. people on message boards were complaining about extreme heartburn from kratom, so that's what i figured it was. i couldn't believe people with heartburn had it so bad. ended up leaving work early one day because it was too much. was pacing in my living room until it crossed a line and i realized there was no way this was heartburn and even if it was, i needed help. other than a few instances of blunt physical trauma that did not last nearly as long, this was the worst pain i've been in. got a ride to the ER.
told them about the abdominal pain, but not the kratom. they did blood/urine tests. told me i had hepatitis, probably hepatitis a. freaked me the fuck out because that's all they said. person who drove me to the ER was in the room with me. after doc left the room, that person explained hepatitis a was not like b or c and went away. don't know why the asshole physician's assistant didn't mention that. anyway, they did a hep screen and sent it to a gp. made an appt with that doc for a few days later.
in the meantime i did some searching armed with a new keyword. found so many people telling my exact same story. and so many heads saying it was impossible and kratom is perfectly benign. used common sense and figured i didn't have some third world disease and people complaining of the problem were legit. got hep a screen back, and yeah i did not have viral hepatitis. did another blood test and liver enzyme levels were moving in the right direction.
pseudo-metanalysis of drug forums suggests people are in one group or the other. i didn't see people saying they'd been using kratom for year before the pain appeared, only to discover how much damage they'd done during that time. but there's no research to confirm. levels of hepatoxicity could be more of a spectrum. i didn't give my leftover ounces to anyone because i don't think it's worth the risk. i'm glad it was two weeks and then unbearable pain. i can't imagine how terrible for my health it would have been if the negative effects were less immediate/pronounced and i made a habit of kratom.
it seems that in a small subset of users, kratom is very hepatotoxic. maybe like how some people can't break down codeine. if you start taking the drug and begin to experience abdominal pain -- different from nausea --- it's serious and should discontinue use immediately.
edit:
oh, and the pain became more bearable after a week or less of abstinence. though it peaked two or so days after i had stopped taking kratom. felt like shit for two weeks after. about a month after, i'm still not 100 percent but it's no longer a problem. have a follow up appt with gp again in a month or to make sure everything went back to normal.
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