Opiate-related heart problems?

[Drug-Alchemist]

My wife is addicted to opiates. Last year she already managed to quit for some months, but one day her body just collapsed. (She often looses conciousnes, has severe problems with her memory, feels constantly like throwing up etc.) She's been to all kinds of tests since that but the reason is still unclear. The tests continue but the public health care is slow. She's okayish (a.k.a. can walk to another room) when on opiates, so she has medicated herself since. Now she's waiting for methadone treatment, but it'll take a while before it begins. Several doctors have adviced her not try to quit opiates in her present health.

She has medication for problems with bloodflow and to be able to breathe (+ several other things that are unrelated to this post). A doctor said 1,5 years ago about her breathing difficulties that the human body can't cope with the doses she needs to stay healthy or with the withdrawals she has and suggested that she'll die very soon if she does not quit. These problems are all back now.

What I want to ask about is that she also has cardiac pains, which are accompanied by another type of breathing problems (feeling like her chest would be crushed inwards) and pain in her left hand. We've previously thought the pain in her hand to be due to damage caused to the veins. She's had pain because of also that in the past. Recently a friend who is medical student informed us of the possibility that the pain in the left hand could be indication of some kind of heart condition and might be linked to the aforementioned cardiac pains.

Her heart pain is worse than ever now at the moment. All she's had today is codein + benzos which is as good as nothing in her situation.

Has anyone of you encountered similar heart-related problems which are connected to opiate withdrawals? Any advice?

 

[Livid Panda]

First off you should take her to a licensed medical professional if she is experiencing any sort of serious medical ailment. Other than to go see a doctor, theres not much advice anyone here can give you.

Having said that, I'm somewhat unclear as to your post, you say that doctors have advised her against quitting because of her ill health, but that others have said that she needs to quit or she would die?

Pains related to heart problems generally present themselves in the chest and upper left arm. It seems to me to be far more likely that the pains in her hand would be caused by something else, more than likely circulation issues. This would be especially so if she has other pains, swelling, or discolorations in other of her extremities.

 

[Outta Pocket]

What is her opiate of choice? Is it pure or a preparation (mixed with e.g. acetaminophen, promethazine, etc.)?

I agree with Livid Panda, she needs to go see a doctor.

 

[Drug-Alchemist]

First off you should take her to a licensed medical professional if she is experiencing any sort of serious medical ailment. Other than to go see a doctor, theres not much advice anyone here can give you..

That's of course what I'm going to do. My wife has been through a lot of tests in a hospital for the past 6 months or so because of all the ailments she has. We will ask about the possible heart issues as well.

I simply also wanted to ask if her problems would sound familiar to any of you.

Also, we've been unsure if her heart pain is something serious or not. Here where we live the medical professionals are often prone to overlook any problems if the patient is a drug-addict.

Also some encouragement could help. Her/our situation is hellish. We've done all we can for 6 months to find out what's wrong with her and to get her treatment, but it takes so much time. My wife has been extremely desperate, at times suicidal.

I'm somewhat unclear as to your post, you say that doctors have advised her against quitting because of her ill health, but that others have said that she needs to quit or she would die?.

I'm sorry for writing unclearly. She was adviced to quit at least 1,5 years ago but has now in her present health been adviced not to.

Even 1,5 years ago she was adviced against quitting cold turkey because according to the doctors it could have been dangerous.

Pains related to heart problems generally present themselves in the chest and upper left arm.

That is exactly where she has pain. I'm sorry for using wrong terminology. English is not my native language.

She has circulation problems too, though.

What is her opiate of choice?

Heroin/morphine.

 

[Drug-Alchemist]

A doctor we called today said that if the pain in the heart is present only when my wife is having withdrawals, it most likely is not an indication of some kind of heart-condition but more probably just a symptom of her generally poor health. His advice was to talk about it when my wife sees a doctor next time.


Even some empathy would help tremendously. It feels that our situation is utterly dark and that there's not even slightest glimmer of hope and we are totally alone in a bottomless hell where no-one seems to be able or willing to help us in any way.

 

[skoat]

Man, I'm sorry to hear this. I have no advice or similar experience to offer you.

Good Luck.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Hi Drug Alchemist, first of all I'm sorry to hear of your wife's heart problems. Serious health concerns are always scary, particularly pertaining to major organs like the heart, brain etc. I can only imagine the stress and fear this is causing you both

I don't have any insight to offer though unfortunately. Please let us know how she's doing, and if there are any updates to her condition. I really hope the doctors can come to some sort of conclusion very soon

 

[simonadebisi]

Very sorry to hear about your wife, I would just like to note that I have experienced irregular heartbeat and palpitations when taking opiates, or when they wear off, namely methadone and fentanyl, sometimes slight chest pain, which never seems to last long, its like i feel it when i take a deep breath... mostly its just irregular heartbeat

 

[n3ophy7e]

Just a quick question: does your wife eat enough food? And is it healthy food? The reason I ask is because low body weight and malnutrition can put a LOT of stress on the heart and its function, so this may be something to think about?? Make sure she's eating enough calories per day, and enough fresh fruit and vegies, especially green leafy vegetables, and a good-quality source of protein. And milk as well, for calcium, which is essential for a healthy heart.

 

[Drug-Alchemist]

Thank you so much for your kindness!

I would just like to note that I have experienced irregular heartbeat and palpitations when taking opiates, or when they wear off, namely methadone and fentanyl, sometimes slight chest pain, which never seems to last long, its like i feel it when i take a deep breath... mostly its just irregular heartbeat

My wife sometimes has irregular heartbeat and chestpain too, in the same situations you describe, but the heart problems I'm writing about now are something different.

does your wife eat enough food? And is it healthy food? The reason I ask is because low body weight and malnutrition can put a LOT of stress on the heart and its function, so this may be something to think about??

My wife does in fact suffer from malnutrition, although she used to eat enough (it was calculated) and she ate very healthy food before she got sick 6 months ago. Symptoms of malnutrition although eating enough is one of the things that got her to the hospital. We've understood that possibly her body is unable to benefit from the food as it should. We were told by a doctor that her excessive opiate use might have sort of shut down her digestive system. She's on medication to force the digestive system to function and it has helped a bit.

She's taken vitamin b, vitamin c, multivitamin, calcium and cod-liver oil every day for years.

Nowadays she can't eat very well but she tries her best.

From what we've understood her overall poor health is the most dangerous thing at the moment. We've been told her illness could be fatal.

It's tormenting how slowly the public health care works. It feels almost like a sick joke that my wife became ill 6 months ago and we have now been informed that she has a certain important medical examination scheduled 3 months from now! On top of this, she must probably wait for 6 months or something like that before her methadone treatment starts. It's completely inhuman that a sick person is kept waiting in the queue for so long that it might very likely endanger her chances of surviving at all.

 

[paranoid android]

I have experienced some severe chest pains from opiate withdrawal in the past. When your in withdrawals your heart rate goes up quite abit sometimes and i can actuallly feel the rushes of blood from severe withdrawals. Last summer when i was withdrawing from morphine and hydromorphone i had chest pains so bad i really thought i was going to have a heart attack. It scared me because this was a point of time in my life when i really didnt want to die and had something to live for. I was actually dumb enough to do cocaine and amphetamines occasionally when the physical withdrawals where over and this aggravated the chest pains i had.

Whatever she does make damn sure she does not take any opioids that can cause heart problems such as demerol (meperidine/pethidine) or darvon/darvocet (propoxyphene) because both of these drugs are cardiotoxic. Morphine and heroin arent bad for your heart at all to the best of my knowledge but chest pains during withdrawal is not that uncommon from what ive seen in people.

Make sure she atleast eats something healthy everyday and stays hydrated. Malnutrition aggravates heart problems worse then anything. A very good friend of mine has permanent heart damage due to anorexia and it breaks my heart to see her suffer because of it.

I really hope things turn out alright for your wife. I know what it's like to watch a loved one suffer so you have my deepest sympathies. Best of luck to you both.

 

[Drug-Alchemist]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience, Paranoid Android, and thanks for the advice! It helps a lot to hear that this is not that uncommon and that people do survive from this. My wife also thought she was having a heart attack when I write the first post in this thread.

She's had chest pains during withdrawals for 2 years or something but they've gotten a lot worse lately than they were before.

 

[paranoid android]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience, Paranoid Android, and thanks for the advice! It helps a lot to hear that this is not that uncommon and that people do survive from this. My wife also thought she was having a heart attack when I write the first post in this thread.

She's had chest pains during withdrawals for 2 years or something but they've gotten a lot worse lately than they were before.

If she is having bad chest pains please get her to a doctor. You really shouldnt take a chance with this especially since she already has some blood flow and breathing problems.

Chest pains during withdrawal arent that uncommon and are often due to anxiety. But if she is having bad chest pains she should be brought to the ER or something so she can be checked out for heart problems. Opiate withdrawal can make pre existing heart problems worse and i remember a case here sadly enough where a few years ago a guy went to the hospital here for some reason i can't remember and died of a heart attack. He was on methadone matienance and they didnt have methadone at the hospital or atleast wouldnt give it to him and this was found to have contributed to the heart attack that killed him. I still remember this case because i thought of how heartless and uncaring it was on their part to not have given the guy something atleast. I mean some morphine would have stopped the worst of the withdrawals and maybe have prevented a death. But as we all know addicts are more often then not treated as dirt by people in the medical profession.

 

[onlywant2nod]

This can be said again for sure, us addicts are treated like pure crap by not only the medical profession, but also by methadone clinics as well. Here is my true experience: I started mmt in late Aug of 2006, I was treated great at first and I felt fine. I maxed out and stabilized comfortably at 240mg, sounds like a whopping amount, but due to me not having a colon(long story short) because of ulcerative colitis, plus my odd body chemistry. I metabolize mmt and all drugs faster and differently than most people.

I was doing fine until I started seeing this woman counselor once a week, well the "shit hit the fan" one day when she was a total bitch from hell, completely unprofesionally suddenly cut me off in the middle of our talk one week saying "stop right now, I'm cutting this session right now, I'm sick of hearing your rage crap and how you want this cop dead etc". I said FINE!!!! and walked right out and let the door slam when I walked out of the "dump". So as to cause us to hate each other, so we only saw each other once a month for a monthly by law update on how I'm doing. She started treating me like a friggin cow and said something to the clinic doctor, he had me do an ekg in the office and things looked horrible from then on. He said I had a heart dysrythmic problem. In otherwords he explained that my heart was not beating for up to a minute at a time and that he would have to lower me from 240 to 150mg at 10mg per week and hold me at 150 due to this crap.

So I got revenge on "the bitch" and abused my take homes back when I was on 240mg and she warned me that if it ever happened again I would get kicked out of the clinic. Well the second time I did it, I was on 150mg and I did that out of revenge because she was not giving my ekg faxes to the doctor there, or giving me bullshit that "the fax didn't come out clear". So I abused my take homes again, this time was very strange, I was not kicked off the program, however the bitch did something illegal instead. First she said "okay now you have no take home privilages whatsoever, the only take homes you will be getting is sunday or on a holiday when we are closed, so dont expect to go on vacation or anything because you will not get any exceptions". The bitch also said "by the way you are now being dropped from 150 today to 60mg" I said ok just to shut her up. I went back in a hurry to the dosing window and signed in and the nice guy said, "it still shows 150mg" I said cool, and took my dose and walked away, as I ignored the bitch and started to walk past, she said "what happened?" I said, they dosed me, what did they dose you? I said 150 like they said. "DAMN" the fucking bitch said. I then gave her a look like I wanted to kill the bitch and walked out and flung the door open and let that metal door slam so hard that she knew I was pissed.

I still am pissed, by the way does anyone have any advice on what I could do about this? I told all about what this bitch did to me to the clinic doctor and he didn't seem to even think much about it, WTF!. Should I turn her into the dea? or is there nothing I can or should do, except go to a better clinic if I find that suboxone doesn't work in the end and I wind up back on mmt?

 

[Drug-Alchemist]

If she is having bad chest pains please get her to a doctor. You really shouldnt take a chance with this especially since she already has some blood flow and breathing problems.

I once called the ER because she was crying me to take her to a hospital which she's never done before. After hearing why she was having heart pain and difficulties breathing they literally said that they don't care.

We also went to the ER once when my wife was in withdrawals because we had been adviced to go there by several medical professionals because her situation sounded so serious. The doctor there said that my wife is too sick and because they can't give her anything that would help they'll just send us home. Afterwards we were told that the doctor made a mistake and were adviced to complain and to go there again until my wife receives treatment but we've not had the strength to do it as our whole life is a mess at the moment.

If an emergency situation where my wife needs medical treatment ever comes again I will take her to ER and do everything I can to get them help her.

My wife could have a arrhythmia but we're not sure as if she does it was diagnosed over 10 years ago when she lived somewhere else and we have no record of it. If she does, she was told it's harmless. Her heart has not been properly examined lately, which I think is strange, as they've done all kinds of totally unnecessary examinations at the hospital.

My wife is ok now. She has the first evaluation for the methadone treatment tomorrow. Wish us luck.

I feel myself to be responsible for a lot of the hell she has gone through. I could have helped her earlier to quit opiates and could have taken better care of her when she has been sick. For years she has been so sick while in withdrawals that I have bought most of her drugs. In 2008 she said that she wants to quit and asked me not to buy her any drugs but I never listened and instead continued buying her drugs. To make things worse for her now, I almost relapsed after three years a few weeks ago and shot speed for a week in a row and acted very chaotically. One day I left my wife, who was unconscious, alone at home for 12 hours and went to do speed. During this period my wife spent all her days on the phone asking for help for herself. My short relapse might have become a real problem but my wife thankfully managed to help me out of it. All in all I have failed to help her as I have given myself excuses not to take responsibility by fleeing into my own problems and by letting my fears guide my actions. Partly it has been because I have feared that my wife might die and have tried to escape the pain by closing my eyes from her suffering. Partly it has been my inability to cope with quilt of being partly the cause of my wife's misery. I really love my wife more than I can say with mere mortal words. I love her more than life itself, even though I have brought her so much ruin and torment by my actions.

This can be said again for sure, us addicts are treated like pure crap by not only the medical profession, but also by methadone clinics as well.

That's what we've heard too. My wife has been against getting methadone, has tried other treatment options and succeeded with them 2 times in the past for a while but then relepsed, but I think methadone is our only option at the moment. Every other instance except the place where the maintenance treatment is given has even said that they can't help and we should turn towards that place. One thing that has slowed down the process of my wife starting methadone treatment has been my opinion about it. My wife has very seriously thought going there for a long time but I have argumented against it, because then she'd never be sober, which I now feel quilty about. We feel she should have tried methadone a long time ago and for example her latest attempt without it was basically just prolonged suffering and might have been harmful to her health.