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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Attempting to tell the difference between acute liver failure and opiate withdrawal

Kepler

Greenlighter
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
1
Location
Washington DC
I went on a binge of hydrocodone this past weekend and had been occasionally dosing between 25-35mgs every other day for two weeks prior. Now, I've stopped after the most recent binge simply because I didn't feel like doing it anymore due to the associated health risks such as addiction and, in this case, liver failure (due to APAP content in pills). However, 12 hours after stopping I realized I felt feverish, not terribly uncomfortable, but it was definitely there. This raised some concerns for obvious reasons. The reason I think it could possibly be acute liver failure, is because I was nearing the 4000mg mark almost every time I ingested hydrocodone. (Never more than that in a day). I did a CWE in on the remaining daily dose of hydrocodone for my weekend binge. Totally ingestion of opiates on this 3 day binge ranged from 50-60mg each day. The reason I'm concerned about liver failure despite the fact I did a CWE is because I used very makeshift materials (foolishly). Sorry for the long read, but here is a list of my symptoms, it is now day 3 after last dose.

I'm suffering from:
-Feverish feeling
-Sleepiness
-Nausea
-Constipation
-Dilated pupils (possibly)
-Malaise
-Loss of appetite.

This seems like a fairly textbook case of opiate withdrawal, the only reason I feel it may not be is because I had barely done opiates before this period of time and 2 weeks seems like an awful fast time to develop physical dependence. I believe it is opiate withdrawal as I have no distension of my stomach, discolored urine, or jaundice, but obviously I want to confirm since acute liver failure would require immediate medical attention.

I've never gone through opiate withdrawal before so I have no baseline, from what I've read, my withdrawal symptoms seem fairly minor.

Also, please excuse any break from etiquette in my post; this is obviously my first post and I don't know the rules of this forum too well yet.

Thanks for any help in advance!
 
you really should go see a doctor. it is impossible to diagnose people online...

homeless ---> BDD (with the hope that more people responding will help the OP understand that internet is not the right place to turn to)
 
No way any of us can diagnose this. Go to a doctor if you think it might be liver failure. At the very least you might try calling your local poison control center and telling them how much apap you have consumed, or think you might have consumed.
 
As others have said, if in doubt it's safest to go to a doctor. Since you have been taking close to 4000mg of APAP per day for 3 days in a row and some amount of APAP every other day for 2 weeks before that, you are right to be concerned about your symptoms.

All your symptoms could easily be attributed to opioid withdrawals, and some people are more sensitive to withdrawals so it's not unheard of to get withdrawals even if you've only been taking opioids for a couple weeks. However, some of them could also be symptoms of liver failure - there is no way for us to know over the internet. Or it could even be something else entirely. Please see a doctor ASAP if you aren't sure. If you are worried about telling them about your opioid use you could always just tell them you took lots of APAP because you had a headache or something.

I'll leave this open for now so you can tell us if you are ok or not, but we generally discourage emergency medical type questions, as the best thing to do if in doubt is always seek medical attention.
 
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