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Brain damage from non-fatal opioid overdose?

Saucy

Saucy

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
324
About a week ago, I took a combination of low-dose Etizolam and high-dose Gabapentin after a particularly grueling few days of work with overtime, and as a last minute decision, crushed and split a 40mg oxymorphone pill I had been saving into four piles, one of which contained half the pill; the others all sixths. I blew one sixth of the pill and popped a couple of hydroxyzine to deal with the itching before leaving to hang out with a couple of friends. After a couple of hours with them, several more gabapentin, and another half-mg of etizolam (but no alcohol), I went back to my house to grab some things, and decided to blow another sixth of the pill. I am really not sure how this happened, but somehow I got the piles wrong and ended up blowing the one containing 20mg of oxymorphone.

Before I left the house, I got extremely drowsy, laid down, and fell asleep. I awoke several hours later with an excruciating headache and began throwing up violently. I was delirious and was by no means thinking clearly about what I should do in this situation, and fell back asleep shortly after. This cycle of waking up, throwing up, and falling back asleep continued for the rest of the night. Since that time, I have been experiencing apparent hearing loss and occasional difficulty understanding what people are saying unless I am focusing on them directly, periodic loss of motivation, periods of feeling very sad and lonely, and mild difficulty remembering the specifics of things I read, among other symptoms.

I am worried that I have suffered hypoxia-induced brain damage. Is this a likely possibility, and is it probable that the symptoms I am experiencing will be permanent? Are these symptoms typical of non-fatal opioid / combination depressant overdose? Is there any chance of recovery from the symptoms given time? They are not glaringly obvious, and some, like the motivation and memory loss, as subtle enough that I may not have noticed them if I hadn't specifically been looking out for them.

I am very distraught over this whole situation, and have decided to end my use of depressant drugs permanently. Any advice or support you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated.
 
I have definitely heard of the hearing loss happening from non-fatal opioid overdoses. I think the other symptoms may just be caused by you feeling depressed about the OD.
 
Hi OP if you are feeling concerned about your current symptoms please go to the doctor to discuss it. I will move this to Other Drugs as it is more suitable in this forum and you might get more help in answering your concerns. I hope you feel better OP.
 
Hey there, Saucy.

I hope you're feeling a bit better, and that you still intend to hold steadfast against the further abuse of depressant drugs. It sounds like that would really be in your best interest, and I support you!

I'm going to move this thread to Other Drugs, where I hope the regulars there can offer you more by way of first-hand experience and advice. My personal advice, however, would be to consult a medical professional if in any doubt, as Bluelight is a wonderful harm reduction community but cannot, and is not intended to, substitute for someone who has examined you in person.

Be rigorously honest with your doctor if you choose this route!
Best wishes,
~ Vaya

Edit: quick on the draw, Maya!
 
Good choice on making the descion to try and quit the downers.. sounds to me like you got really close to kicking off there.. really fortunate that you didn't aspirate either. I would go see a doctor and just have a quick check and some blood work done.. its actually pretty common for an OD like this to whack out other parts of the body like the kidneys can begin to shut down. Mine did and I aspirated and spent four days on a respirator as they hoped my kidneys would come back around.. If anyone ever wonders why someone who wakes up for a minute while on a respirator looks absolutely crazy.. its because the tube prevent the air from coming in contact with your trachea. Because the trachea is covered you cant feel the sensation of the air coming into your lungs and even though you know your getting air your brain automatically thinks that you are drowning.. it hit you with the same amount of terror and adrenalin that it would if they were drowning.. I felt like I was drowning for a big part of four days. t was so terrifying that I broke two sets of restraints and a double set as well to try and rip that god awful machine out of my lungs.

So please just go hit up a doctor and let them give a listen to your lungs just to make sure you didn't aspirate any vomit while you were out.. run a blood panel or two to make sure everything is back on line. tell them about the nature of the headache and see if they can distinguish between an opiate od headache or something else. Sorry you experienced this and i hope you make a full recovery.

You didn't buy chance hear deep rhythmic primal drumming when you were experiencing this?
 
last time I had a non-fatal od on painkillers I had withdrawels and was throwing up bile for a week and could not eat food and wasnt motivated to leave bed. I wasnt "dope sick" it was more like some awful body/brain damage.


Be careful mixing any benzo with opiates to being with, especially a THIENODIAZEPINE (etizolam) With one of the most powerful opiates known to man (oxymorphone)

Even with a little bit of Tolerance when I was doing Oxymorphone i'd do what you did with the 40mg pill but with a 10mg pill and I'd do a lot less!
 
The hearing issue is there only as long as the opiate is...

You are just fine.

Considering your tolerance, you didn't grossly overdose...

It was enough to make you sick however.
 
Psychedelic Jay said:
The hearing issue is there only as long as the opiate is...

You are just fine.

Considering your tolerance, you didn't grossly overdose...

It was enough to make you sick however.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree (respectfully) with you on the hearing loss issue. It doesn't only exist while under the. Infulence of the drug.hearing loss does happen with taking some opiates/opiods and it can be permanent and irreversible. The are a lot of mixed results/opinions on what exactly causes it and how often it actually happens. The facts that are known though is it is pretty rare., it usually happens when taking a drug that includes APAP or ASA, hydrocodone seems to be the most common, it very rarely but has been reported to happen with BTH (just a few known cases), occasionally it is reversible by prednisone, iin the case of hydrocodone it usually happens after long term use of high doses (at least 2 months..though I wouldn't call that long term personally and at least 200mg a day)..again though they. Are not sure that it is more atrributed to the APAP in high doses.

Anyway, that was just FYI for all...hearing loss can happen from abuse of opiates/opioids..though research suggests it is rare.I can throw in some sources if anyone is interested.

OP..I tend to agree with Jay though on the OD in general..I think it probably was an OD in that it made you pretty sick and out of it. I think it is fairly common to have some depression after an incident like this and I think that a lot of your symptoms can be attributed to that. Did you notice any respiratory distress during or since the incident?

If you are really concerned I would suggest you see your doctor about it. Like someone else said it would be really easy to do some blood tests and just make sure everything looked ok. But I think it is all just due to feeling depressed and a little "out of it".
 
missmeyet? said:
I have to disagree (respectfully) with you on the hearing loss issue. It doesn't only exist while under the. Infulence of the drug.hearing loss does happen with taking some opiates/opiods and it can be permanent and irreversible. The are a lot of mixed results/opinions on what exactly causes it and how often it actually happens. The facts that are known though is it is pretty rare., it usually happens when taking a drug that includes APAP or ASA, hydrocodone seems to be the most common, it very rarely but has been reported to happen with BTH (just a few known cases), occasionally it is reversible by prednisone, iin the case of hydrocodone it usually happens after long term use of high doses (at least 2 months..though I wouldn't call that long term personally and at least 200mg a day)..again though they. Are not sure that it is more atrributed to the APAP in high doses.
Click to expand...

You are right, but he isn't on any of those.

Only certain opiates are Ototoxic... I highly suspect it was his sheer cns depression blunting his senses.
 
Idk man when I took the combo of Soma, Hydro, Tramadol (and a few others, idk i was pretty whacked out and screaming in pain when i was handed a handful of pills)
I definately had muffled hearing for about two weeks after, i walked wierd as if my mucles were going through atrophy, and I kept constantly throwing up bile for the first few days. I forgot to mention above how my hearing was muffled and a few other senses (like vertigo) was off.. I wasnt deaf or anything however.

I am theorizing your problem definately came from etizolam + opana. yes they sound like a godlike combo IMO but Etizolam hits many receptors (and many unknown actions) compared to regular benzodiazepines. and Oxymorphone has very little data on it too considering its far less prescribed than virtually any other opiod type drug (its also intensely powerful!!!)
 
Hmmm, this thread got me thinking - I've had several incidents like the OP, non-fatal overdoses that had me conscious only long enough to vomit and I've had other NFOD's that had me out cold for hours. I have pretty poor hearing these days, certainly worse than before the opiates but I've been using for close to 7 years now so that may be an age factor. I've touched a very wide variety of opiates (from codeine all the way up to Heroin and, like the OP, Oxymorphone).
 
a good friend od'd on fentanyl and was in a coma for about a week. He most def had brain damage when he came out. It was totally obvious. I od'd and was only out for 15-20 minutes. I really havent noticed anything.

oh, that friend, he od'd again about a year later. He's now dead.
 
I'm not going to and no one will likely want to make predictions about the possible damage you have done. Probably need more specific details about your life and drug use habits to know if that is the issue. And you ask how you made the mistake to snort a line 3x the size you had meant to? Perhaps rhetorical in nature but the answer is of course drugs, specifically the ones your were on. Its not just the increased resp depression that makes benzos and alcohol dangerous with opiates, its the loss of inhibitions and carelessness that contribute, as well.

I think in your case you should schedule a visit with a neurologist. It can be hard to see one on short notice, so maybe a PCP visit before hand. He should be able to do some basic neuro tests. A neuro will most certainly schedule an MRI and EEG be done to determine if there is any damage. Specifically the EEG will be helpful in this situation. The PCP might make that decision, too, and probably refer you to a neuro in the process.
 
Opiate withdrawals can take a while to recover from mentally. Don't assume it's brain damage though without you have a CT scan proving you do in fact have brain damage.

I've overdosed twice and it took me a good month to recover. Then again, my overdoses were severe enough to put me in a coma. One stopped my heart from beating for roughly 5 minutes.
 
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