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Opioids Infection in my spine from IV drugs

jamesBrown said:
did they tell you what the infection was? im asking because I went thru almost the exact same story as you just 2 weeks ago and I still have the PICC(yea its not "pick" line its "PICC" line..and it stands for so "Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter") line in my arm and am still giving myself IV antibiotics every 8 hrs. In fact I have the antibiotics hooked up right now.
Turns out I got an infection called "Pseudomonas" in a disc in my lower spine that caused the worst pain that I could ever possibly imagine feeling. Like, I literally would have killed somebody if it lowered my pain level....no joke, I wanted to die and they had me on "watch" in the hospital for a while, meaning they always had someone watching me in case I tried to kill myself. They stopped that when they finally realized how large my tolerance to opiates was and they gave me 200mcg's per hour of fentanyl and 8mg's of dilaudid every 4 hr's.
I went through the same shit as you with the lower doses of opiates until they were sick of hearing me scream and cry and they gave me the right amount of painkillers. But I also told them of my past drug use so that is another reason they were hesitant to give me strong painkillers.
I was in the hospital for 2 weeks and then they sent me home with a prescription for the 200mcg per hour fentanyl patches(actually two 100mcg patches) and 8mg dilaudid every 4 hr's, along with soma and a bunch of other drugs. They said it might take 12 weeks to heal. I dont mind 12 weeks of fentanyl and dilaudid. Hehe.
I also have an at home nurse that comes once a week to draw blood, etc, etc...

So yea, I went through the same shit you did I guess. I had the biopsy too just like you.

*This all happened 6 months after me getting clean, so if you think your safe and dont have any infections from IV drug use cuz you dont have any lumps or pain......think again. You never know*
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James Brown i had notticed u hadnt been posting anything in awhille and was wondering about you i know now u were in the hospital. i am so sorry u have had all that going on. i am really glad u r going to b ok though. so u have had an infection from shooting up? that sucks back when i was shooting up i wasnt very hygenic about it at all and i am really really lucky i didnt get an infection of some kind well i just wanted to say hello. glad u r okay
 
well I found out today that my infection is treatable with pills so it looks like I might be going home today, unless they want me on IV painkillers which is probably really what I need. The doctors need to stop being scared to give me opiates and listen to what I'm saying. They need to believe me that I have a huge tolerance to opiates and that I need more so I'm not miserable every day. I'll keep u guys updated though I hear my phone ringing in my room so I gotta go.
 
Sorry to hear doctors are resisting pain treatment, dayday. It's a story we hear all too often here.

Unfortunately, many sadistic doctors like to see opiate users squirm.
 
this question goes to jamesbrown and the op...

ok so i am a regular iv drug user. for the past year ive been using subutex iv every day 2mg tops. my buddy on the other hand uses about 8mg a day iv and he has been doing it a year longer than i. i have seen him on days where he only goes 24 hrs without using and he can barely move his spine hurts him so bad. (he says it feels like a knife or something (on a scale of bad pain 1-10 the pain would be a 9). keep in mind we are both healthy and in our early 20s. now once i read this thread it made me scared for him. is IV buprenorphine what caused yalls infections?
 
^^ IV ANYTHING can cause an infection, it's caused by bacteria not the drug itself. Though some drugs make it more likely because of lowered immune system, it can still have very easily with any drug if you aren't using extremely good hygienic technique.

Dayday, that's great that you may be able to go home! You could potentially stay with your parents if you don't normally, since its Christmas anyway, and convince the doctors to let your parents hold on to your opioid scrips. I have been able to get things prescribed in the past by having my dad assure the doctor he will hold on the the prescription to make sure they aren't abused. Depends on the doctor though obviously but it's worth a shot. A hospital is one of the WORST places to spend Christmas.
 
you should be greatful to be alive, and im glad you were treated in time, my girlfriend died because of an abcess in her back which she did not no of, she complained of back ache all week and when finally choose to go to the hospital a week later she went into a coma in the waiting room before being treated. she had septicemia which went onto meningitis. she died two days later, which would of been sooner if it were not for the life support.

And all because of groin abuse (or bad needle practice)


Peace Out !
 
cleannfree said:
you should be greatful to be alive, and im glad you were treated in time, my girlfriend died because of an abcess in her back which she did not no of, she complained of back ache all week and when finally choose to go to the hospital a week later she went into a coma in the waiting room before being treated. she had septicemia which went onto meningitis. she died two days later, which would of been sooner if it were not for the life support.

And all because of groin abuse (or bad needle practice)


Peace Out !
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OMG that's HORRIBLE! I'm sorry really sorry to hear that man, that must have been devastating!

On another note, I talked them into having someone from the pain clinic come see me and they wrote me up for 2 norco's every 4 hrs and 40mg oc every 12. She's coming back today though and I'm gonna shoot for either 60 mg oc if they can get the ethex ones, and if not, 30mg opana. Probably shoot for 30mg roxy's for BT.
 
That's terrifying. But thank you for the warning, I've been a little sloppy with my equipment lately. Same rig 20 times, needing to clean it better, too lazy to get fresh water, dirty cottons... So this hit me hard, I don't want that! I wish you the best.
 
thats unlucky man it seems like a bad situation.....will the infection do any permanent damage?
 
Nah the antibiotics should pretty much make it like new again once I'm done. I'm home now, they prescribed me opana 30's twice a day and roxi 30's every 4 hours. The only thing I'm worried about now though, is that I only got a 1 month supply, and once that runs out I'm supposed to see my primary doctor, and I KNOW he's going to tell me to take ibuprofen or some bullshit. He just found out that I was a heroin addict when he came to see me in the hospital, and right when he found out, he told me he's switching me from adderall to stratera. There goes my next semester of college. GREAT! I told him that I hadn't ever abused it in my life and he said, "well it can be abused, so I don't think you should have it."
 
dayday said:
I guess I always have to learn the hard way, I wasn't very good about using clean rigs every time. I always thought I was bulletproof and I would never get an infection. How wrong was I? About 6 weeks ago I ended up going to rehab, and this is when the back pain first started. They wouldn't let me see a doctor for cat scans and discouraged me from going to the hospital. All I could do was go to the chiropracter. He told me it was just muscle spasms due to withdrawals. I ended up leaving rehab after 21 days because it hurt so bad. It felt like my muscles were so tight I could barely move my back. I also had a real sharp pain in my spine. I ended up in the ER and being admitted. When I got here, I told them I had an IV drug habit, and that I had just got out of rehab. 5 minutes later they came back to ask me if I wanted morphine. Easy question. They did all kinds of ultrasounds, cat scans, and mri's before they found out it was an infection in my spine. They ended up doing a biopsy and found puss along my spine. Now I have a pick line in my arm, and because I told them I used iv drugs, they want to keep me here the whole 6 weeks for the ant biotics. I guess it's not too bad though, the other day I got6 doses of fentynal during that biopsy, and I get 2 lortabs, iv dilaudid, flexiril, and tramadol every 4 hours. I'm scared when I leave here though, I will go thru withdrawals again. Moral of the story is, if ur gonna use iv drugs, make sure u use fresh ones every time and use an alcohol swab on the poke site every time.
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Your defo gonna need detox or reduce before you leave hospital, tell them your dilemma they might help you, though not sure how things work over there but would think they would you reduce so you aint got to rattle when you leave hospital. Thats proper mad though bro that you got spine infection from i.v'ing. good message to others to use clean rigs cas spine infection an 6 weeks layed up dose not so good.:| get well soon dude!
 
benzico said:
Your defo gonna need detox or reduce before you leave hospital, tell them your dilemma they might help you, though not sure how things work over there but would think they would you reduce so you aint got to rattle when you leave hospital. Thats proper mad though bro that you got spine infection from i.v'ing. good message to others to use clean rigs cas spine infection an 6 weeks layed up dose not so good.:| get well soon dude!
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Well I dont have to worry about detox yet because they but me on 30mg opana 2x daily and 30mg roxy every 4 hrs, but once those run out, I don't know what I can do to get more because my family doctor is completely anti-narcotics and he is gonna tell me to take ibuprofen. I need to get referred to a pain clinic but I dont know how, I think I'm gonna make a thread about it. I'm gettin better a little bit every day man, thanks.
 
No probs man, thats proper head ahce when doctor wont give out the good pain killers. any chance you can change doctor? had to do that myself few years back cas the doctor i was with would not give out nothing, every one calls him Dr No. what the hell is ibuprofen gonna do when your dog sick, sum Doctors just dont have a clue bout heroin addiction they think getting clean is a walk in the park and were just a bunch of willpower less junkies who moan to much. love to see them get a heavy long term habbit then we go here you go heres 6 ibuprofen now go cold turkey! he'd soon be in his med cabnit.
 
I'm going to try to change doctors, but the thing is, I'm in a situation right now where I don't have a whole lot of free will because I depend on my parents so much at the time being, and they go to this doctor, and they like him, so they kind of believe it when he says 800mg ibuprofen will make me feel better. I'm gonna try though. It's hard to explain to some doctors that my pain receptors aren't built like other people's anymore, and on top of that, my tolerance to opiates is sky-high. I got it through pretty good to the pain clinic Dr though, shit roxy 30s and opana 30s is the shit!
 
Makes things lot harder when your parents like the family doctor and you just cant explain to them about opiate tollarance an the like, they think anything that the doctor says is beyond question. i hope things turn out ok for you dude.
 
IMO the rehab really pushed it way too far, they were negligent in that they pigeon holed you as drug seeking rather than testing to find out the cause.

And the punishments, that would look pretty bad in front of a jury, your in agonizing pain and they take away the treatments of acupuncture and chiropractor and put you in a red vest (might as well be a dunce cap or worse) and also put you in solitary confinement.

I'd def go for punitive damages. You deserve it. Call a medical malpractice lawyer, ask them for a referral if they don't handle your kind of case (against a rehab vs an individual dr).
 
cleannfree said:
you should be greatful to be alive, and im glad you were treated in time, my girlfriend died because of an abcess in her back which she did not no of, she complained of back ache all week and when finally choose to go to the hospital a week later she went into a coma in the waiting room before being treated. she had septicemia which went onto meningitis. she died two days later, which would of been sooner if it were not for the life support.

And all because of groin abuse (or bad needle practice)


Peace Out !
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:( I am so sorry to hear this! That's really tragic.
 
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