Misc Paracetamol overdose on 3rd of june, need help to determine if i'm alright

[Dirtyven]

Alright, so in june, around 3rd or 4th i accidentally overdosed on paracetamol 'cause they were in these codeine pills (not tylenol 3, these had 500mg paracetamol in them, and 30mg codeine).
During 2-3 days i took 20 of those pills, and i think i took 13 of them on the 3rd of june.
So then for a week i had loss of appetite, i felt slightly nauseated at times when i had eaten, i had minor diarrhoea like 3 times.
I kinda felt as if i left my body for a while, everyday for a while after that
Now it's july 21st, i think i'm starting to feel that OBE thing slightly again and i'm starting to get a bit worried, i haven't had time to get my liver checked, the rehab programme thing i go to don't have access to do it, idk if i can just go to a hospital and demand a liver test, and may i just ask, how do they check for liver failure? blood test yeah?

Do you think i'm doing fine? Could someone explain a little bit about liver failure, symptoms and all that stuff, i've read some on google, but i'd like some personal insight as well.
But yeah, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sekio]

It's a blood test. They check for the levels of APAP, APAP metabolites, and liver enzymes.

If you overdosed in June and haven't died yet, your liver will be fine. Generally the progression goes like this:
1. Huge dose of APAP ingested.
2. (within hours) Nausea, feeling like shit, et cetera. Cramping gas and bloating can occur too.
3. 24 to 72 hours of "calm" as the nausea subsides. This is when your liver is being actively destroyed.
4. As your liver reaches the point of catastrophic failure, all your other organs start to fail too as toxins build up in your blood, and you die in agony from multiple organ failure. It's massively painful.

Seeing as it's been way more than 72 hours since your overdose, you'll be fine.

To be honest, most healthy, well-nourished people with no pre-existing liver or kidney conditions can survive single big doses (10g or multiple grams per day for a short span) of APAP no problem. Lots of people binge out on Tylenol 3's or what have you without feeling anything more than nausea.

That doesn't mean it's a good idea or it's always safe to take large doses of APAP though. The issue is that there's no way to tell who is sensitive and who isn't ahead of time, hence the FDA sets the dose limit to 3-4 grams to prevent those unfortunate cases when the sickly, elderly etc take a big dose and dies.

Consider yourself lucky. I think you're doing just fine if you don't have any major symptoms (and believe me, they would be major).
Feeling "out of your body" is not a sign of liver failure.

 

[Dirtyven]

thank you man, makes me feel a lot better.
my friend kept telling me it'd take 2-3 months before i died, which really fucked my mind

 

[tricomb]

Wtf, some friend.. What does he know anyways.

 

[bronson]

Sounds like you're going to be just fine (don't let the anxiety from what your friend said freak you out), just make a point to do a CWE next time. Always better to be on the safe side.

 

[Coraline]

thank you man, makes me feel a lot better.
my friend kept telling me it'd take 2-3 months before i died, which really fucked my mind

No real friend would say that. They are messing with your head. Or could just be ignorant.