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Please Help!! Serious Nerve Damage - Passed Out on Heroin & Cut My Circulation Off

This happened to me in my wrist once or twice, the first time being more serious and I went to the doctor and he confirmed what you wrote about "Saturday Night Palsy", I did a shot of dope while on kpins and passed out with my head on my arm on my desk woke up with no feeling and couldnt lift my hand. Went away after a couple weeks in a wrist brace and minor therapy.
 
dude fuck what those doctors think, your foot is worth more than their cursory glances.
 
memphis10 said:
i fell asleep on my left hand wrong almost 2 weeks ago.

cant lift my wrist

after a minor med then an ER visit they took an x ray

radial nerve palsy...gave me a splint and said it would come back on its own

still isnt any better...i would go into detail but im typing with 1 hand

good luck!
Click to expand...

is ur hand better? im going thru the same thing!!!
 
OMG I had NO IDEA you could damage nerves that way.

This has got to be exactly what happened to me a few months back when I lost feeling in the whole left side of my left hand for about a whole month and a half. I thought it was from smoking but I noticed it when I woke up in the morning, and was just expecting it to go away but it never did.
For about 6 weeks I kept getting more and more worried, as my hand was constantly in a state of "sleep" and I couldn't feel anything, and one day I woke up and it literally was gone. I thank my lucky stars it didn't turn out worse. If I had any idea I could have causes permanent nerve damage I would have absolutely gone to a doctor.
 
Here is some things you can be at risk of when sleeping for extended periods on a limb or in one position:
- Compartment Syndrome: where the pressure in a limb builds up so much you will get the limb turning blue, swell, extreme pain, parasthesia, paralysis and no pulse. Sounds like what the other fella had cos treatment involves fasciotomy where an incision is made in the limb to relieve the pressure and save the tissue.
- Rhabdomyolysis has a lot of causes, but does occur when someone is asleep for a really long period of time without moving, and muscle starts to break down. It can also lead to compartment syndrome. The bad thing about rhabdo is that as muscle is broken down, the products clog up the kidneys basically, leading to acute renal failure (ie kidneys=cactus).
- Nerve damage: Neurapaxia is my guess at why you may have loss of sensation. The actual nerve's intact but impulses cannot conduct as normal. I think recovery can be anywhere from days to months.

So I know its a while since you posted but anyone in this situation should really get medical treatment asap for the best outcome for your limb and life.
And can I just say not all health professionals are arseholes, some of us do really want to help and are non-judgemental. It makes me shame to hear other so called professionals make people reluctant to get the help they need.
The poster who said ask for patient advocate if you're being mistreated is right, you can also ask to speak to their superior/supervising doctor (ie if they are anyone but a consultant they will be supervised to some degree in the Emergency). Same with nurses, there should always be a "team leader" or someone running the department. And remind them they are ethically and morally bound to treat people equally regardless of their lifestyle, race, age, sex...
Good luck!
 
lauren2580 said:
Great, another person who has actually been through this! It's comforting to know I am not alone.

Yes, it is a very scary side effect of opiates that is not well known. It is hard to be careful how you place your body if you just fall out. I woke up on the carpet in my bedroom with a syringe about 3 1/2 ft. away filled half-way with water. I guess I was rinsing it out and just fell. I am so careful about how I sit and sleep after the past four times this has happened to me. But, why is it happening to me sooo much?? I don't get it.

Thanks alot for taking the time to reply! I very much appreciate it!

Lauren

P.S. Good luck on the full recovery of your fingers...it just takes time, I read up to a year, but that would be an extreme case.
Click to expand...

Yes this happened to me a couple of years ago (radial nerve damage). I had been drinking heavily and fell asleep on my right arm so deeply that my body didnt respond to the signals it was sending to my brain to switch positions. I ended up with paralysis in my forearm and wrist for seven weeks after which I started to get tingling once the nerve started to recover. The consultants at the hospital couldnt predict when I would fully recover but it can take quite a while (up to a year they said) in extreme cases. It was quite frightening really because it was my right arm (Im right handed) and I just had to get on with my life as best I could. Mostly I learnt to do the small things that we take for granted in different ways.

It can happen to anyone and is not exclusive to arms or wrists as you have found out. Its also called 'Saturday Night Palsy' for obvious reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrist_drop

Relax about it if you can. Take care of yourself. The nerve has gone to sleep and it takes time for it to wake up again.

By the way I also had acupuncture at about the 7 week mark but whether this helped or not I dont know. I think it speeded up recovery which was already in the beginning stages anyway.

Good luck with it, I empathise. When it happened to me I put it up on Bluelight but I didnt have any responses that anybody else had or was experiencing the same thing.
 
Sometimes when I had a low tolerance to poppy tea and I'd drink a lot of it, when I would lay down at night I would lay on one side for hours and wouldn't feel the circulation cut off in my legs.

I can recall at least 3 occasions where I got up and one of my legs was sort of asleep and would be vaguely aching. The aching would usually persist for most of the day, which indicated to me that I was probably letting the limb fall asleep for too long, luckily I never had any lasting paralysis but I agree that this is something a lot of opiate users don't think about. I guess I should count myself lucky that I never lost movement/feeling for any long period of time.

If you are using opiates, you gotta really try to be careful what positions you lay down in. I would imagine that lying flat on your back would be the safest, provided that you don't have your legs hanging off the bed or something.
 
This happened to me a few years ago. I had just shot into my wrist, passed out sitting up, woke up several hours later. My left arm below my elbow was completely numb and I had no control over the muscles. I naively figured it was just asleep. In my stupor, I shot into it again. Several hours passed before I really started to freak out. My boyfriend came home, and convinced me to go to the ER. Apparently, I shot into a nerve. They told me it may or may not come back. I went to the neurologist to have tests done, etc. It lasted about a year. I had to keep this velcro cast type thing on so I wouldn't accidentally break it. I had one of those stress balls that I was supposed to curl my fingers around, and squeeze it with my right hand, so that the muscles in my left hand wouldn't atrophy. A year later, I was sitting in the passenger seat of a car, with my stress ball, and it CAME BACK! Out of nowhere. It took a few days to get to the point where I could completely control it, but I haven't had any problems since.
I would STRONGLY suggest that anyone with this issue get to the doctor ASAP.
 
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