Bizzare and idiosyncratic reactions to heroin and/or fentanyl/etc., additives

[Jbob]

I have an off topic question that relates to banging H. I am a fairly new user of H and last week I experienced a really scary and bizarre reaction after using that prompted me to believe I was dying and I actually ended up going to the ER. I didn't die, but the ER had no answer and apparently nobody ever (according to google) has experienced this reaction and I REALLY want an answer to what happened and why. So this is what happened. I woke up one morning (after using H the night before) and noticed I had a few bruises in random places that I had no idea how I got them. I brushed it off as probably just clumsiness. Well as the day progressed the bruises turned darker and bigger and literately began multiplying like rabbits and honestly I was able to watch them forming right before my eyes. With in hours my whole body from scalp to the palms of my feet was covered in these horrible painfully tender bruises and my boyfriend couldnt even touch me without me crying out from the pain. I was so freaked out so I went to the ER and they didnt have an answer and just prescribed a prophylactic antibiotic (they thought maybe it was a blood infection which i thought- turns out it wasnt an infection) and sent me home. I went to sleep that night and woke up the next morning and was completely cleared up and had no bruises and felt fine. I never even filled the script for the antibiotic. But im still trying to find an answer as to what happened. Has this happened to anyone else??????

 

[SKL]

I have not the slightest clue about this but if pressed to guess I would think it would have something to do with coagulation of the blood, something acting like a "blood thinner" like warfarin or heparin, +/- paradoxical coagulation, coming from some God-knows-what effect to the drug (certainly not heroin; possibly some really weird fentanyl analogue; but could be anything, and/or you could just particularly have a weird reaction to any of the above—this does happen, some people have really weird individual effects to drugs that may be almost totally unheard of, even legitimate pharmaceutical drugs, although it is pretty rare—or...nobody can say, really, scary.) which caused what is presumably and idiosyncratic reaction and you.

I have also experienced bizarre side effects from fentanyl laced (plus God knows what) although it was nothing like yours but it was also very very rare and almost unheard of in the medical literature (severe tinnitus and temporary deafness: I found 2 or 3 case reports of opiate-induced tinnitus in the medical literature but they were very obscure and it is not at all something that mainstream medicine is really aware of); point being all the weird cuts and analogs out there today are capable of inducing unusual reactions at least in some people and of course they have never been studied formally, some of them never even appear in the medical literature or were even tried on rats, so it is truly unknown territory.

The above post was in the heroin megathread but I thought it interesting enough to make a thread of its own where people might be able to express similar experiences or discuss what may have caused this. It may be worth some discussion in the advanced drug discussion and neurochemistry forum but for now let's leave it here. And in general if anyone has experienced bizarre idiosyncratic reactions please post them and maybe we can figure something out or at least have a catalog of some of the things that can happen with some the things that are going around these days.

Please note that THIS, OR ANY OF MY COMMUNICATIONS VIA ANY ONLINE MEDIUM, DO NOT CONSTITUTE PROFESSIONAL ADVICE NOR DO THEY ESTABLISH A PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP of any kind; I make no claim to any specific professional credentials and provide no guarantee as to the accuracy or safety of any information provided. In-person consultation with professionals with the relevant credentials is essential for any medical, psychiatric, psychological, or substance-related or harm reduction decisions, as well as general health and wellness in general. While peer support and advice can be helpful, any content posted online, regardless of it's source, cannot, by it's very nature, substitute for an in-person relationship with a credentialed clinician who has had the opportunity to take your social and medical history, with you honestly expressing the same without reservation, and provide professional advice and treatment with all these factors, and others, taken into account.

 

[spacejunk]

god that's fucked up.
the bruising and pain/sensitivity the OP describes sounds terrifying.
the heroin market has always been shady and creepy - but never scarier than it is at the moment.
prohibition has an awful lot to answer for.

 

[chelle216]

Just wanted to add that i've also gone entirely deaf for several hours following an OD of (presumably laced) heroin. I recovered my most of my hearing when the effects finally wore off, and thankfully that was the last time I picked up a needle.

 

[spacejunk]

is the deafness anything like the hearing changes some people get from various opiates anyway, or is it a sort of tinnitus thing like SKL describes?
i'm sure i've heard of other people having a weird change in hearing perception, like the pressure in their ears/head is different, and hearing can be kind of dulled in one or both ears. do you know what i'm talking about? did the deafness after your OD feel different?

it's worrying that some of the unknown crap that is in street heroin (fent analogues, other drugs, random chemicals, inactive cutting agents, etc etc) can cause health issues that are unknown in medical literature and unfamiliar to emergency ED doctors and nurses.
Australia doesn't seem to have been hit too hard with fent analogue adulterants (*knocks on wood*) compared to the US and parts of Europe (dope here mostly comes from SE Asia).

i would like to think if i was in living in North America and i or anyone i knew was using heroin, i'd be trying to do whatever i could to get on some kind of ORT program, because it's like playing russian roulette in a lot of places at the moment.
take care out there people

 

[tacodude]

While no one can is substance a speculation is u47700.... That ones known to affect hearing

 

[chelle216]

is the deafness anything like the hearing changes some people get from various opiates anyway, or is it a sort of tinnitus thing like SKL describes?
i'm sure i've heard of other people having a weird change in hearing perception, like the pressure in their ears/head is different, and hearing can be kind of dulled in one or both ears. do you know what i'm talking about? did the deafness after your OD feel different?

I know what you're talking about but, no It didn't feel like some case of intense tinnitus, the world just went almost completely mute for several hours. My recollection of the event is hazy, because I was so incredibly high despite multiple shots of narcan. I think the narcan helped somewhat each time they gave it, but it was a temporary until the the dope finally wore off. I'm sorry I didn't mention that this happened 6 years ago, and I had low to no tolerance at that point (several months post-methadone).

Regardless, I think this is a great thread to compile the more unique and bizarre potential side effects of drug use. I bet a lot more people have gone through similar experiences and it's just under reported.

 

[DriftingShade]

Wow this is terrifying...reassures me that I never want to inject any H into my system lol. As for the bruises, it could have just been an epidemic amongst your blood vessels but there's honestly no telling at this point, especially since it cleared up right away. I'd try for a new dealer if I were you, or different product if possible. Maybe try smoking it?