Opioids Can you permanently damage your liver from acetaminophen?

[Bomb319]

A few years ago when I was severely addicted to Dilaudid and H (I'd shoot up to 40 pills a day - 8 mg, sometimes 4 mg or else up to 1-1.5g h) I would of course regularly run out of money or less frequently not be able to get ahold of my guy, and prepare to start the routine of hell. Needless to say, I was desperate to put anything into my body that might make me feel better. It was a very stupid thing to do, but I regularly swallowed up to 12-15 Tylenol 1's (8 mg codeine, 15 mg caffeine, 300 mg acetaminophen) because I wasn't really set up to do a CWE, and mostly because I felt like shit and didn't care (couldn't go through the effort to actually do it properly).

It was really dumb of course - if only because no amount of codeine could even come close to mitigating withdrawal from such an extreme addiction, especially with that many Dilaudid since they're so powerful and short-acting. I would still feel like shit with no discernible decrease in symptoms - and in fact, I very often threw up afterwards. Severe withdrawal, a completely empty stomach from not eating, and 15 tylenols will do that. Anyway, thankfully this wasn't exactly a daily habit or anything but I would guess I did it a total of 15-20 times over a period of 6-7 years. Other than vomiting, I never noticed any overdose symptoms at the time. I know the liver is very good at healing itself, but I was just wondering if now (2-3 years later, and having been on methadone for the past year and a half with little to no acetaminophen intake since) if I could have done permanent damage to my liver, or if it would have healed by now.

If it makes any difference I almost never drink, and in fact I've never even really been drunk before. Maybe very buzzed a handful of times in my life, but I don't really like alcohol, as I don't get much from it except right at the beginning, and it makes me feel like total shit. I didn't drink at all at the time either.

 

[DrugOmen]

Well you weren't taking too much more than the maximum daily dosage of prescribed acetaminophen. It used to be 4,000 mg max daily dose but I believe last year it eas changed to 3,000 mg. You also werent taking it even close to often, so you are in no danger.

 

[olypen]

Go in and make use of your socialized healthcare system and get a physical.. they'll do lab work and specifically ask about your liver function. Make up some excuse about being worried about binge drinking in college or something if your worried about the doctor asking why.

I ingested much more tylenol than that countless times and my liver function was still quite good. At the upper end of the "normal range."

 

[IndustrialStrength]

Considering I took a lot more than that, enough to be considered a "acetaminophen overdose" & suicide attempt & with the use of NAC was told that I have no permanent damage I'd say your probably fine.
But as the above poster stated, take advantage of your medical system & get checked out.
Beats the fuck out of the bullshit they call healthcare here in the United States of Hell when it comes to medical shit. Hell I was tortured & then kicked to the curb by our so called healthcare system.
So yeah take advantage of what you have available, I wish I had it available to me.

 

[Triathloncoach]

Unlike most other organs, the liver has the ability to heal itself from most moderately temporary abuse.

 

[Dil4]

Those damn Tylenol 1's available OTC in Canada. I feel you on this. I would be in the worst withdrawls off a 150mg/day Dilaudid habit and somehow I thought 96mg of Codeine that I would get from eating 12 Tylenol 1's would do anything to help... Stupid and just did damage on the liver. Never worked yet did it every month during withdrawal, usually during the few days before my next script pickup and I'd already exhausted my current supply. Never learned...

However, I can say that I've had lab work done several times and my liver function tests are all completely normal.

 

[LilikoiMoon]

As someone who works in healthcare...here's my thoughts.

Daily alcohol/heroin/pill use w/acet over time can lower your liver's ability to function/heal. That doesn't always mean perma damage, it just puts you in a weakened state.

Hep C is easier to contract by those who are in that weakened state vs someone who lives healthy with no drugs/alcohol.

As someone mentioned...the liver has an amazing ability to heal, but you can't ingest high doses of acet over a period of time and not expect some elevation of enzymes.

No, no perma in your case, but yes, if you take massive amounts, or daily over a period of time. Always consider the other factors such as alcohol, etc.

 

[Bomb319]

Thanks a lot for the great info, guys To the guy above who also did this - I don't think it's really a matter of not learning our lesson per se as much as it's a simple desperation to use anything and everything that has even the slightest possibility to make you feel better. With Tylenol 1's, it IS codeine in there which theoretically SHOULD make us feel better if we had enough of it. The problem of course is that evil caffeine content. There's so much of it there and impossible to remove unless you're a grad student with access to a lab, the sheer strength of the caffeine will usually greatly overpower any mitigating effect of the codeine and often make the whole situation worse. As I said in the OP, I couldn't even bother to do an extraction, but just wanted a quick way to at least TRY to both heal the withdrawal and hopefully even catch a mild buzz, but with Tyelon 1 I was hopelessly deluding myself of course. Not eating for a day or two and then swallowing that much tylenol and caffeine...boy did my body hate me. If w/d was severe enough as it usually was, I would almost certainly puke not long after.

If I had only known about the miracle drug Imodium, I could have saved myself so much suffering. While I know it's not the safest way to do things, it actually has the power to basically eliminate ALL withdrawal symptoms in very high doses (but with only a vague, weird feeling in lieu of a high). Still, it's an absolute godsend while you're suffering so much, although it's much better when you know you only need to wait a day or so until you can get high again...