Another BB Alcohol Casualty

Why not ask for propofol instead of midazolam?

I did several times. They don't want to give it to me for some reason I think. I will try to talk to the doctors on the date of the surgery. I really don't want them to divert from their normal anesthesia procedure either. I just want everything to go smoothly. I'm not really worried too much about a single dose of midazolam. I am worried about them giving me more benzos, in addition to that though. That just seems too risky. Not sure if it would result in a set back, I doubt it, but I don't want to risk it.

I'm impressed you told them about your drug history, it's such an important aspect of recovery.  I hope your surgery goes well, please keep us updated, okay?

Yeah, I will.

Hey, so it is the day after surgery and everything went well. I told them about my drug history and they did not give me the midazolam before surgery. But they did not give me any propofol either. I was only given gas and possibly fentanyl, and some other stuff they didn’t tell me about. I woke up with no pain meds either. They didn’t give anything except a lot of Novocain which took over 12 hours to wear off. I felt uncomfortable after waking up from the surgery and I was in pain. My father keep meds in his safe and gave me a little gabapentin and morphine, and I took Tylenol to sleep. It was just a one time thing though because I asked for it. It wasn’t much morphine. I ended up taking a little kratom this morning and will more than likely just use that for the first few days and then quitting again soon. I quit phenibut several days ago.

Hey Mamoot, its good to hear from you, I'm glad your surgery went well.  It sounds like your Drs took your drug history into account with their medication plan but I'm glad your Dad was around to supplement.  The times I've had surgery, I've taken one or two pills the next day then given the rest to someone else to hold.  I've never abused pain pills but why invite disaster when I know me so well. 

 

Congratulations of getting off the phenibut and I know you'll use the kratom sparingly.  I hope your recovery goes well and you're pain free soon.

Thanks Pamster. I actually stopped the kratom again and just switched to a low dose of Subutex. I’m basically just going to have to taper it again but it won’t take too long to be off it. I was given some antibiotics as a prophylactic. I think I’m going to take them because my jaw is swollen. It’s amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. The doctor wanted me to take them but kind of said that I didn’t have to possibly. Not really sure what to do here. I was thinking the antibiotics may result in a better outcome maybe and for the injury to heal cleaner. Should I take them?

If they aren't fluoroquinolones they are safe, are they not?

I can't say whether you should take them but I sure wouldn't want a problem with infection, the mouth is home to a huge amount of bacteria.

Yeah, so I ended up taking the first pill. I'm going to just take the 7 day course of these AB's. The doctor wrote the script for a reason and I just don't want to mess around with an ameloblastic fibroma. Maybe by taking them it will heal better and cleaner too and result in a better outcome. I need to do everything I can to decrease the chance of recurrence. I was thinking the same thing Pamster when I factored in the decision, that there is a lot of nasty bacteria in the mouth. Yes, they are safe I think as long as they are not the fluoroquinolones, as far as not messing with benzo symptoms. I will have to just rebuild my gut microbiome after. I'm just going to focus these next 7 days on recovery and coming off the Subutex I guess.

I'm glad you made the decision to take it, a lot of us get pretty cynical about Dr's and medications during this process but we can't throw out the baby with the bath water. 

Turned out to be a good decision because the swelling and pain decreased a lot the following morning. I'm going to start going back to work tomorrow too. I decided starting tomorrow to just go back to kratom and taper off it. Only reason why is I think I can taper off it and do not want to take any more pharmaceuticals if I don't have to. I've been dabbling with buprenorphine and other stronger opioids for too many days. I'm getting nervous. It is nice that I don't have to deal with phenibut anymore as well, so it should make things that much easier. If I am having any difficulty tapering kratom I can always use the Subutex again later on. I think with my new job and the routine I have in place it won't be as difficult. I just need to be more patient with myself and just never take extra kratom. As long as I take less everyday I will be fine. I will be fine I think. This surgery was a major obstacle that I needed to overcome and it is over.

Mamoot, I have just been reading this thread and it's great to hear your updates. I'm glad your surgery went well, and that is great that the doctor's did listen to you and not give you a benzo before the surgery.  I know many people seem to be talked into it, and it seems hard to get them to NOT give a benzo.  Honestly, I would have taken a script for painkillers, if it were me.  The last painkiller I took was lyrica, and it was weird, but I only took it while I needed it, which was for two weeks.  It seems there are always problems with painkillers.

 

I don't know anything about the other drugs you are taking.  What are kratom and phenibut, and why were you taking them?  Was it to help come off benzos?  Or something separate?  I find your honesty with all this, very refreshing.  Very good you told your doctors about it too, cause you never know when something might have an interaction. 

I feel I always used opioids for multiple reasons, but ultimately it's to numb pain, whether it is physical or emotional is one of the main reasons. Kratom is for all intents and purposes an herbal opioid. Phenibut is a gabapentinoid, like gabapentin, baclofen, or pregabalin. I started using small amounts of phenibut again because I wanted to feel less anxiety while taking large amounts of kratom. It worked well for about a few weeks, then it just became that all too familiar vicious cycle, that is similar to benzos, but no where near as bad. I did start using kratom to deal with PAWS or other acute symptoms related to tapering stuff as well but I think the main reason is because I didn't want to deal with life as it was anymore. It's easy to get into that trap of blaming drug use on symptoms related to this condition we all face but it is accomplishing nothing. Seems I need to just accept some things and move forward. I am on just kratom now, I quit everything else, so all that's left to do is taper off kratom and be done with it. I rather do that without Subutex or other meds this time.

I finished the antibiotics the night before last. Several days ago the sutures came out some how. I have a pretty big hole similar to what I had before, since I had a drainage tube, during the decompression phase of the treatment. They cut a hole and sutured a plastic tube in place, and instructed me to irrigate the area with salt water or Chlorhexidine. I only used the Chlorhexidine for the first week and switched to salt water. Then I added essential oils to the salt water. Thyme and various frankincense oils. I read that thyme oil can fight forms of oral cancer so I decided to try it. I added frankincense as an experiment because it is thought to treat cancerous tumors. Since the sutures opened up I took advantage and started irrigating the hole with an oral syringe, in a similar way, when I was using the drainage tube. The tube was initially held in place switch steel dental wire, but that was super uncomfortable. I removed that wire a long time ago, and have been able to remove the plastic tube. It made things much easier. The decompression phase lasted a long time, and COVID extended it. They would take dental cone beam CT scans every 3 month follow up to see what the cyst was doing and how my jaw was doing. Initially, and every follow up the cyst would shrink and the bone in my jaw would fill in according to the scans. Towards the end of the treatment, the cyst shrunk a lot and there was a lot of bone that filled in. The doctor seemed impressed but didn’t really care when I mentioned that I was using thyme oil to irrigate the area. Not sure what he thought but he didn’t show much interest which is surprising because my result seemed uncommon. I had about a 85% reduction in the size of the cyst. He said that they will be able to just go in there and scoop it out easier since it shrunk so much because it was encapsulated in a sac, and then clean the area out around the cyst. I am glad I had another opportunity to blast it with essential oils. I really believe it helped and will prevent any chance of recurrence. This is the article I read when I found out about the study of thymol. Frankincense is also really powerful I think in treating stuff. It was worth experimenting with it I think. It really helped with my mental outlook over the entire thing especially.

 

https://www.dentistrytoday.com/news/industrynews/item/3844-thymol-found-effective-against-oral-cancer

 

Other than that there has been throbbing and pain in the area where the hole is but it seems to be healing. I think the hole will close sooner than later as well.

 

I feel better now that I’m off the phenibut and extra meds I was taking. I’ve been able to lower kratom too. I also was able to have a few hard kombucha’s with no negative effect. I’ve been working almost everyday too, playing the guitar everyday and feeling better about the future. Once I can heal more and start feeling good I may consider reviewing chemistry stuff to prepare more for more further consider about finishing my degree part time. A big problem with that is the cost of going part time. It is way cheaper to go full time but that is not possible for me.

Wow, thanks for describing what you've gone through, it sounds like your treatments are aiding your recovery.  You sound good, I've always been impressed with your ability to communicate but it seems like your thinking is clearer now, its good to see you looking to your future.

Thanks Pamster. Other people have had dental issues post recovery so I was hoping the idea with essential oils can help someone who is going through something like this. If anything it can help the mindset which is important for beating anything like cancer. I realize this wasn’t exactly cancer but these types of cyst can transform into cancer. They are called ameloblastic sarcomas. Not sure how common cysts are. They seem rare but popping pills like many of us did can probably increase the chances of something happening. Obviously there is no way to prove this. I learned my lesson though. I just need to get the will power to eat super healthy again and come off kratom. I’m starting to meditate more again now that I’m off Subutex and that other stuff. Unfortunately, all those meds make it hard for me to focus. I can actually focus on kratom which is why I kept using it. But the more I take, the more foggy I get on it. I really just want to come off it though and heal more. I realize that I will never get to where I need to be until I get things under control. I have an opportunity to buy a pizza place with my friend too when the time is right and he doesn’t want me on any of these drugs. He is a college educated restaurant operator and really knows what he is doing so I feel comfortable going into business with him. We already started talking about it. I never liked the restaurant business but I’m Greek, and have been doing it my entire life. What else I’m I going to do with my life. Sure I want to finish my degree but I need to make money.

Well anything with the word sarcoma in it scares me, I'm so glad you've taken care of this!

 

Going into business sounds exciting but stressful, I'm in awe of those who have the entrepreneurial spirit.