My hellish backstory:
On Dec 20th I had surgery on my ACL and meniscus and post surgery I was in a lot of pain. My surgeon prescribed me a 5mg opiate "1-2 every 4-6 hours as needed for pain". To me this meant 2 every 4 hours and I was pain free up through Christmas. Christmas day was the first time I had stopped taking 10mg every 4 hours and took the day off. I had a couple beers and a couple glasses of wine throughout the day. Around 8 I felt like complete shit and headed off to bed.I woke up covered in my sweat and with a fever. I continued taking 2 every 4 hours through the 2nd. My mom was concerned, but every time I would decrease the dose the pain would be unbearable.
The 3rd is when everything collapsed on top of me, when for the third day in a row I went to bed at 8 with a fever, pain, shivers and sweating along with feeling like I had no energy. My mom took me to the ER to get to the bottom of it. After waiting and waiting and waiting my stress level hit the roof, and along with having no food in my body I hit a fever of 103.5 and lost the feeling in my entire body. I mean this with great emphasis. My face was vibrating at 50,000 rpm's as it went numb. The ER doctor took two blood samples, a chest x-ray and a urine test. After the x-ray and urine test came back negative he declared that my knee was infected. We had thought that might be the case even though my leg would bend without pain and my knee looked healthy. So he tapped my knee twice only to get 3CC's of blood and what not.
Next day I get a call that it is infected. I go to the surgeon to find out that it actually isn't..wtf? right? I guess my white blood cell count was 11,000, which is high, but normal post surgery. Infections are serious at 30,000-50,000.
Opiates to blame:
So I'm left without answers and upon googling my symptoms I find that opiates have been causing how I've been feeling. On the 4th, around the same time I figure this out, my ACL/meniscus pain stops, but I'm left with shivering, sweating, and insomnia. I started taking 1 every 6 hours and felt really shitty with symptoms persisting. Friday I only took one, yesterday 1/2, and today I'm off them completely. I still feel completely helpless and miserable. How long can I expect this to last? Is there anything I can do to help me feel better?
BTW I have researched this all extensively, but all the info I find is with people who are extreme cases, you know, taking 80mg dose for years and such.
Sparknote:
First day w/o opiate, timeline:60mg for 12 days then 5mg then 2.5mg today nothing, constant shivering and sweating. oh and doctors suck.. Any advice/similar experience?
