DOSE:

3 g

oral

Kratom

(ground / crushed)

BODY WEIGHT:

220 lb

First, I'd like to state that I am not a casual drug user (I don't even smoke weed). I do smoke tobacco, however.

I was recently diagnosed with a form of tendonitis that gave me considerable pain in my right wrist at the thumb and my options were surgery to correct the problem (followed by physical therapy for several months coupled with opiates for pain for a time until the surgery healed) OR baby the wrist and allow the body to heal itself which takes approximately 12 months when it is as advanced as mine was. The disease I had is called 'de Quervain's tenosynovitis' and is extremly painful.

I was prescribed Ultram ER (100 mg) and when that did nothing for the pain I was prescribed Ultram 50 mg. This also hardly dented the pain I experienced. Two aspirin tablets a few times a day DID help the pain somewhat but only enough to make it bearable so I stopped taking Ultram. (Ultram makes me feel stupid, apathetic, grumpy and forgetful without providing any analgesic effects other than not caring so much about the pain that is still being experienced-- but not caring in a way more like 'Ah hell, I hurt and this sucks but so does everything really I guess I'll just accept it' rather than 'I hurt, but man I feel GOOD so I don't care about the pain' which some other opiates provide. I think if physicians tried taking this medicine themselves for pain, they'd never prescribe it again).

Due to injuries and dental procedures in the past and as a child, I have had to take opiates to manage acute pain and once for chronic pain for a couple of months caused by a reinjury to an ankle. (Oxycontin for a tooth cracked up to through the root once, Vicodin for several weeks from the ankle injury, and various others through the years mostly because of dental procedures).

My ankle injury left me wary of opiates because of the subsequent withdrawal symptoms after I no longer needed the pain medicine and stopped taking it. So when I came down with de Quervain's tenosynovitis and was prescribed Ultram which didn't work for my pain yet gave me all the unpleasant effects of other opiates I had taken but with none of the pleasant side effects (such as euphoria) I decided to try to find an herbal pain reliever that I could couple with aspirin to manage the pain as my wrist healed over the course of a year. (I had also wanted to avoid anything with tylenol or acetamenophin in it which I consider to be poison and too risky to take -- I value my liver).

I came upon a website in which people were discussing their use of Kratom leaves used as an analgesic for such things as fibromyalgia (Ultram is prescribed for this in many cases) and lupus (also ultram is sometimes prescribed for this rather than stronger scheduled narcotics when physicians feel harassed by the DEA for 'overprescribing' pain medicine -- I feel for sufferers of lupus and other painful diseases that they frequently can't get medicine to make them feel better because of curent political climates). Several members talked about how they used kratom to manage the pain with great success, success they described as being on par with oxycontin in many cases for pain reduction.

I decided to try it. So I ordered an ounce of 'Private Reserve Kratom' (crushed leaves) from an online supplier along with 15x kratom extract, and whole kratom leaves. I wish I had learned about this stuff earlier, because... man, it worked for me. It worked AS GOOD AS opiates I had taken in the past for pain relief and did so without making me foggy or lethargic or apathetic.

I take 3 grams of private reserve kratom (is about three slightly rounded teaspoons of the crushed leaves). The people that were taking kratom for pain didn't smoke or boil the leaves, but ingested them to get the analgesic effect so this is also how I take it. I place 3 grams in a coffee grinder and grind it up until it's powder fine, then I mix that with a small amount of brewed regular iced tea sometimes hot tea, green tea would probably work as well. the tea is to help mask the taste of the kratom which tastes HORRIBLE in just water, but in tea the two flavors blend well. Well, as well as can be with such a bitter and aromatic herb. I drink this mixture along with two aspirin tablets and in 20 minutes begin to feel relaxed and slightly euphoric, within 45 minutes to an hour all my pain disappears. Gone. As if I had taken oxycontin, yet without the flying high feeling.

For pain relief it IS important to not boil the Kratom and to consume the herb itself rather than a tea or smoking it. It works without aspirin, but the aspirin augments it greatly, in a way that's like aspirin with codiene, hydrocodone or oxycontin, aspirin plus kratom gives much more analgesic effect than aspirin or kratom alone.
5 Grams of the kratom leaves taken like this makes me high as a kite and feels very much like taking Vicodin, my wife says 5 grams feels JUST like oxycontin to her. I have only taken 5 grams once, as 3 grams works for my pain without making me 'stupid'.

I have found the private reserve kratom when taken like I described, works better than the 15x powder, and also better than the resinous extract which is also available online. The whole leaf kratom provided almost no analgesic effect or euphoria when taken in the same dose, leading me to suspect it might not be true kratom at all, or if so a very inferior product (it smelled and tasted just like the private reserve kratom, but had little if any effects at a three gram dose).

I am thrilled that I have found a legal herb (at least in my state -- it's illegal in Louisiana) that can alleviate pain for me as effectivly as opiates. I am careful to not take it recreationally, though it would be very easy to do so because the euphoria is very nice, since I'd rather be able to treat pain as needed without having to take large doses. Kratom is addictive according to the literature, but then so is ultram when taken for a long period and I have noticed much less withdrawal (none at the dose I take) than with ultram. (Take ultram for four days and stop cold turkey and I'll feel like I have the flu -- take 3 grams of kratom for four days twice a day and stop cold turkey and I'll not experience withdrawl -- though I will feel like I want kratom, and there is the danger -- danger of addiction psychologically before physical I imagine, the stuff just feels that good).

I have also found that ultram and kratom negate each other. If I take kratom within 12 hours of taking ultram and the effects of the ultram will disappear and the effects of the kratom will be nonexistent.

Kratom is a very positive experience for me, for pain relief all I need is 3 grams and two aspirin. I hope others who may be frustrated in thier community trying to deal with chronic pain without being able to get relief try kratom and find it as effective as I and others have.

Exp Year: 2009	ExpID: 79133
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 28, 2010	Views: 27,065
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Kratom (203) : Unknown Context (20), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Health Benefits (32), Retrospective / Summary (11)