Health - 'Street ketamine'–associated bladder and kidney dysfunction: a report of 10 cases

[dihydromoron]

SWIM has no evidence to support his following claim, and cannot link to any website proving it either, but thought it was relevant to this thread.

SWIM knows of 4 people, all living in the same house in the UK, who have been abusing street ketamine daily for around 2 years.
They all insufflate the drug, to SWIMS knowledge they never inject, and on some occasions SWIM has seen them snort over 2 grams each
over the course of about 4 hours in 1 night, this was around half a year ago, so who knows how much they are snorting now due to tolerance.

All 4 of them were complaining of abdominal pains (often holding the area above the bladder), and their inability to hold urine in for any significant amount of time.
SWIM has seen first hand all of them going to the bathroom at least 3 times per hour over the course of a night.
2 of them have sought medical help for their problems, but as they did not divulge to the doctor they were abusing ketamine through fear of reprisal,
as far as SWIM knows nothing conclusive was determined regarding their problems. SWIM is no longer in touch with these people, as their ketamine use
has turned them all into house-bound recluses, only leaving their flat to obtain their K, so does not know how they are doing now, the last time SWIM saw them was around 6 months ago.

Reputation Comments on this Post:

Interesting anecdotal evidence

[anfield road]

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

Does SWIY mean that they still have intense bladder pains or pains in the feet?

in the feet mostly and frequency is often throughout the day.. think its a bad sigh.... anyone got any ideas what could help or what I could have - I am at the point were I could cope with this pain for the rest of me life to avoid a catheter as some days pain is minimal....

[enquirewithin]

That sounds unpleasant. Not being a doctor, SWIM is baffled as to how pains in the feet are related to bladder pains. Professional advice should certainly be sought.

[anfield road]

To be honest the bladder does not really hurt, its just pains in the left foot that come and go?!

[adzket]

swim has also sufferd with feet and lower leg pain after very heavy ketamine use, does not know why but they put up with it. but they have cut use to few times a year. to minimise it. but thats getting a bit off topic from op.

[rudegirl]

Originally Posted by anfield road

in the feet mostly and frequency is often throughout the day.. think its a bad sigh.... anyone got any ideas what could help or what I could have - I am at the point were I could cope with this pain for the rest of me life to avoid a catheter as some days pain is minimal....

I found a notebook on a bench in the local park, while skimming through the pages I stumbled on what looked like a reply to the above post. Here is what it read:

I am an acupuncturist who has taken evrything you can think of and had a love affair with K some years ago, and to someone trained in Chinese medicine this is not surprising at all because there is a connection between the bladder and the backs of the legs and outer side of the foot and kidneys and the inside of the leg and the sole of the foot. The first thing i would ask you about is your diet and if you drink alcohol or take other drugs, and if you are having this kind of problem i would recommend you avoid these, including pharmaceuticals if that is possible. I would recommend a lot of warm food, especially soup with fresh veg and beans and when you finish cooking put some miso in (available from health food and japanese food shops, do not boil it as this destroys nutrients), and also that you keep yourself warm, especially the area of the lower back and that you eat a warm breakfast, though don't overdo it on protein as this will strain your Kidneys. Drinking water is important but too much is harmful to the Kidneys, don't drink cold water and have it in sips as opposed to gulping down a pint. If you can find a health food shop that sells dried herbs i would recommend a tea infusion with horsetail, calendula and white or yellow dead nettles, but for more advice you could see a trained herbalist. The main thing to remember is that the Kidneys and Bladder hate getting cold so keep warm and eat warm food and drinks and have Miso, beans like Kidney beans (look like the Kidneys and are good for them!) and also sea weed is you can handle that. I would recommend that you try to see someone that practices acupuncture or herbalism because the symptoms you describe make sense to us and we know how to treat them. I would also recommend you stop using K and dont be tempted to go back there if you recover because the problems will just come straight back and in terms of what i have studied k causes a massive amount of harm to all the organs of the body and will put you horribly and painfully into an early grave. I used to love it but i won't touch it now. Take Care

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good helpfull info, but next time use swim quickly reread the rules on self incrimination

[anfield road]

its a horrible thing,swim cant see himself doing any of that herbal stuff as swim thinks its a bit to much to remember and do as he is a busy guy...
swim is going to go doctor in about 4 months after trying msm and cranberry extract as he set himself 6 moths without K and if no better doctor it is!!!
swim does not really have bladder pains its just the sole of the foot!!! ADZKET did you get better and how bad was your pains etc?

[adzket]

Originally Posted by anfield road

its a horrible thing,swim cant see himself doing any of that herbal stuff as swim thinks its a bit to much to remember and do as he is a busy guy...
swim is going to go doctor in about 4 months after trying msm and cranberry extract as he set himself 6 moths without K and if no better doctor it is!!!
swim does not really have bladder pains its just the sole of the foot!!! ADZKET did you get better and how bad was your pains etc?

swim did eventual almost by doing what poster above said about stoping and eating drinking better, not all the herbal stuff just more healthy. maybe about 9 months to go away still comes on now and then. how ever swim was using 1'tr of k at a weekend which is wrong in every way. now if swim uses it is at most 10 grams a weekend. pain was realy bad almost like swim was stood on ice all the time which then would shoot up leg. painkillers did not help.

@rudegirl handy to know about acupunture thing though swim has looked into it for other things. as well as herbal remedies swim may try some as has no problems with seaweed. as in the past swim has also used activated carbon capsules to deal with stomach pains and upset, due to it's ability to absorb toxins and gas ect.

a lot of people seam to forget most anesthetic's are poison's and if given in hospital people are not normally aloud to eat for at least 8 hr's before hand. swim eat's 2 hr's before using k if going out clubbing to keep there energy level's up. but never do it sooner than 2 hr's as they are always sick if do so, because food has not had chance to be digested properly leading to and upset stomach when k is then ingested leading to sickness. if people are using large amounts of k or are using it on a regular basis and eating to soon before or after and being sick this will cause huge problems.

also that ketamine is fairly unique in that it can numb the whole body without putting a person to sleep, where as others that allow the person to be awake only locally numb that one point. this could be leading to the internal problems which is why more research needs to be done. as say with poly-drug use of ketamine and xyc which is popular combo. people will drink more water. it is known xtc makes it hard for people to urinate due to it tightening muscles in blader this then hurts while people strain to pass urine. however on ketamine with it, making things numb especialy on large amounts. mean this pain may go unnoticed and people carry on trying to go. or by being numb they may not get the pain telling them there bladders are full. leading to bladders being strained as they hold more fluid.

also this excess urine could either be to acidic or to alkaline which cause's problems it's self let alone if aloud to build up within the body, for a long time because people can not go to the loo. so as well as toxins going back into the body this could be what is damaging peoples bladders and then there kidneys. then once that happens other parts of the body begin to work harder as they become strained especialy if blood becomes to acidic or alkaline changing the body's p.h level's which should be @ a p.h of 7. (please see attachment for info on urine p.h levels and what they mean)

for instance in the late 90's threw early 00's when swim was using k every weekend at the worst point every day. they only found out they where ill, because of liver function test's done after the family doctor had done a test on a urine sample. at the hospital when collecting the results of a number of test's the hospital consultant asked swim who was treating there liver? swim was confused , as no one was treating them for anything. when they told the doctor this they looked horrified! saying they had not seen results that bad apart from on those who where being treated for some type of liver disease.

now yes swim was doing a lot of k from as little as a 1g a day threw to 1ltr or 52g in a 2-3 day period this is not big or cleaver luckerly swim has known this for about 5 years now after joining this site, plus they where only 15 when they started using k, and had no real info on it. it gave swim an out of body high they where looking for an fully enjoyed. also it was legal easy to get over the years the price fell hugely as got more popular meaning swim could afford more and more to chase after the k hole. if swiy's notice they start chasing after the same buzz please stop for a while. at least 6 months and start again low. just in case tolerance has fallen real low again.

swim had put the pain/discomfit, tiredness and feeling sick down to just over indulging both with drugs (they where a multi drug user) and clubbing basically. they figgerd it was a major comedown, or that they where not looking after them self's because of all the drug's & clubbing. as they also worked in the nightclub industry. making every night a time to get high.

but they where right about cause just not the illness. due to exstra straign on liver this would of made kidneys worse leading to bladder problems as well as other complications. after stoping the ketamine use problems got better over time but swim had to stop slowly as they first just stoped but this made swim real ill, so they started again to ease the pain (which is stupid as make's problems worse) so even though mental addiction had set in swim had some physical symptoms to not that diffirent to what they have later in life exsperianced threw heroin withdrawel.

luckily swims bladder was never to bad it was the other problems that where bad with swim. but after thinking about it what they said above is what they think maybe happerning to other's (especialy with data on attachment).

eventualy swim moved away and got over the ketamine and health got better, they now only use ketamine a few times a year, which sometimes brings kidney pain and leg/foot pain back which after reading rudegirl's post aloud swim to form this opinion along with what they have learnt about k over the years. it may not be right 100% there not a doctor or a pharmacist after all.

also swim would like to know if any swiy or there friends ever used the same key to take bump's with for months at a time? as when swim very first started taking ketamine a gram would last swim maybe 2 days then the reqular amount for years became 3-5 grams from saterday night threw to monday morning's. depending on which club's swim was going to over a weekend.

swim started to notice there house key going green in the grove's then they key when rusty so swim stoped using it. it then broke in the lock a few weeks after. from then on swim used diffirent key's or another way to snort it. they want to know if other people have exsperianced this? there friends at the time had same issues, but this could of been a local thing.

as with swiyrudegirl saying how it buggers up the insides of people, was wondering if it could be because of the same thing that happend to there key's. as when swim was 16 and saw this they thought it could not be healthy for a person to do, if it did that to a peace of metal! but still carried on taking it as they where young and stupid and had no information on ketamine. now swim knows it is used on people all the time in hospitals but not to this amount or this offen.

so all ketamine users are one large exsperiment at the moment. also swim has never been able to get the same sort of effects from it they used to enjoy even with long absternance so advice would be not to over do this substance as major enjoyment will be lost from it.