Health - Kratom- Post-Surgical Use for Pain

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From a commercial web site:

Post-Surgical Use of Kratom for Pain

I began using Kratom as an analgesic replacement for opiates, finding it to relieve chronic pain as effectively as strong narcotics and without the mental fog and likely elevated liver enzymes incurred by the APAP in drugs like percocet and hydrocodone. However, I doubted Kratom’s efficacy with regard to severe post-surgical pain. Recently, I tested PAH’s 15X Kratom following two surgeries: one facial, the other uro-gynecological. Both surgeries were considered to be painful enough by my doctors that they told me during pre-op conference that a morphine drip would be necessary for the first few days of in-hospital recovery.

During both surgeries, I was given 50 mg. of Benadryl (post-surgical itching) and two units of morphine immediately after surgery. After that, I was moved to a hospital bed. With no morphine pump, dilaudid every two hours was prescribed. I never once had a need for this opiate. My facial surgery involved cutting through bone; hence, the pain was severe, a seven or eight on the one-ten pain scale. I put myself on an every three hour Kratom schedule, swallowing three capsules (approximately ½ tsp.) of 15X at regular intervals. Since the facial surgery was so extremely painful, I had my doubts regarding the analgesic benefits of Kratom. To my surprise, ingestion of Kratom on a regular schedule relieved both pain and accompanying anxiety, reducing my pain levels from seven to a very tolerable two. Pain began its return approximately two hours after Kratom ingestion.

My previous experience with Kratom’s usage for chronic pain led me to believe that the encapsulated form hindered the herb’s absorption. Therefore, while still hospitalized, I experimented with emptying the capsules into a small amount of hospital-provided grapefruit juice and swallowing the mixture on an empty stomach. I found that this method of ingesting Kratom proved a far more effective pain-reliever than the encapsulated version. Since I didn’t experience the mind-altering fog of Dilaudid or a similar opiate, I was able to track my pain onset with respect to Kratom usage. While using Kratom in capsules, I experienced pain approximately an hour before my every-three-hours dose. That was not the case with the empty stomach/grapefruit juice method which kept me pain free for the entire three hours.

For each surgery, I stayed in hospital for two entire days, refusing all medications other than the antibiotic Vancomycin. Once home, I gradually reduced my intake of Kratom over a period of seven days, tapering from ½ tsp. every three hours down to ½ tsp. in the morning and in the evening.

Perhaps the most remarkable (and amusing) effect of this experiment was the nurses’/doctor’s reaction to my refusal of all pain relievers, including Tylenol and ibuprophen. Their comments ranged from, “You poor thing. You must be in agony,” to “Is taking medicine against your religion?” to “I’ve never seen a post-surgical patient seem as comfortable as you without meds. Do you feel pain ever?” Of course, I revealed my Kratom usage to no one, having been sick long enough to have distrust some aspects of the medical profession and its association with pharmaceutical companies.