Have Meds, Like To Travel

[Polar Bear]

Thank you Steve. I will have the seating checked beforehand.

[jul2873]

I know that people are understandable nervous about taking unregulated drugs. However, since getting necessary drugs for WED is such a problem sometimes, you might want to consider trying Kratom. I have moderate-severe WED (I'll get maybe 2 hours of sleep a night w/o meds) and Kratom is all I use now. It's a legal, mild opioid.

I order mine from a website called Velvet Soul, as I've found their quality is the best. I've been using maeng da but am switching to red leaf Borneo, which is a little milder and more sedating. I get the powder and mix it in a little orange juice. A half a tsp. four times from early evening to morning usually is enough to control symptoms for me. I fly often from the east coast to Cal. and Hawaii, and for those flights I usually take double that. I fill capsules for traveling, and for just having in my purse. I have a little scale. A half a tsp. is usually about a gram. The capsules I fill take .3 grams, so I'll take 4 every two or three hours while flying. That almost completely controls symptoms. The only side effect I get is constipation, but I'm getting less of it with the red leaf which is why I'm switching.

You might try it and--if it works for you--carry some in case you run out of your regular meds. It's been wonderful for me. Good luck to you!

[Polar Bear]

I have read your other posts about Kratom and although I have absolutely no objections to anyone using what helps them, I'm a little wary myself. It feels a little strange to be ordering something that needs weighed, and what if quality is not consistent.

Apart from that, I wonder if it is legal here in the UK.
Also my hubby is a retired police officer.

Of course the time may come when I will be ordering it, regardless.
Thank you for your kind thoughts and information.

[jul2873]

Hi Polar Bear,

As of 2013, Kratom is illegal in four countries: Australia, Burma, Thiland, and Malaysia. There are a few other countries where you need a prescription to get it (much like medical marijuana): Finland Denmark, Rumania, New Zealand, and Germany. In the U.S. one state has banned it--Indiana.

I get upset when I hear about efforts to ban it, as so many people, from what I can gather, depend on it for chronic pain relief--esp. now that opioids have become so regulated. And I know of at least a few people, like myself, who depend on it to control WED. From all accounts it is a very safe drug--much safer than the opioids which are currently prescribed. There are no recorded instances of anyone dying from a pure overdose of Kratom. In fact, you have to take so much to get high (I hear--I don't try to get high) that often you get very nauseous first and can't take enough.

I know there are occasional news stories where politicians ask for it to be made illegal, but I doubt that will happen. For one thing, it's very expensive to make a drug illegal because of enforcement and crime issues.

I could see it start to be treated like alcohol and require proof of age before buying, and I could support that. I do keep mentioning it because I feel so bad for all of the WED sufferers I read about on here, and hear all of the problems they have with the medications they are taking. Personally, the DA's and prescription opioids frighten me much more than Kratom does. I am really terrified of getting pulled into that tunnel of DA's and then augmentation, and then drugs to make me sleep, and then more DA's to try, and then begging a doctor for prescription opioids and then still not sleeping . . . I may well get to this point no matter what I take, but I've been taking the kratom now for nine months and it seems to have stopped the progression of my WED, which had been getting worse at quite a clip.

Anyway, we each have to do what we think is best. Thanks for your reply.

Mary

[Polar Bear]

Please don't feel that I am critical of anyone using Kratom. Indeed I am not - I think it is the thought of me doing something which I perceive as being very far removed from my usual way of life. And one thing's for sure - if I ever have to suffer what is clearly withdrawal or augmentation, I daresay I would be willing to take anything that worked. I have no doubt.
If Kratom is good at controlling symptoms and has little negative effect, and I dearly hope for everyone that suffers WED that this is the case - wouldn't it be wonderful if some time in the future it was approved and available for medical use.

From my heart, I am glad that it works for you and hope that it continues to do so for a very long time.

[jul2873]

Thanks, Polar Bear.

[badnights]

[quote='steve']but a friend says she gets a lot of WED sufferers standing back there during the flight.[/quote] Really? WED is that well known? I'm impressed. Is your friend is a stewardess? (Or whatever the term is now) Does she only know about WED because she knows you? If so, that's so cool.... changing the world, one person at a time.