I've taken large doses of acetaminophen in the past over extended periods of time. First it was the hydrocodone, 7.5/750. I started out taking 2 at a time every 4 hours or so and then as my tolerance increased I found myself taking 4-5 at a time every 6-8 hours, sometimes more than 20 a day.
Of all the people I have read about in similar forums, that seems to be the maximum that is taken. You probably don't hear about anything more than that because they're dead.
The problem is that recently, as I have become aware of the potential damage, I have been feeling sick. Perhaps it is more mental, in fact I'm sure it is to some degree. But, for the last year or so I have also had urination problems, needing to go up to 8 times a day and feeling an urgency to go even when there wasn't much to go. It is difficult to urinate, and now it's impossible for me to urinate in a public restroom. I used to have a mental block about that, but with the increased difficulty of even urinating anymore, added to the mental block, well... it just doesn't happen.
I often stand in front of the toilet for a few minutes trying to go, a little at a time, off and on, very weak stream. Aside from urniation, "other" things have decreased in volume and strength/flow in the same area. This could be from my kidneys being damaged or an enlarged prostate, but the blood tests I had run last year didn't show any signs of prostate problems, and my doctor didn't seem to be too worried about the urination problem for whatever reason. I think he should have been, now that I've read up on it. He knew how much acetaminophen I had taken in the past, when I had a bout of addiction with the hydrocodone for a year or so before that and he weined me off of it thankfully. My liver tests come back regularly with high ATS and LFT's, if I'm getting the abreviations correct, probably not. I'm thinking the numbers were in the elevated levels of 200-400, if I'm not mistaken. He was concerned about it, but has never taken any measures to correct it. Perhaps there are none, or perhaps he is incompetant, I don't know for sure.

But, from what I have read in many other forums, my acetaminophen intake is extrememly high and among the worst of them. Many people seem to have survived it, though, so that is somewhat comforting to me. Still, I can't help but feel that there is some serious damage from my most recent abuse of the darvocet, having taken 20 a day for a week at a time. I did that last week, and I did that 2 weeks before that. I've taken like 200 of them over 3 weeks time, with 75 percocet 7.5/325 inbetween there. I'm just really worried and hope everything is alright and it isn't too late.

I found this while researching further. It leads me to believe that while your tolerance to acetaminophen won't go up, exposure to it, on a regular basis, will mean that is becomes less harmful due to your liver protecting itself.

I'm not a doctor, that's just my take on the study below:

Autoprotection by acetaminophen, i.e. increased resistance to toxic effects caused by pretreatment, is a well-known phenomenon. The purpose of the present work was to identify mechanisms for increased acetaminophen tolerance induced by pretreatment of rats. One group of female Wistar rats (pretreated rats) received acetaminophen orally in increasing doses (1 to 4.3 g/kg) twice a week for 3 weeks, one group (naïve rats) received the vehicle. At time zero pretreated rats received a toxic dose of 7.5 g/kg (100% lethal in naïve rats), and naïve rats received a toxic dose of 4.3 g/kg. Blood and liver tissue were collected before and 12, 24, 36, and 48 hr after the toxic dose and were analysed for hepatic glutathione and cysteine contents, hepatic glutathione-S-transferase and blood alanine aminotransferase activity, as well as acetaminophen concentration in plasma. Steady-state mRNA levels of proteins involved in acetaminophen detoxification, cell division and acute phase response were measured, liver tissue was examined for proliferating cell nuclear antigen and degree of hepatocyte necrosis. Six naïve rats not receiving acetaminophen served as controls. The mortality was the same in pre-treated and naïve rats (33 percent). Thus, pretreatment increased the tolerance twice. Before the toxic dose pretreated rats compared to control rats had higher activity of glutathione-S-transferase (liver) and alanine aminotransferase (serum), higher hepatic mRNA level of glutathione-S-transferase and γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase heavy and light chain subunits, and lower hepatic concentration of glutathione, cysteine and mRNA of CYP1A2 than control rats. After the toxic dose, the mRNA levels of glutathione-S-transferase, γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase heavy and light chain subunits, and CYP1A2 in naïve rats rose, approaching those of pretreated rats. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen labelling was high in pretreated rats, while only slightly increased in a few of the naïve rats. Necrotic hepatocytes were found at all time intervals in pretreated rats, and in naïve rats they appeared after 12 hr, peaking after 36 hr. Pretreatment increased the tolerance to acetaminophen toxicity twice, as estimated by mortality. The data indicate that pretreatment may reduce the relative production of toxic metabolites, but it primarily enhances the protection against these metabolites by regenerating hepatocytes.

Well, perhaps just to give someone hope that is as scared as I am and going through the same thing. Maybe just to make myself feel better. I don't know.

The study didn't suggest that continued acetaminophen intake gets any healthier for you, or that it was healthy in the first place, but to me it suggested that your body can indeed build a form of resistance to it over time and exposure. This would explain how people like me who have abused medicine with acetaminophen over a long period of time can live through a 10-20g a day habit, while someone who does it for the first time would likely die if they took 20g, or at least wind up hospitalized.

I'll admit that the article did give me a moment of hope and relief. I'm in no way under the impression that that much acetaminophen intake is acceptable or any less dangerous, though.

Hello 72775

I thank Shay very much for asking the questions asked. I couldn't figure out either exactly what the goal is for you. If you want to continue to take an opiate for whatever reason, that is certainly your choice. But unless you are concerned with all the ingredients in any particular med you are taking, then the research you are doing is kinda lopsided. It seems to me that you are trying to prove that you aren't gonna drop dead from acetaminophen... or it, in all honesty, actually seems that your research is an effort to justify why you want to change over to a straigght opiate (ie. oxycodene). Well, as you are still alive and kicking, too much Tylenol has not ben ingested yet. I don't meab to sound crude, but is that what you are wondering? if youe only concern is the Tylenol, then just don't take a med with Tylenol in it.

Good wishes
reach

Thanks for the replies, first of all. Most appreciated.

Yes, I'm wanting to confirm that I haven't already killed myself, more or less. I'm very worried about the amounts of acetaminophen that I have already taken over time, and more so this past month with the darvocet. I've been taking 20 of the 100/625 a day, so that's 12.5g a day of acetaminophen, and that's not good at all, I've learned. I'm hoping that I haven't already done serious damage to myself. I am done with the opiates containing acetaminophen, though, and plan to switch over to ibuprophen and cut down my use to one or two doses a day at the most.

Although, another problem presents itself, as my pain managment doctor did a 180 on me last time I was there and went from wanting to put me on multiple pain killers like Oxycontin and others combined, to telling me that I am too young for this (32) and she wants to take me off of everything within a month. The pain is too much for me to do that, which is why I went there in the first place. She doesn't know that I'm an addict or that I abuse the meds, so I don't know why she changed her tune so suddenly now. I know full well I have a problem with the medication and propenisty to abuse it, but ti is very problematic in that I actually truly need it and can't live comfortably without it for more than a day or so.

I'm debating now if I should have the labs done soon, or after I get my next refill later this week and get back to a "normal" and non-abusive regiment like I was on, which was 5 of the 7.5/325 percocet a day. That way, the acetaminophen from the darvocet should be clear from the massive amounts and things back down to a "normal" level for a more accurate testing. If I go in tomorrow and have labs run, they will be through the roof and mistelling since I've been hitting it pretty hard. Whereas if I get them done say next week when everything has settled down, it should be a far more accurate reading of what the settled down and real level of damage is. I hope, anyway, that I am correct in this logic.

I've cut down my darvocet intake to 10 pills a day, using 5 pills in the morning and 5 a night. That still isn't good, but it beats taking 20-25. My problem is compunded by my unearthly tolerance to these things now.

I have an appointment with my family doctor, the guy I trust and is actually someone I consider a friend, on Friday. I have the lab slip sitting here but will probably not use it until next week. I'll come clean and tell him exactly what is going on, just like I did a few years back when I went through this once before. He won't be happy but I know he will help however he can.