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Original poster

To think I had a near death experience because of my own stupidity?

215 replies

Sleeplessworried · 15/12/2024 01:02

I was out for Christmas drinks with friends last week.
I rarely drink but had 2 Proseccos, 2 cocktails and a shot. This was from 5pm to 11pm. Not crazy but a lot for me.

I got home at around 12am and took two paracetamols 500mg each, thinking I was getting ahead of the hangover. I felt fine at this point and my friend even said I didn’t even seem like I’d been drinking before she dropped me off home.

I went to bed and jolted awake at around 2.30am. What followed was room spinning, struggling to see, the worst diarrhoea of my life, rounds of vomiting, stomach pain and hours of lying sweating on a bed while itching and shivering.

I know this is silly but because I don’t drink much, I had no idea you can’t take paracetamol after drinking. I realise now this is totally dangerous and stupid.

I remember panicking on the bed wondering if I’d been spiked and actually worrying that things were going to worsen and maybe I’d been poisoned. I know that sounds dramatic but I felt like I was going to die.

Anyway now I am feeling so embarrassed and stupid for taking paracetamol after alcohol.

It ended by me continuously putting fingers down my throat to encourage more vomiting and feeling slightly better after my stomach was completely empty. I managed to sleep from around 5am to 9am and felt only slightly nauseous in the morning.

Just wanted to write it down as I can’t tell any of my loved ones. I wouldn’t like to worry them and don’t want them to know how bloody clueless I am! It feels good to get it off my chest though.

OP posts:
WhatTheFudges · 15/12/2024 05:06

For someone who doesn’t drink, that’s a lot of alcohol and your body is not used to dealing with and probably over stimulated your nervous system.

I don’t drink but one time I did, I also felt fear and thought I was going to die, I also don’t like not being in control of my body so the whole thing was like living through a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. Never again.

Onlycoffee · 15/12/2024 05:19

thrifty24 · 15/12/2024 03:01

It doesn't sound like a near death experience at all? Perhaps I am a little wound up having recently witnessed a accident. It sounds like you got a scare but I can't imagine A&E rushing you through for having a few more drinks than you normally do and swallowing a couple of paras. Doctor here

As a doctor can you comment on the question of taking paracetamol after a few drinks? Or how likely her symptoms were to be from the paracetamol or a bug?

Losing vision seems pretty extreme and although not a doctor I can imagine with all those symptoms op might have felt extreme anxiety which can cause a feeling of impending doom.

Op we've all had a bad case of stomach flu, food poisoning or a virus so bad it's felt like we were going to die so I do sympathise.

Ohhbaby · 15/12/2024 05:37

stiffstink · 15/12/2024 01:28

The symptoms you're describing are norovirus, not near death from 5 drinks in 6 hours.

Norovirus has an incubation period surely? Would you feel bad 6 hours after exposure?

QOD · 15/12/2024 05:42

Reading this at 5:39am having just taken 2 paracetamol for my hangover… staggered home 5 hrs ago
never heard of it being a no!!

I agree with others, you got a bug or a bout of food poisoning from ice or a glass etc

hope you’re better now and get a bit more sleep

AmazingBouncingFerret · 15/12/2024 05:51

I can’t drink those cheap 2 for 1 type cocktails. They give me the most excruciating headaches, where I’m clutching my head in my hands and wanting to die from the pain - no exaggeration. They’re a waste of money anyway, very little alcohol and shit ingredients and full of sugar which was probably the cause of the diarrhoea.

leafybrew · 15/12/2024 05:56

Sleeplessworried · 15/12/2024 01:07

@CleverGreyDuck do you think it was alcohol alone then? I’m just asking because the reaction seemed really extreme and it says online it’s dangerous to have paracetamol shortly after drinking and all the symptoms line up. I’ve never had the shivering thing with drink alone? Although I last drank heavily about 4 years ago so I am older!

Yes - it was the alcohol alone.

No - it wasn't because you'd picked up norovirus on your evening out 😂

or the classic 'it must have been food poisoning'

If your drink had been spiked the effects would have shown a lot more quickly ie on the journey home.

leafybrew · 15/12/2024 05:59

@Ohhbaby of course it does.

People seem to forget that alcohol is a poison and if you have too much in your system your body expels it - with very unpleasant effects

JohnTheRevelator · 15/12/2024 06:06

You can't take paracetamol after drinking? Well that's a new one to me. I've reached the age of 61,not realising that I've risked my life several dozen times over the years!

iloveeverykindofcat · 15/12/2024 06:16

Don't worry OP, I had an actual death experience due to my own stupidity. As in I literally died and got CPRd. I fell down a staircase. At home. Because I was walking whilst reading on my laptop. The laptop belonged to a terrible employer. It was destroyed.

Anyway when I woke up in ICU I was actually remarkably well, considering, because my momentary death was caused by positional asphyxia and once reoxygenated I only had bruises and sprains. Of course waking up in ICU is very confusing and I'd also been intubated, which I could feel. Some people become aggressive apparently, but I just continued to embarras myself, because they asked if I could read something in front of me (checking for brain damage I guess) and apparently said affrontedly, "I do know how to read you know, I have a PhD".

The staff had a laugh out of it anyway, and I got to go home pretty soon.

So yeah. Don't look at your phone or laptop on the stairs.

CyranoDeBergerQuack · 15/12/2024 06:34

Sleeplessworried · 15/12/2024 01:07

@CleverGreyDuck do you think it was alcohol alone then? I’m just asking because the reaction seemed really extreme and it says online it’s dangerous to have paracetamol shortly after drinking and all the symptoms line up. I’ve never had the shivering thing with drink alone? Although I last drank heavily about 4 years ago so I am older!

Mostmedical students i have known have taken paracetomol to pre-empt the hangover, with no effects.
Your symptoms sound like too much alcohol and maybe a dodgy meal/snack which have played havoc with your liver and stomach.
It wasn't a near-death experience

Toddlerteaplease · 15/12/2024 06:39

I'm a nurse and I've never heard that you can't take paracetamol which alcohol.

Toddlerteaplease · 15/12/2024 06:40

I think it was the alcohol!

Guavafish1 · 15/12/2024 06:41

Sounds like you might have been spiked

lionloaf · 15/12/2024 06:46

I would have assumed the fruity cocktails didn’t agree with you and upset your stomach and combined with the fact you don’t drink much led to the vomiting and diarrhoea. The paracetamol is a red herring.

GRex · 15/12/2024 06:48

iloveeverykindofcat · 15/12/2024 06:16

Don't worry OP, I had an actual death experience due to my own stupidity. As in I literally died and got CPRd. I fell down a staircase. At home. Because I was walking whilst reading on my laptop. The laptop belonged to a terrible employer. It was destroyed.

Anyway when I woke up in ICU I was actually remarkably well, considering, because my momentary death was caused by positional asphyxia and once reoxygenated I only had bruises and sprains. Of course waking up in ICU is very confusing and I'd also been intubated, which I could feel. Some people become aggressive apparently, but I just continued to embarras myself, because they asked if I could read something in front of me (checking for brain damage I guess) and apparently said affrontedly, "I do know how to read you know, I have a PhD".

The staff had a laugh out of it anyway, and I got to go home pretty soon.

So yeah. Don't look at your phone or laptop on the stairs.

This is a great story! Thank goodness you sere found!

AlbertCamusflage · 15/12/2024 06:49

I once had terrible vertigo with the severest vomiting in my life during the night after I had been at a wedding reception. I had drunk a fair bit of cheap red wine and eaten grotty buffet food. It was nothing at all like the kind of sickness you get simply from too much alcohol (and in any case I hadn't drunk enough to cause that sort of problem). My feeling was that it was either an intolerance from something in the wine (sulphites??) or the food, or food poisoning.

Acrossthemountains · 15/12/2024 06:53

I felt like this after my lemonade was spiked once. I doubt it was the paracetamol.

Setyoufree · 15/12/2024 07:01

It wasn't the paracetamol, you weren't spiked. You drank more than your body is used to. Your reaction is exactly the reaction my body has if I drink similar amounts. Especially cocktails. You'd probably have been ok with a few proseccos.

Whirlwind2024 · 15/12/2024 07:01

Sounds like you got norovirus. Paracetamol after drinking wouldn’t do those things.

Setyoufree · 15/12/2024 07:02

Agree with a previous poster too - if it's crappy cheap wine or cocktails it could well be like an allergy or intolerance

FannyFernackerpants · 15/12/2024 07:03

Didn't magazine's like Cosmo and Glamour run an article every year through the 90's along the lines of 'how to survive the party season'? It was mostly guff about remembering to take your makeup off before bed no matter how late you got home and advising which (ridiculously expensive) moisturizer would plump up your over tired skin.
One of the tips was to make sure you left a couple of paracetamol and a pint of water by your bed so you would remember to take them last thing before you went to sleep!
I swore by this method for years as I always woke up fresh as a daisy .....turns out it was because I was young and the paracetamol did just about jack shit. I feel like death now no matter how much water I drink etc, the joy of being over 40!

Flopsy145 · 15/12/2024 07:06

It was standard procedure to take two paracetamol and a pint of water after drinking when I was younger, that reaction sounds more like you were spiked maybe or an allergy

Calmhappyandhealthy · 15/12/2024 07:12

The reason not to take paracetamol with/after alcohol is because both can put a strain on the liver

If your liver is healthy, the paracetamol will not have affected you badly

The sickness was probably caused by excess alcohol (for you) or a tummy bug

Did you really nearly die?

Confused
TheaBrandt · 15/12/2024 07:15

If taking paracetamol with alcohol killed people half the population of England would be dead!

TheBlueRobin · 15/12/2024 07:15

I think near death experience is a bit excessive 🤣

Sounds like your body just didn't react well to alcohol if you don't really drink. My mum never drank so anything more than a glass she would get very tipsy and feel terrible.

Also Prosecco and just mixing drinks generally can make you feel horrendous. All those bubbles and the sugar too. Though I wouldn't say 4 drinks over 6 hours is excessive.