Yikes, it is Maine cold here in Charlotte – not a big fan!

Halloween was a blast!  The furbabies sported their costumes at a neighborhood parade where furbabies and children contended for 1st and 2nd place prizes based on best costume (it was kid vs kid and furbaby vs furbaby).  Toshia chose to be a French maid this year and Tater Tot begged to be a squirrel (her favorite friends).  They totally got jipped out of a prize due to biased judging!

While this was all going down, we received a message from a reader who was concerned about a tremor he was experiencing after taking the pain medication, Demerol.

Here is the question:

I had a bad reaction to Demerol.  I took 400 mg over 2 days
and discontinued.  My main concern is that on the second day, I had a
tremble of my neck that would cause my head to shake just slightly, it
is probably not noticeable except to me.  After 6 days without this
symptom, I feel like it may have returned.  Could I have caused
permanent neurological damage?  I have not taken any since the second
day and am horrified I may have some permanent, progressive neuro
problems.  Thanks for your time.

Here was my response:

Hey there,

I’m hoping that your situation has resolved by now, but if not then maybe the following information will help.

If I’m understanding you correctly, you had a total of 400mg of Demerol over 2 days (not 400mg per day, right?). Either way, there is no official max dose for Demerol (some resources recommend a max of 600mg per 24 hours) so
you didn’t exceed the “max.”  However, it does sound like the dose you took was too high for your system to handle.

A tremor with Demerol is usually a sign that the drug has built up in your blood stream.  Demerol is broken down into an active component called normeperidine, which takes a while (like days) for your body to get rid of. It takes even longer for your body to remove the normeperidine if your kidneys do not work well.

Perhaps the normeperidine accumulated in your body (for reasons that you would have to discuss with your doctor) and that’s why you experienced the tremor effect days after stopping the medication.

Demerol is not known to cause permanent neurological damage so you should be fine in that department.  If you are still experiencing the tremor, it would most likely be due to some other cause.

End of the response!

If you have found yourself to be in a similar situation as the abovementioned reader was, please share your experience with us by commenting on this post (you can leave a comment below!).  We look forward to hearing from you!

Also, our FREE video course on how to save money on your prescription drugs is still up for grabs.  Click here to get it!

Catch ya’ll later.