u/deefemm

TLDR: I believe this was an indirect overdose on oxycodone meaning if it hadn't been for other factors it wouldn't have happened. I fell asleep on my back with a ZYN in my mouth, muscles in my mouth relaxed and it fell in the back of my throat blocking my airways. Opioids are cough suppressants and my body wasn't able to remove it. On top of that the respiratory depression just compunded everything. Parents noticed it after some time because the cough was extremely weak and tried to wake me up, but couldn't. Only after opening my mouth and seeing that I had a zyn in my mouth and taking it out I was able to breathe and woke up.

This happened last month and I was doing my usual amounts of oxy for the past 3 weeks - 120mg daily split into 2 or 3 doses. Around 7pm I dosed my last 40mg for the day, it got me feeling alright but nothing too great and certainly not a nodding dose for me. I have been using 10-15 10mg ZYN pouches daily for years now.

Oxy usually sedates me and makes me tired so I frequently lay down on my bed and close my eyes although I almost never fall asleep, for some reason I can't really fall asleep on oxy, and laying down makes the euphoria a bit stronger.

I was pretty tired but nothing out of the ordinary for me, so I decided to lay down on my back, close my eyes and take my usual nicotine pouch to enhance the euphoria that was increasingly more lacking from tolerance. I did this many times, sometimes on my side, other times on my back and was always fine.

Next thing I know my parents wake me up and look extremely frightened, there is blood on my shirt and on my moms hands, my dad is on the phone with 911. Didn't have a clue what actually happened other than that I overdosed.

Turns out I fell asleep on my back with the ZYN in my mouth, my muscles relaxed to the point where the ZYN just fell into my throat and I began choking. My parents noticed some time later. They told I was coughing extremely weakly and seemed to have trouble breathing but they couldn't wake me up. My mom opened my mouth and saw the nicotine pouch and tried to take it out of the back of my throat, which is why there was blood on her and on me.

After she did that I finally woke up, medics came to check me out and I was cleared without going to the hospital. No one knew I was using and the medics seemed unaware as well.

I concluded that it was from a combination of factors but the main cause was the ZYN combined with laying on my back. Opioids are strong cough suppressants which is why I couldn't cough it out.

On top of that the sedation from the opis and the fact that the cough was very silent made me lay like that for way too long to the point where I couldn't wake up even with my parents trying, most likely from low oxygen in the brain or body. Only after they removed it I was finally able to breathe and wake up

If you are a user of ZYNs and opioids, my advise is to absolutely never lay down on your back with a zyn in your mouth, ALWAYS on your side.