I take responsibility for what happened. It may happen with any popper, for all I know.  First off, I loved the high. The problem was, it seems this stuff is less intense, but lasts longer. Usually, using store-bought poppers, I keep going until I get a few little hints of danger, then I reluctantly cum.  I’m not positive, but it felt like this had a longer half-life, and something was building within me. I started to get a headache, but I wanted to cum, so I had a few more sniffs. Then nausea. Then an absolutely intense urge to just “be lower.” Impossible to describe, this urge, but I can only describe it as needing to get as low as possible NOW.  I waited it out for a while, but I wasn’t bouncing back like usual (usually, I’m fine after a couple of minutes after sniffing a little too much. I’m gonna guess 20 minutes after cessation, I had a vision of snowflakes, projected from the astral plane, I believe. Black background, neon, perfectly shaped, cartoonish snowflake crystals, in a repeated pattern. I took it as a signal to take a shower, for some reason. I crawled up the stairs to do so (I wasn’t in sound mind, obviously, since I wasn’t alarmed that I was unable to walk up the stairs).  I turned on the water, but couldn’t muster the energy to get over the tub’s edge and into the shower. I also wasn’t sure which would save my life and which would kill me, hot or cold water. So I kind of curled up next to the tub, still without real concern for my health, but thinking myself prudent for taking this seriously enough to almost take a shower as a home-remedy.  My wife found me there and started asking questions, but I wasn’t able to communicate very well. Honestly, it just felt like too much work to think of words. I was in a great mood, somewhat aware that I could be dying, but finding it interesting that I didn’t seem to care.  Luckily, I recognized that thought was unusual, not caring about dying, so I fessed up and told my wife about the poppers. She fetched our medical kit. Our handheld ECG (cheap on Amazon) said I had ST elevation. I was blue, she said. So I said something like, “oh, I think that’s usually a pretty bad thing. Like, an emergency probably.”  I chose the dead-beetle position for the ride to the hospital. I figured that I didn’t need blood in my legs and arms. I wanted to keep the blood near my heart. It was also the best position with which to freak out my wife.  She says she saw my O2 as low as 84, but I think I saw it at 79 at one point. My blood pressure was also low. After some oxygen therapy, I started to become slightly more conscious. Conscious enough to ask my wife if they have my real SSN, birthdate, etc. She said they didn’t, so we left in order to avoid a bill. In retrospect, I was still in bad shape and shouldn’t have left. But my brain wasn’t working.  I thought I had a painless, stress-free heart-attack. The whole time my heart felt nonexistent. The nurse said “could you just be nervous about the drug you took?” I was like.. uh.. no.. my heart isn’t beating too hard, it’s not beating at all. We were also thinking possible stroke. I’ve watched someone have a stroke and it seemed very similar but much longer lasting.  But now I think I know what it was. METHEMOGLOBINEMIA.

I mention this because saying this word in the ER (good luck with that) might save your life. They were rather clueless there, and had never heard of poppers, so don’t count on them thinking of it. There’s a medicine called methylene blue to treat it, but VITAMIN C also treats it, so popping some flintstones chewables on your way out the door to the ER may not be a bad idea. IV vitamin C was used in the literature, but if I ever find myself in this situation again (I won’t), I will take as much as orally as my digestive tract can tolerate, right away, then get medical attention. I find Solaray buffered Vitamin C pretty tolerable at higher doses.  REMEMBER, when you find yourself not caring about dying, take notice. That’s not normal and it’s a sign that you need to take careful action, while not panicking. I know it’s a PITA to go to the ER. But that’s your punishment. And you love being punished, I’m sure.  I’m not saying GC poppers are bad. Could be, but I have no reason to believe that. I just think they’re strong AF. I don’t think I’ve recovered. The tip of my tongue has the sensation of licking a 9V battery, weeks later. These things can kill you easily. And ya, they feel really great and you can get a really good goon on, too.

I made some poppers out of ethanol once and they made me feel like shit in less than one minute. Blood pressure was so low all I could do was collapse in a chair and vegetate. Isopropyl nitrite will do the same, but it takes a little longer. Methemoglobinemia plus low blood pressure = death in a bottle. The only type of popper I’ve tried that doesn’t do both to me in any noticeable way are pentyl/amyl poppers. I have made some amyl poppers that on occasion have given me slight side effects, but I attributed it to impurities. Typically, I get none and I have not gotten any from LRM’s poppers.

Guys – I love poppers but this is a cautionary tale and can really help folks potentially. I get we all love poppers and can feel defensive but these stories help. I personally have had some issues with methemoglobinemia during some LONG sessions where P and P is involved. My nails, fingers, toes and ears will turn grey and my breathing shallow. My play partner has been pretty concerned as this was very noticeable. Yep… mixing with other substances during these sessions so that is on me. I have had to really gauge my intake and keep an eye on my nail beds to see if they are turning grey/purple. Also, the O2 sensor the poster mentioned may not be too valuable as they give false readings if experiencing methemoglobinemia (stumbled on this when doing my own homework a bit ago). If you google methemoglobinemia and poppers, you can read some journal articles on the subject, definitely worth your time. I did after I scared myself a few weeks ago, was grey and had a hard time breathing the next day.