Hello @lance1960, and those included in this message, I am Sunnyflower and worked in a hospital detox and recovery/Residential treatment unit for 10 years. I am happy to answer any questions I can.
I am sorry to hear about your journey/struggles. Yes, Ativan is used for withdrawal and is quite effective. Be sure to communicate with the staff frequently and adequately so they can titrate your dose to make sure you are comfortable as possible.

Malnutrition was common to most of our patients on the unit no matter what their addiction but Kratom sounds much worse than other drugs in regard to weight loss. In that regard, it sounds like they are giving you some good IV nutrition. If I were you I would ask if they are working with the nutritionist they're in the hospital. I feel that is a must.

In your current environment, there are usually multiple disciplines meaning, chemical dependency counselors, mental health workers such as psychiatrists, social workers if necessary, Etc.

They usually have Family Programs because addiction is a family disease usually. Yes no family then friends for certain.

Please be assured there is no judgement from the staff working with you. Clearly you are judging yourself severely for being addicted. This cannot serve your well-being and will work against your recovery so as the staff where I worked used to say, you have to get rid of the stinkin Thinkin!

Now being a bible-believing Christian, I have learned that I can not only do that but I must replace the stinkin Thinkin With truth and wallpaper my mind with it such as some great scripture verses. Pretty soon you'll become very good at it and stop the stinkin Thinkin thought before you complete it and can immediately replace it with whatever truth will help you have a much better view of yourself. Being that most recovery environments refer to God or your
higher power and believe me, God loves us and we are made in His image so we need to think of ourselves as whoever our higher power is, does.

I have learned that His love is unmerited, deep, vast and unfathomable! It is my relationship with my higher power Whi for me is the God of the Bible/Jesus Christ.

I believe you will have a successful and tolerable withdrawal but you must be patient with your body.

Staff works hard on aftercare and statistics show that belonging to 12-step meetings and attending as many as possible per week is the formula for success.

Has anyone talked to you about Gabapentin? It is now being used in hospitals for surgeries and Pain Management. You probably already know but it is an anti-seizure medicine and somehow dulls pain.

Some people have side effects from it and some people do not. They usually start you out at a very low dose such as 100 mg once or twice a day. If you tolerate the drug and it works for you, it should be taken 3 times a day because it has a short half-life. But your doctors will work that out with you. I do know quite a few people who were not taking it three times a day and when they began to take it three times a day they had much better pain management. All of this must be discussed with the Doctor Who prescribes it for you if that is something you are amenable to try.

Please know I will be praying for you and your withdrawal, recovery, and after care. Please feel free to ask questions at any time and know that I am aware of my limitations and will not answer if I do not know.

We here on the blog care very deeply about one another and I am confident you will find support, encouragement, inspiration, and a lot of information here!

Take good care of yourself, warmest regards, Sunnyflower 🙏😊

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