New here and starting Topa and with a question

[sunshinedaisies]

That was pretty much how it worked for me too Meggie ......

[meggie]

I had blood work yesterday to keep a check of my liver and other levels. Have you also had blood tests. The Nal is said to sometimes effect the liver.

[sunshinedaisies]

Meggie - the Nal is said to affect the liver at doses of greater than 300mg daily - that does not include me! I did have blood work done the other day though to check cholesterol etc., as it is many years since I had it checked and as my doc also was giving me the nal - and he knows what it is for, I am sure that he is having my liver enzymes checked!

Hugs, Sun x

[meggie]

Really, that large a dose. My doctor said he wanted to check it every 4 months. Keeping the faith, hope you had a nice birthday and are still doing well.

[sunshinedaisies]

Yes, according to the book anyway - and from what I have read on line. I think AL would damage our livers more than a 50 mg dose of naltrexone! And thanks yes, I had a great birthday - very quiet and no drinking - first time in many years! And yes, still doing really well - just do not want to drink!

hugs, Sun x

[treetops]

Happy birthday Sun and its great to see that you dont want to drink (as opposed to being told you cant drink). I hope you can find relief too Meggie. As Sun found, this relief can take a while but as my GP once said to me - I didn't just start abusing AL suddenly one day.
Its worth the perseverance. I am about the same age as you two I think, and AL addiction only gets worse as we age.

[sunshinedaisies]

Thanks Treetops - and yes it is surreal to me - STILL ! But it is sticking and does not seem to change at all - I keep expecting it to! And yes, whenever anyone says the Nal is taking too long I just ask them what is the alternative? To me, there was NO alternative. I wish I had discovered it way earlier than I did !

hugs, sun x

[StuckinLA]

Happy birthday, Sunny!!!!!

[sunshinedaisies]

Thanks Stuck. How are you doing? Did you see my wonderful results re the naltrexone? Is that something you have ever tried?

Hugs, Sun x

[meggie]

Oh, I can't wait to not want it. However, I am drinking vodka and it is so much worse for my liver. Sun, how long have you worried about your drinking. As you can see I joined here in 2007 and quit for a year doing the whole topa program, topa, vitamins and the kudzu. I never drank in my life when I was younger. I did have one year in college that I had a good time but quit that with no problems. I think I started drinking wine about the age of 45 and started worrying ten years ago. My husband found my stash. I only drank boxed wine, after a quit in 2011 I started vodka. I wonder how our brains work.

[sunshinedaisies]

Meggie I suppose I actually started worrying about it about 10 years ago. I was drinking daily - and if I tried not to, I still did! That was when I thought I might have a problem. I never drank to excess though - I did not do hangovers. But it was a daily thing - some folk said that I did not have a problem as I think for a long time I was having two drinks a day - but to me it WAS a problem if I couldn't stop. I too had success with Topa for 8 months but had to come off it 'cos of SE's. My intake slowly escalated before starting Nal - which is why I knew that I had to find something - some nights I would have 6-7 Guinness and now and then did not feel great the next day - I was on a slippery downhill slope!

Meggie - you WILL get there, I know you will - just keep plodding on and one day it will work - hang in there. Maybe you can go back to wine - and drink red so that is better for you. just a thought. Someone suggested I change to wine at one point as Guinness was my drink of choice so drinking wine would not be as nice for me - but I only did that for a few days!

HUGS, Sun x

[StuckinLA]

I haven't been around much and haven't read back really at all - sorry

But I have gotten the gist of the conversation so far, and it's awesome that you have had such wonderful results with the nal, Sun. It is honestly not something that I have tried, though I have read up on it and it does sound very promising for a lot of people. Maybe one of these days.

As for me, I am ok. Not great, but ok. Miraculously, I have jobs and I am supporting myself, and even paying off all of my credit card debt. I hate teaching, I hate my students, and I hate the places where I teach (a state university and also at a small, private women's college). I have no job security - I have to reapply to get my own job back every year.

Anyway, I won't get into all the gory details. Suffice to say that things are all right. Just wish they were better. I'm very happy to hear that you have had so much success with the nal, and that it sounds like things are good in your world.

Everybody else - keep on keeping on, all of my sisters in the education field.

[StuckinLA]

How is it that a stack of student papers to grade is about to break me? I have 80, and I've graded maybe 10. I can't. I can't think about dealing with this. And then of course there's the rest of my life falling apart. How do people do it - work, I mean. I am not cut or for work and responsibilities and doing the mound of dishes in the kitchen. I seem only cut out for watching the same thing over and over on the tv and drinking this fifth of whiskey.

[jane27]

Hey Stuck,
I've been there. I was there last week and I'm there with regularity. 2 years sober and that piece hasn't changed but I feel sooooooooo much less guilty about it. Removing the booze from the equation removed the biggest, baddest reason for me to beat myself up and feel like a loser. For me, the thing you are talking about is clinical depression and its still challenging to manage. With the booze, I felt like Charlie Sheen's hotel room (circa 2011) after a week long binge ( a catastrophic, shameful, vile mess). Without the booze-destruction to flog myself about, its tidier. Visibility is way better; clear enough that even though I *still* feel not cut out for work, and don't want to deal with the dishes or anything at all- the fact of it pisses me off enough to amount to motivation to do something about it. I know it doesn't read well or sound worth it, but it must be, because I keep at it- and what you wrote up there sounds so much like me that if it weren't for the grading of the papers, I would have thought I wrote it.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

What Jane said x72. She nailed it Stuck.

Get thee to the doctor.

just sayin'