Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

[Doggygirl]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

I'm glad you are feeling better today Murph. Must be a huge relief!

My pals on AF Daily named my worm "Horny." I thought you'd like that.

DG

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

bleep;1150221 wrote: It was the spinning in circles with your eyes closed that did it. Without doubt.

I think we should test that one out. Each find a newbie and see what happens. I get Slippery Pete. On second thought, isn't he having issues keeping his clothes on and his aim true? hmmm. and he likes techno and Ke$ha.
Nevermind. 'nuf damn experiments going on around here right now, anyhow. Glad you're feeling better, but over and out?
whatev.
Me too. I have earned a nap.
smooches to all

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Doggygirl;1150382 wrote: I'm glad you are feeling better today Murph. Must be a huge relief!

My pals on AF Daily named my worm "Horny." I thought you'd like that.

DG

Very apt, especially as he's noshing on tomatoes, which apparently have aphrodisiac properties. You know what that means DG? You're gonna have thousands of the little blighters rampaging through your garden soon.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Amy Whinehouse died today.

For those of you who don't know, Amy was one of the most talented singer songwriters of her generation. She was an alcoholic and drug addict. She was an object of ridicule and amusement in the British press because of her disease. She'd been in and out of rehab and various treatment centres and they all failed her. She battled her demons all her life and eventually they won. She was just 27 years old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LTPRJqt2z4[/video]]‪Amy Winehouse - Rehab‬‏ - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojdbDYahiCQ&feature=related[/video]]‪Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own‬‏ - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqtCmMS7oKY&feature=relmfu[/video]]‪Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game (Live)‬‏ - YouTube

It needn't have happened; maybe if she'd been given baclofen, she'd have lived.

I'm going to miss you so much.

[Bruunhilde]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Shit fuck fuck fuck fuck. I'm so sad to hear that. I loved her. She will go down in history as a great loss.

[curlygirl7]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

I think I may have hit my "switch" at 250 mg, but the SE are making me miserable. I have a constant roaring sound in my ears and my fingers twitch all the time. HELP! Has anyone else had these symptoms?

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Oh how things can change in just a few short days. At the beginning of the week I was a useless, limp vegetable, utterly incapable of anything except self-pity and whining (I can always manage a good whine, I'm lucky like that). By Friday I'd perked up, the side effects had dropped away, the dizziness, nausea, twitching, foggy-headedness all gone. Now I'm fighting fit and a happy bunny.

How did this change come about? By doing the simple, obvious things; the things the sensible people on this forum (such as Bleep and Ne) tell us to do day in, day out: take smaller doses more frequently, stick to a schedule and don't chop and change. These little things can have a huge impact on side effects as they have on mine. Instead of 50 to 75mg every 3 hours, I take 37.5mg every 2 hours. I'll be staying on this dose for the foreseeable future and see how it goes.

Cravings wise, I'm not 100% indifferent, maybe I never will be. But does that really matter? Should I actually expect everything on a plate? I can't handle this disease on my own (obviously, or I wouldn't be here), but baclofen has got me perhaps 95% of the way. Can I manage that last 5%? Of course I can. I can, I have been and I will continue to do so. Willpower and I don't get along very well but I can manage a little if it means the difference between giving in to the physical and emotional ravages of alcohol and beating this disease and living a normal, healthy life as the person I know I should be.

Baclofen won't carry me to the 'cure' but it got me to within spitting distance of the finish line and I've walked the last few yards on my own. That's enough, and it's why I'm happy to say “baclofen works”. It might give you 100% indifference or it might give you a degree of control, in my case an enormous degree and all I need.

Are the side effects worth it? Consider the alternative. The side effects of continued drunkenness are negative impact on and probable loss of employment and marriage and mental and physical deterioration to the point of an early death. So yeah, it's worth a relatively short period of side effects as long as those S.E.s aren't likely to kill you.

Baclofen works, baby!

I have a filthy secret. No, not the one about nudity on public transport. Everyone who rides on a train, feels compelled to strip off and run down the aisle with their old chap in their hands screaming and laughing hysterically. It's just that most people manage to control the impulse. I'm not so different, no matter what the judge said. I didn't do it because the carriage was full of nuns, that was purely coincidental, although serendipitous. No, I'm talking about my dog-turd secret: I do the Fake Poop Pick-up? (Fake Poop Pick-up is registered by Murph Nefarious Enterprises inc.).

I don't do it all the time, just when I find myself out without poop bags. I nearly always carry a pocket stuffed full of them but sometimes I run out and forget to re-fill. When that happens I can't let the hounds poop in front of people and just walk away. It would be extremely poor form to do so, onlookers would be appalled, plus I could end up with a thousand quid fine. So, I have to make people think I've cleared up the offending dog-eggs. I have become rather adept at it. When a dog drops a log, you expect to see the owner walk over, open a bag, stoop to pick it up, tie up the bag and deposit it in the bin and that's what people see me do. Or at least they think they do. You don't actually pay that much attention to the details when that happens; you notice the basics but your subconscious fills in the details. I do everything you'd expect to see, except there's no bag involved. I feel terribly guilty and full of shame, but then again nahhh who gives a crap?

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

curlygirl7;1152030 wrote: I think I may have hit my "switch" at 250 mg, but the SE are making me miserable. I have a constant roaring sound in my ears and my fingers twitch all the time. HELP! Has anyone else had these symptoms?

Curly, firstly fantastic news abut the 'switch'.

How long have you been on that dose? Those SEs are very common. I get the twitching thing whenever I increase the dose; it usually just wears off on its own. If you've been on 250 for a week and it's still happening, I would recommend you break your doses up and take them more frequently. That tends to help a lot. I haven't had the ear thing but many people have reported it and it should go the same way as the twitching.

[ignominious]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Murph - Good to hear that you're feeling better. Its a process and clearly isn't going to all be made perfect in one shot. Baclofen gets us to where we need to have a chance at salvation.

I didn't realise that 'poop bags' were required in the UK. I remember going to the states in '84 and being amazed that people well picking up animal turds. Just goes to show that the British do have some things to thank American innovation for!

Curlygirl - That's fantastic new. As Murph asked, if you can give us some information about your dose for the last 7-10 days we can probably let you know what to expect. The SEs are fairly common, I didn't get the twitching but had some 'waterfall' sound in my ears. I don't know if your story is reported in full on this thread of elsewhere but would love to hear a summary.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

ignominious;1152047 wrote: I didn't realise that 'poop bags' were required in the UK. I remember going to the states in '84 and being amazed that people well picking up animal turds. Just goes to show that the British do have some things to thank American innovation for!

Ignominious, I can not imagine what sort of filthy, foetid, faeces-strewn hell-hole you were unfortunate enough to reside in when in England but I can assure you, In Britain, it has never been acceptable practice to leave dog poop where it lay. Well, it may have been in the Middle Ages, when a gentleman was given free reign in a variety of matters, including being permitted to, on a whim, thrash his servants, random street urchins and also female members of his household, obviously. Ah, the good old days! But since at least Victorian times it has been illegal to so do.

On Bedford Embankment there sit, every 50 yards or so, antique iron bins with the word ?Dog? cast in the front. I can only assume these were intended for the disposal of dog poop. Of course the scant information provided by the word ?Dog? could also suggest alternative interpretations as to their purpose. It's possible they were actually placed there to take the remains of dead dogs. Why there could be a need for such repositories is unclear. Perhaps, in the 19th century, dogs had a tendency to sudden death brought on by one of the common maladies of the time, such as typhoid, syphilis or just having been born into the lower ranks . Or perhaps it was considered fine sport at the time, for dapper young gentlemen to interrupt their perambulations in order to thrash passing dogs to death with their canes and young ladies, in all their finery, to stamp on the unfortunate creatures, but not so vigorously as to break a sweat. Their servants, of course following at a respectable distance, would then scoop up the creature's remains and deposit them in the bin.

But then again, perhaps you was just brung up in a shit 'ole, like what I was.

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Curly, that's great news! Indifference normally hits you about 4 days or so after a dose increase. Does this fit in with your dosing history? And yes, those SE's are pretty common at the higher doses, I had them all. They'll fade, and one way to make them fade quicker is to take smaller doses more often. Give it a try.

There's a great trick you can play on tourists here. When you driving along, and you see elephant shit on the side of the road, you stop and get out. Nodding wisely, you tell them the elephany passed by about 18 hours ago. How do you know, they invariably ask, so you put your finger into the elephant shit, leave it there for a couple of seconds, whip it out and taste it. "It's the taste," you tell them. "It ages at a certain rate, and you can get proficient in doing it quite easily. Try it." They nearly always do, after a little nervousness, but elephant shit is almost entirely undigested grass, so it's not as scary as it sounds.

Of course, unbeknownst to them, you switched fingers 'twixt shit and mouth, and the shit-covered digit is safely nestled out of sight. They don't.

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

And shit news on the AW front. Another person that could have been helped missed.

[Doggygirl]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Murph - so glad to hear that you are feeling better! Back to discussing the important topic of dog crap disposal. And Bleep, I don't even know what to say about your elephant crap story. :H Except that I should probably stay away from your neck of the earth as I am a real sucker.

Very, very sad about AW.

DG

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Bleep, outstanding story and most excellent that you used 'unbeknownst'; great word, very Shakespearian. I suspect I would have to be forced at gunpoint before I agreed to taste the turd of any animal.

This is turning into the turd thread. I blame DG. :H

[curlygirl7]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Murph what's the difference between Britain and England? bleep are you from Africa? I guess I thought you were from Wales, but I don't believe they have elephants in Wales.
Ig, I was up to about 210 mg when I ran out Bac and had to very rapidly titrate down to 40 mg. About 3 days later I got my bac and want to ramp back up quicly (in less than a week). Yesterday I went from 175 mg to 250 mg. The side effects were hideous. I'm going to try Murph's schedule of 37.5 every 2 hours. I'll let all of you know how it works.