This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

[Ne/Neva Eva]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

I'm very, very excited and happy for you too!

I've lost three friggin' posts this morning, and now I'm out of time. I just wanted to send some love and happiness your way!
And what's the info on the meditag? Sounds like a not-so-bad-idea for those of us with an out of state doc and a long-term-baclofen "habit".

Rock on sister.
:l :h

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Hello Neva!

Thanks for the love. There can never too much of that. I haven't set up my MedicTag yet. You plug it into an USB port. Then you can enter and update (at any time) your medical info, drugs, emergency contacts, ect. Paramedics or ER staff can plug it into any USB port to read your info.

Dr L is in my state and not far, but he doesn't know what dose of bac I'm on at any given time. I'm the only one who knows I'm taking this stuff outside of you guys. Since you wouldn't know if I got in a car accident to report what I was taking, I thought I better find another way.

It wouldn't hurt for you to get one, but you also have Ed. I'm sure Ed knows how much bac you're taking and he could supply any info needed, as well as be your advocate. Make sure they're giving you bac if you couldn't speak for yourself. Unless you both couldn't speak at the same time...oh, I have a strange mind, don't I? :H

It's always great to see you these days, Ne. I hope all is going well, and it won't be long until you drop in again. :l

[moglor]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Way to go, Red! It's been a long time coming, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Are we the last two holdouts from the old guard HDB crowd? :-) Feel free to PM me anytime, I can give you my email address if you want to have a sober pen pal. That goes for anyone else whom I knew from the "old days" too!

[Sticky]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Hi Red

Congratulations. That is so awesome and gives me hope. TSM backfired on me after 17 months so I gave up on nal, but still have a coupla months supply. Am really tired at 130mg bac, but seeing some progress.
That meditag sounds great. Don't think we have them in NZ. I still have a card in my purse saying I'm on nal - guess I should replace it with a bac one!
Keep up the good work!

Cheers
Sticky :goodjob:

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Hi guys (or guy and gal ),

Mog, we do seem to be the last of them. I'm happy to see you on my thread and thanks for reaching out. It means a lot to me. :l

Sticky, 17 months is a while on Nal for it not to work. I'm glad you're trying bac. I know how tired it can make you. If that's your only complaint on 130, I think you're doing well. And believe it or not, you may build tolerance over time. There was a time I had difficulty with 130. Now I'm on 160 and living my life (but I've been much higher). What I'm saying is don't give up. Not that it sounds like you will any time soon.

I'm tired tonight friends. I worked the last few days. I was in bed and decided to check MWO from my phone, and saw I had some responses on my thread. I hadn't planned on posting tonight, but I wanted to say thanks for being here.

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Sticky, the MedicTag is ordered through the internet. I would think it could be shipped anywhere in the continental US.

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Oops. I'm glad I caught that one quickly. NZ meaning New Zealand. Duh. I'm really terrible at geography if anyone hasn't noticed. It just took me a sec to realize it though.

Ok, Sticky. I don't think you can order a MedicTag. :H I've always wanted to visit New Zealand. It's like my top dream destination!

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Hi Folks,

I have no idea how to update you or express my thoughts on baclofen, or anything else. It's been so long. I think because my experience has been different than others, that it makes it much harder for me to post.

I hope to express my thoughts tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope everyone is somewhat well. Or at least you are striving to be. I know some of you, most of the one's I've known for the longest are doing great. :l Thanks for that.

Sorry if it's mucho weird to update this thread without an update. I'm not sure why I did, exactly. Except, it's the beginning of an update. It's me putting my toes in the water and seeing where it goes.

Sincerely,

Redhead

[Ne/Neva Eva]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

It's hard to jump all the way in if it's been a while. The water's okay, though. Looking forward to it...

xxoo

[bleep]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

As am I...

[ifulovelife2]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Red!!!!!!!

Long time no see. So, what's the news?

[StuckinLA]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

What's up, RedH? Nice to see you around. :l

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Hello,

Oh no. Now I'm getting cold feet and feel like backing out of my update. I feel like you're all expecting me to post that life has been sunshine and daisies. I hate to disappoint you, but not so much. I haven't been doing that great the last couple of months. Where to begin?

I won't try to explain everything that's happened the last 8 months. I won't write a long, epic Redhead post that has your eyes closing by the end. I guess I'll just try to sum it up the best I can.

I seemed to be doing very well on a combination of HDB and Naltrexone. I was taking around 140 mg of bac a day, combined with the Naltrexone when I drank. I never knew when I'd drink, so I often took it on a near daily basis (at least at first). A few months after I started taking it, I noticed that I was losing a ton of hair. It was like a constant shedding. By the middle of summer, my hair was noticeably thinner. You could see through it in the light. I have longish hair, so I took to wearing it up for the rest of the summer and into fall. In the fall, it didn't seem to be falling out as badly, but I was still having some shedding here and there. It was strange. It would stop for a few days, only to start up again. It might have to do with how I was taking Naltexone, I don't know.

I know I've posted that I've had hair loss at other times in my life. There's always been a triggering event though. Like the birth of a baby or a huge amount of weight loss. Not this time. I couldn't put my finger on a single thing that could have caused it. I then thought about medications. Meds are a common cause for hair loss. Naltrexone was the only new med I'd been taking. It was distressing me enough that I decided to stop taking it and see if the shedding would stop. It did, and it has since grown back in.

I'll never know for sure if it was the Nal that caused it. Not until I'm ready to try it again. I'm not quite there yet.

I was on baclofen too and looking back at my thread, I'd gone up to 160 and felt indifferent. Over a period of time, I felt this feeling go away (wouldn't be the first time for me). So I went up some more. But going up on baclofen, causes SEs that I don't adjust to. In the winter, I was on 190 and it was doing well for my drinking, but I was having other problems. I was spaced out, depressed, and having some paranoia. I didn't even realize how screwed up I was. I expressed to a friend who knows I take HDB, that if I wasn't sure that it would destroy my kids forever, that I would exit this world. That I felt like giving up. My friend really freaked on me, and told me that I needed to come down on bac immediately. That I might be scared of drinking more, but he was scared I wouldn't be around to know. I thought about it, and agreed that I wasn't well. I told him I would come down immediately. He thought I should come down drastically, but I've done that before, and I usually have panic attacks. It's anxiety like I've never known. We settled on 30 mg that week, and then I came down another 20 mg for the next two weeks. So it was about 70 mg over a period of 3 weeks. This was January into February (I think). I then suffered (yet again) from the most crippling anxiety for a couple of weeks. It was by far the worst yet. I was worried I wouldn't survive it, and I actually contemplated seeking medical treatment a couple of times (I can't even tell you how bad off I'd have to be to consider doing that. For a few reasons.) Luckily, I had both Xanax and gabapentin, or I would have had to get help. My tapering was clearly too fast for me. After I got through those weeks of anxiety my head was clearer, my mood lifted, and I did well with drinking for a little while.

But then...I started to drink more again. I wouldn't drink every day, but I would always drink to excess when I did. I could easily kill a bottle of wine. That's where I've been. I've been scared as hell to go back up, since I don't want to experience what I did before. I've now become more scared of drinking too much, so I decided to go back up anyway and see what happens. I went up to 180 a few days ago. I have switched to the liquid baclofen and only take that when I'm home. I seem to have fewer SEs compared to the pills. I have to take the pills when I'm at work though. I will mention that I woke up yesterday feeling incredibly screwed up. I couldn't think straight and I could barely function. I felt like I'd OD'd or something on baclofen. I got worried that I was right back where I was before. I had taken two doses of pills at work the day before, and I wasn't sure if that what the problem was, or if I had accidentally taken an extra night dose. I also was exhausted and could barely move. I'd just gotten off working 4 twelves and an 8 hour shift last week. Today I feel fine on the dose. Thank goodness for that.

I don't get it. I can't come down far from my switch dose or I want to drink quite a bit more. So many of you like Bleep, Ne, and TerryK can come down and it doesn't matter. But I also don't feel that baclofen is magic for me. It's been a tool. A very powerful one, but a tool.

So why is my experience so much different than many of yours? Why do I struggle so with this? Is it that I never truly switched? Is it that baclofen just doesn't work for me like it does for you? I know I've tried just about eveything in the last 2 plus years. It does work, but it's very dose dependent, and the doses I require usually cause too many SEs to be tolerable and function well long term.

Thanks my friends for responding and taking an interest in my thread. Sorry that it might be a hard read. It's certainly longer than I'd hoped.

** I don't believe bac itself caused me to be depressed. I believe the SEs I was experiencing were the main problem. I couldn't function the way I needed to and think clearly. I have, on a good day, very little down time. Things need to be done almost constantly. I have three small children and a full time job; I have a house and a yard. It's only me to do things. When my head is in a fog, and I can't remember what I need to do, as well as dropping the ball all of the time; I get really down. And I get really down when I don't have a plan on how to fix myself or everything else. When I feel stuck in a situation that isn't working, but the alternative wouldn't work either.

[chaos]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

redhead77;1504820 wrote: Hello,.

I don't get it. I can't come down far from my switch dose or I want to drink quite a bit more. So many of you like Bleep, Ne, and TerryK can come down and it doesn't matter. either.

"So many of you"...you must be joking..aren't ya?
guess they are the only ones....and where's the rest of moderately long term "baclofen sweet success stories"...go figure

[redhead77]

This Redhead's Baclofen Thread

Stay off my thread Chaos, unless you have constructive things to add for my well being, or if you have general wisdom. I don't want you here. Ya hear???