Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

[Colin]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

dundrinkn;1538589 wrote: Hello Stuck,
I am wondering if your leg pain went away at any point on the way down off bac. Is it gone now that you are off? I have titrated down to 80mg, from 160, however the leg pain seems to be intensifying. I am wondering what my options are. I really don't think it is alcohol related, as I didn't have it until I had been on bac for 3 months and pretty much had stopped drinking. Wondering about your experience.

When you stopped drinking you started getting leg pains?

Get a neurologist's opinion before jumping to any conclusions.

[dundrinkn]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Yes. When I stopped drinking I got the leg pain. Though it wasn't immediate. It was after about 3 months of drinking dramatically less -- going from 70-80 beers a week down to 5 a week. That reduction happened almost immediately (within a week, I'd say). The leg pain started after I went above 100mg a day of bac. I have an apt with a holistic doc tomorrow. Not a fan of western medicine. Will go see a neurologist if this route fails. I know you too have leg pain. What is your experience?

[StuckinLA]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Hey there, DD. I'd say the pain is for the most part gone completely. Every once in a while I do still feel a bit of tingling-ish in my lower legs, not like RLS or anything, but like the same thing I felt on bac. Not as severe, though, and it is fairly rare these days. I've been off bac for about 3 months now, btw. So I'd say I'm about back to "normal" at least in that regard.

I have not been to a neurologist or anything. Though I'm about the worst person about keeping up with my own healthcare. Especially considering this is summer and my insurance doesn't kick back in until the fall semester. So I don't have any answers on that front. But I do believe it was bac related, and it is nearly gone now.

I went off bac in December, and then back on, and the second time around I noticed pretty drastic pain almost immediately, like at 30mg and above. It's freaking weird and it sucks. But I also think I was just a mess in general the second time around, between February and April or so. But anyway that's my story.

[Colin]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

My leg pain seems to be different from yours. It is the limiting factor in several leg muscles during a variety of activities. The neurologist diagnosed alcoholic polyneuropathy and prescribed gabapentin which is now 3.6 grams per day. This helps a lot but there is still a long way to go.

Marijuana is also a possible help and I will soon be asking the psychiatrist. I'll do it if it helps with the pain but I don't want to be stoned whilst flying down the ski slopes.

In the past five years I frequently suffered from foot cramps in bed and that has also disappeared with the gabapentin.

[StuckinLA]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Yeah, my pain was never cramping. More like a severe skin sensitivity. Anything brushing against my skin was painful and moving around was, but holding absolutely still was usually OK.

Sorry to hear you're not out of the woods with it, Colin. That sucks. I do hope it improves with the gabapentin.

[Colin]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

All of the various pains are reported via the nerves. Polyneuropathy means mutiple nerves are damaged and are passing incorrect messages. Apparently the longest nerves are affected first which accounts for the legs and feet. Next are the arms and hands but none of us seem to have reached that stage.

If gabapentin helps one form of polyneuropathy I'd certainly give it a try for other sorts. I have noticed no side-effects at all.

As already mentioned you might be able to get some high grade medical marijuana.
But first get the neurologist's opinion before embarking on a pipe-dream.

[dundrinkn]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Mine is the skin sensitivity as well. Bending at the knees makes me want to bite the heads off snakes. So painful. I currently don't have much trouble with it during the daytime, only at night. I did get a medical marijuana card yesterday. I am currently down to 70mg bac, and absolutely no desire to drink. Will see if adding several drops of something high in cannabinoids and low on THC will get rid of the nighttime pain. I don't want to stop the bac completely. The doc was pretty sure the pain was an SE of the bac. If so, this should fix it. Also should help with anxiety and insomnia -- which currently isn't bad anyway. I never liked smoking pot, so we'll see. He assured me that was because recreational strains are high in THC which usually exacerbates anxiety. Will keep you posted.

[StuckinLA]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

I am still hoping upon hope that it's a lingering bac SE, and basing this solely on the fact that it started along with starting bac over a year ago now. I'd never noticed really anything like this before. And I have very little knowledge of brain chemistry, even after this whole process and trying to figure it out. Considering the length of time it takes for things to return to "normal" after quitting drinking, I can only guess that it would take a while for things to return to "normal" after tapering off bac. Which may or may not also have anything to do with how relatively easy my current sobriety is.

Do let me know how the medical marijuana works out for you, DD. I just got my driver's license reinstated here in CA, and am just waiting for the physical card to arrive in the mail within the next week or so. I have been considering a prescription for MM for recreational purposes--as an alternative to going back to alcohol, which I worry about. I smoked pot nightly in high school, but since college kind of lost the taste for it, and recently find it makes me extremely anxious. So I'd love to know if the medical strains are better in that regard.

[thomas m]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

StuckinLA;1539297 wrote: I am still hoping upon hope that it's a lingering bac SE, and basing this solely on the fact that it started along with starting bac over a year ago now. I'd never noticed really anything like this before. And I have very little knowledge of brain chemistry, even after this whole process and trying to figure it out. Considering the length of time it takes for things to return to "normal" after quitting drinking, I can only guess that it would take a while for things to return to "normal" after tapering off bac. Which may or may not also have anything to do with how relatively easy my current sobriety is.

Do let me know how the medical marijuana works out for you, DD. I just got my driver's license reinstated here in CA, and am just waiting for the physical card to arrive in the mail within the next week or so. I have been considering a prescription for MM for recreational purposes--as an alternative to going back to alcohol, which I worry about. I smoked pot nightly in high school, but since college kind of lost the taste for it, and recently find it makes me extremely anxious. So I'd love to know if the medical strains are better in that regard.

The good thing about having an MM card is the choose of strains you would have on offer. I to stopped smoking years ago because of anxiety but if I'd access to the multitude of strains you now have access to, I'd give it a shot. Indica's tend to be more of a relaxed high with less likely hood of bringing on the panic.

[StuckinLA]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Well there have certainly been some ups n' downs. In the downs I don't feel like posting and in the ups I'm too busy to post, and then too busy even during the downs sometimes. So for the record: at the beginning of summer I was put on a beta blocker for blood pressure and elevated heart rate (I was totally in alcohol withdrawal for a while) and I stayed on that for a month until I ran out. I got into a pretty good routine for the first 1/2 of the summer, writing in the mornings and reading a little bit and jogging some and even going to the gym once in a while. But then I taught a crazy-intense summer program for high school seniors that lasted 7 weeks and sucked the life and will-to-continue-on-living right out of me day by day, every day. Followed by a 2 week vacation back home.

I've been off bac and AF for I keep saying 4 months in my head but really it's like 3 months and 3 weeks right now. So here I am, trying to get back into that good routine again. Wrote today and it actually went fairly well. Then hopped around a bit trying to find a place to sit with air conditioning, and finally gave up and went for a 2 1/2 mile jog--just got back, and my options were Xbox, reading, Netflix, Xbox, or MWO. So here I am.

Back home was a little bizarre. I met people sober for the first time--as in, I've totally met them before, many times, but they noticed that this was the first time they've seen me sober. They said hi. Then the chick who wanted me to have her baby for a while had decided that we should have sex. Kind of a get-it-out-of-her-system thing so she could move on. We met for coffee one of the first nights I was in town. And a couple more times, and one time for drinks and dinner, and we made out in my rental car and sorry this if this is TMI but there were definitely climaxes involved on her part. And we went out for more drinks another night and again we met for coffee, and ultimately she made the (probably wise) decision that sex was not a good idea, so that didn't happen.

Meanwhile, another friend from college just got out of a 6-year relationship, so when we were all in Iowa visiting our old stomping grounds, she got a little tipsy and we made out at a friend's apartment. And then I helped her move out of the apartment she'd shared with the dude she thought she might marry. And then there was another night when a bunch of us college-friends stayed at the new place she's sharing with yet another friend, and in the middle of the night when I was on the couch I went out onto the balcony for a smoke, texted her in her new bedroom, and then went in there and we made out. And the following night, yes, finally, I have not lost all of my game in "sobriety" and I got laid. Dude. It's the weirdest thing: sex, sober, and she was sober, and she's someone that I actually really like and am pretty attracted to. I don't even know WTF to do about this. And I'm not sure she knows exactly, either, given that she texted me the next day to say she couldn't stop thinking about it and couldn't concentrate at work. And we've been texting back/forth quite a bit since--and yeah, we've been friends for years, but haven't stayed close in this day-to-day type communication, ya' know? So I don't know if this is just the usual "things kinda change after you've been inside someone" or something more. And she and a gay couple we know are coming out to rent a house in San Diego for a week in November, and she's promised me a "surprise" if I have a chapter of my dissertation written by then. And no, I'm fairly certain the surprise has nothing to do with the gay couple--their orientation has no relevance to this story so get your minds out of the gutter!

Where were we? Oh yeah, So I also hung out with my exGF a few times and that was depressing as hell. And of course spent some time with my parents, but much less this time around since I had a rental car and so wasn't completely stuck at their house the whole time. And I got to see the love of my life exGF in Iowa, and her husband and 2 kids, and got to take a couple of very long walks with her and talk all about my addiction and her depression, and life, and all that crap. It was... wonderful to see her. Just wish we were both doing a little better.

And so I'm hanging out at the bar daily, drinking O'Doules like it'll get me drunk. Seriously. I f**king run tabs again. But it seems to hit the spot and take the edge off a little. Anyway, whatever, so far it's working pretty well for me. I can hang out there for a few hours, chat with the bartender, and just chill the hell out for a while. Anxiety hasn't been so bad for the most part, and I'm sleeping like a log, again for the most part, but there have certainly been some days. Right around 60, 90, 100, and now 110ish days AF, all that old anxiety and panic and feeling like my head's gonna explode and I'm dropping dead right there, it all comes back out of nowhere and lasts for an afternoon/evening/night or 2. Sucks. But I believe it or not STILL have Ativan left, and a 1/2 pill smooths everything right out. Worked like a charm this afternoon, in fact.

So I'm meeting with my main advisor tomorrow, and have to basically come clean and tell him I've done like no work whatsoever this past year, and that hopefully we can just look forward to what I will do this year. I'm not teaching--meaning I have zero/none/no set schedule. I just have to produce a dissertation anywhichway I can. F***************k.

And I'm taking a fiction-writing class FOR CREDIT so that I have deadlines for 3 chapters of the novel I'm working on. And I've set my phone up to train for a 5k. Not that I want to run a 5k, but whatever. And I'm thinking about trying to start doing this backpacking obstacle course thing. And whiskey-girl has started texting again like she wants to hang out or something, and I am responding to her texts but more or less avoiding her. And I've dusted off my online dating profile so might be going out a little bit every so often. So that's what I'm up to. Thanks for listening to me go on and on. See ya' around the abstinence thread or here or whatever. I'm still reading, just don't feel I have that much to contribute these days and, well as I mentioned, up or down something's always getting in the way of writing out a post, it seems.

Crazy-mad love, peeps. :l:l

[joanna_d]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

what a delightful read Stuck. good to read up on you.
nothing more to say i'm afraid, i'm beat. i feel like a big fat whale, that was just swimming in the sea to suddenly find herself sitting in a chair (of course way to small). drip drip drip.
okay. could've have kept that to myself as well i guess.

:l

[treetops]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Well it looks like being AF does not mean that you have to live the life of a monk - hurray for the endorphins of sober congress
And get the bloody dissertation finished - your poor supervisor!

[Clipped Wings]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Clipped Wings

Dear stuckinLA.

This is my first time ever using this median and just recently learned what The difference between Threads & Posts. I'm thrilled for the opportunity to connect with people like who can help each other with these debilitating alcohol cravings.

One week ago I started Baclofen and am currently taking 15mg three times daily, increasing a total of 15mg every 3 days with no noticeable changes yet. My hope is that when I reach 80mg daily, the war would be close to coming to an end !!! Your post has so much detail, along with others, that I suspect his will be a long uphill battle for me.

My daily drinking has become totally out of control. Everyday of my life is built around alcohol ie: exercising, relaxing, romance, socializing and any other activity I engage in. Alcohol is my reward for doing something positive in my life. Only a fool could imagine that rejecting alcohol from my life would be easy. Yes, I'm that fool !!!

I want to thank you and others who are bravely fighting this war and for giving me invaluable insights in what lies ahead. In your opinion am I on the right forum for discussion of Baclofen and alcohol cravings? I want to stay in touch with you and others who are sharing our experiences.

God Bless stuckinLA, Clipped Wings::new:

[spacebebe01]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

Whar are O'Doules??

[Samandkatharine]

Totally new to forum, sort of new to bac

spacebebe01;1555559 wrote: Whar are O'Doules??

Non- alcoholic beer.