Colin, 65

[spacebebe01]

Colin, 65

I would be interested in the reaction Colin to vitamin enriched alcohol, I honestly dont see why anyone would have a problem with it, but Im sure there are plenty of people would try and find some. Adding baclofen on the other hand would be a total no no I would think, unfortunately we have to come to decide for ourselves if we want to do something about our drinking that is peoples right, but it should also be a right to be informed of the possibilities of different ways of stopping or cutting down whichever someone chooses including the medications available that can help. This doesnt seem to be happening at all. When I first wanted to cut down my drinking the only thing I could find was AA and I didnt agree with it so carried on for years while being told to just go back to AA and accept their help. I took many years, hospital admissions, a 3 month 12 step rehab, and a hospital alcohol unit until I found MWO and started exploring the possibilities of medication.

Sorry for waffling on here I dont know what sent me off course but I do always try to post what comes out because I never know if what I write could help someone who is reading.

[TexasAg]

Colin, 65

I didn't want to wait for the Thiamine Beer (but I agree, it'd be a great idea) so I went and bought GNC Mega Men? Sport multivitamin. It has 50mg of Thiamin.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers!

[bleep]

Colin, 65

Colin, you've a very interesting thread here, there are a couple of points I want to mention, take it for what it's worth...

My personal take on the whole PRN issue is that it's horseshit, and I think that as you take baclofen for longer, you'll agree; in the beginning, it's all about this dose at this time leads to this SE, etc., but after a while, it all evens out, and it seems that it has as much to do with how long you have been taking baclofen as to how much. From personal experience, which may or may not be relevant, being the almighty sample of one, that's my take.

Well, it seems that's only one point, I thought there were more.

You've got a great, informative thread here, with some horribly dry wit. Keep it coming.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Four in the morning

Yesterday evening I played semi-serious bridge for the first time since the beginning my baclofen sauced journey. For the last couple of days my schema has been 4 x 50 mg baclofen per day at 800, 1300, 1700 and 2300. Not wanting to inflict a zombie on my night's partner I skipped the 1700 dose and achieved a nearly acceptable level - fourth in a field including two current world champions and we finished above them.

What a busy life we out-of-work alcoholics-in-recovery have! Busy, busy, busy.

Before going to bed I took 75 mg - my rough calculation, based on a half-life of five hours, was that this would bring the strength of my baclofen soup back to its previous nighttime value. Three hours after going to bed I was woken with cramp in both feet. I had this experience long before the baclofen voyage started and then assigned the blame to a generally disgusting physical condition. Knowing what I now know I am nearly certain that booze is the culprit. It causes a thiamine deficit which in turn causes brain damage.
The Role of Thiamine Deficiency in Alcoholic Brain Disease

The cramps mentioned above disappeared about five minutes after getting out of bed. Apart from that the skipped dose experiment was successful. I will be proceeding with much larger doses around my bed-time. Perhaps 75, 25, 25, 75.

Added physical forward ref

Colin;1455675 wrote: Thiamine deficiency damages ...

[Xadrian]

Colin, 65

Colin;1455300 wrote: I will be proceeding with much larger doses around my bed-time. Perhaps 75, 25, 25, 75.

I know that cutting the damn pills in half is annoying, but wouldn't 62.5-37.5-37.5-62.5 be a better option?
But hey, you're the boss.

By the way, I'm sorry about the brain damage in your feet. :H

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Xadrian;1455450 wrote: I know that cutting the damn pills in half is annoying, but wouldn't 62.5-37.5-37.5-62.5 be a better option?

I don't know whether it would be better. I have enough info saved in my earlier posts to know that when increasing the dose there are times when 5 mg per day every 5/6 days is optimum and at other times 12.5 is best. These limits vary not just from person to person but also at different times for the same person.

Is 3 or 4 or 6 times per day better? 6 times a day allows lower maximum and higher minimum doses but does that matter? When I was on 6 times a day it was much easier to forget a dose and I also found that taking a dose +- a couple of hours didn't matter much either. 4 doses per day has big practical advantages - getting out of bed, eating lunch, eating dinner and going to bed are moments having associated patterns where a pill moment has a better chance of being observed.

Is the last pill moment best just before going to bed or is a couple of hours before better? My experience is sometimes one rather than the other and the best choice was not predictable.

Is it better to take the pills whilst awake or when sleeping? Short term considerations are insomnia, somnolence and convenience. Longer term can the road to a maximum be shortened or made more endurable?

To what extent can the dose be lowered to provide increased lucidity at predefined moments. Initial evidence suggests that when moving pills from 1 moment to another 50 mg can safely be moved.

There are probably more questions and they are all important. The dose schemata are a very important aspect of a patient's willingness to continue the treatment. Lo0p's advice to listen to your body is as good as any. If the plan seems to be working don't fuck with it. If it isn't working too well then try a small change and hope you have moved in the right direction.

Back to the original question - cutting pills in half is indeed annoying so I am not doing it but if I suspect there might be some advantage I will give it a try.

I bet you weren't expecting this stream of verbal diarrhoea. After all, I could have replied "dunno".

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Xadrian;1455450 wrote:
By the way, I'm sorry about the brain damage in your feet. :H
Thiamine deficiency damages both the signal processing by the brain and the signal passing by the nerves. I had incorrectly assigned the blame to the signal processor. In this case my brain damage was in my arsehole where my head was.

EDIT: Next physical link:
Colin;1467323 wrote: From Feb 11 onwards baclofen ...

[Xadrian]

Colin, 65

Colin;1455675 wrote: Thiamine deficiency damages both the signal processing by the brain and the signal passing by the nerves. I had incorrectly assigned the blame to the signal processor. In this case my brain damage was in my arsehole where my head was.

You shouldn't apologize. I was only joking to cheer you up. I was not trying to make fun of you.
Cramped feet are bad enough.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Ne/Neva Eva;1454599 wrote:

(Colin, please feel free to disregard. If you'd like to be dismissive again, please let's take that elsewhere. It's starting to get annoying.)

Sorry Ne. What have I done this time? Or are you just getting your retaliation in first?

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Colin, 65

I think it's your unwillingness to use emoticons.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Xadrian;1455705 wrote: You shouldn't apologize. I was only joking to cheer you up. I was not trying to make fun of you.
Cramped feet are bad enough.

That wasn't an apology but an acknowledgement and correction of an error. I couldn't possibly consider your remark as undesirable - it was desirable and amusing.

Your expression "brain damage in your feet" not only generated a laugh, it also initiated the error correction.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Ne/Neva Eva;1455773 wrote: I think it's your unwillingness to use emoticons.

Not exactly a venial sin.

Written communication has been perfectly adequate for centuries without annotating and explaining jokes.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Colin, 65

It was a joke.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

Ne/Neva Eva;1456135 wrote: It was a joke.

Yes dear. Of course it was.

[kuya]

Colin, 65

Egos are an amusing thing to watch.

Hi Colin, how are you?