Colin, 65

[Colin]

Colin, 65

March 9 - April 7

Baclofen has been constant at 137.5 (37.5, 25, 37.5, 37.5) and this seems about right. I expect to stay at this dosage for the foreseeable future.

Gabapentin has certainly reduced the leg pains and it's still improving.

Friday 5 April 2013 was noteworthy for an increase in gabapentin from 0.6 grams per day to 1.2 and the first alcoholic drinks in the last year.

6 and 7 April provided not only a gradual pain improvement but on both days a most unusual increase in performance on nearly all exercises at the gym. I know that baclofen helps but this increase can only be tied to the gabapentin! It's ridiculous compared to the previous couple of months. Yet another performance enhancing drug?

The Friday night boozing has passed with no noticeable negative aspects. Saturday morning brought a minor disorientation for a couple of hours but nothing remotely like a hangover. Since then the only noticeable change has been a generally improved mood. No desire at all for a beer or anything else alcoholic.

So, Sticky and Kuya, New Zealand might just see me skiing in 4/5 months time and if it happens I'll certainly look you up. I also have a nice niece living in Christchurch and being a pensioner means I have all the time in the world.

[bleep]

Colin, 65

I'm glad your experiment worked so successfully. When I first drank after a while (pre baclofen), I was surprised no bells rang, and the event seemed to pass unnoticed by all around me.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

April 8 - 14

I've now had eight days on the increased gabapentin dose of 1.2 grams per day and on each of these days at least half of the strength training exercise where pain is not the limiting factor have improved. There has been an average weight increase of 3% in eight days! If this continues ...

Before the gabapentin increase a number of the exercises seemed to have reached a plateau with little or no improvement during the prior two weeks.

I've searched the internet for correlation between gabapentin and performance improvement and found nothing. Is it possible that gabapentin acts as a catalyst to enhance the performance improving side effects of baclofen?

EDIT: Next physical link:

Colin;1499265 wrote: A bit more than a year ago ...

[Sticky]

Colin, 65

Hi Colin

Great news regarding your experiment and the gabapentin. I didn't realise you had been sober for a year. Well done! That's awesome re the exercise enhancement. You'd be able to give hubby and I and maybe even our fit kids a run for our money on the NZ ski slopes! We don't go very often. The last couple of years we've gone for a long weekend to Ruapehu (North Island) with another family. Occasionally we go to Snowplanet, an indoor ski run near Auckland.

NZ is a beautiful country. It'd be great to see you here.

Cheers
Sticky

[Colin]

Colin, 65

April 15 - 21

It's now been two weeks on 1.2 grams of gabapentin and the performance improvements continue, amounting to 5.3% weight additions during the last two weeks.

The pain reduction in some of the leg muscles was the reason to try gabapentin in the first place and that has also improved.

Prior to this week baclofen had been constant at 137.5 mg per day.

April 14: Decreased baclofen to 125 mg per day. So far so good with the limited alcoholic intake. What happens now?

April 17: Had a slightly distressing family discussion in the afternoon. Even in my alcoholic past this kind of event never drove me to drink - I would have been doing that anyway. This time I was surprised by marginal thoughts of beer and whisky. About five hours later I went off to the town centre for a few drinks. I drank the equivalent of a bit more than a bottle of wine and returned home reasonably and happily a little tipsy.
Along with baclofen and gabapentin a few drinks have a very noticeable effect.

April 18: During my recent alcoholic experiments I have not been trying too hard to control the quantity - just go with the flow and see what happens. Regularly drinking a bottle of wine is too much but every now and then... Even so I felt a bit too close to the edge and took an extra 25 mg of baclofen in the morning.
Around midday I was in a shopping centre and wanted a piss. It seemed the most normal thing in the world to go into a cafetaria, order a beer and take a leak, which I did. Now something most unusual happened - I didn't order a second beer. I was slightly tempted and but for the extra 25 mg who knows?
That evening I drank perhaps 2/3 of a bottle of wine without any compulsive feelings.

April 19: About 1/2 a bottle of wine in the evening but simply out of habit - if I feel bored perhaps a few drinks are in order?

April 20: I woke up and decided that I had been sailing too close to the wind so no more alcohol for a while. Around midday I felt mildly like a drink but the 1 p.m. baclofen pill soon quietened me down. Since then avoiding alcohol has been no trouble at all. Baclofen is abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

April 21: Effortless abstinence. Clearly I need to watch out below 150 mg per day but this all seems well under control.

[RedThread12]

Colin, 65

Yea, Colin!

Well done . . . all the way 'round!! Wish I had more to contribute, but the only thing that comes to mind is Lo0p's likewise remarkable increase and capacity for weights and reps after he started using baclofen. The graph he put up, comparing legs, lifts, pulls, crunches (I dunno' what else, because I don't do gym) - befores and afters - is a work of art:-), and probably well-worth finding. I'd do it for you, but it's 1:44 am where I a.m., and time for sleep. Maybe I'll put "working out" on a list of some sort, myself.

And thanks for your contributions here at MWO. I appreciate you, and them, very much.

[bleep]

Colin, 65

It's been my experience that a prn dose does nothing, apart from perhaps a psychological boost. And that makes sense, if you consider that it is the level of baclofen in your CNS that is the controlling factor, and not baclofen in the bloodstream. From there it gets too technical for me, so I don't pretend to understand any more than that.

[Sticky]

Colin, 65

Hi Colin

Great observations and helpful to us all, as usual.

Keep up the good work at the gym!

Cheers
Sticky :thanks:

[ignominious]

Colin, 65

Hi Colin
Still sailing "close to the wind"? Or are you luffing?

[Colin]

Colin, 65

RedThread12;1495195 wrote:
Maybe I'll put "working out" on a list of some sort, myself.

A bit more than a year ago I was in terrible shape - falling over drunk and with neither the strength nor the inclination to get up; a hollow man with no future:-
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Since then I have been regularly exercising for a couple of hours a day where the exercise alone is very enjoyable. I also feel much better performing simple tasks in the garden or other mildly strenuous activity. I'm sleeping much better and a whole bunch of other things seem easier and/or more enjoyable.

Baclofen and exercise have made an enormous change to my quality of life. Need I say more?

EDIT: Next physical post
Colin;1507952 wrote: Yesterday I completely forgot ...

[TexasAg]

Colin, 65

That is great to hear!

Congratulations!

Cheers!

[Colin]

Colin, 65

April 23 - May 18

The following are derived from my daily notes as a try to see what kind of alcoholic drinking is possible with which doses of baclofen.

The WHO classifies male drinkers into low risk: 0 - 40 grams, medium risk: 40 - 60 grams and high risk > 60 grams. The risk is that of causing the drinker chronic harm. The density of alcohol is a little less than 0.8 grams per milliliter so that a liter of 5% beer contains 40 grams of alcohol. A bottle of 13% wine contains 78 grams of alcohol - so half a bottle of wine every day and a man is just on the right side of the boundary. The figures for females are 20 grams less than for males.

My alcohol consumption in grams per day was: 0, 40, 0, 0, 0, 0, 30, 0, 10, 0, 75, 0, 10, 30, 24, 80, 10, 10, 0, 50, 20, 20, 34, 20, 20. Most of this is beer and a little wine. My spirit consumption is negligible.

Baclofen was nearly constant at 137.5 mg with two three day periods when I dropped to 125 mg. Both were periods when I wanted to be more alert. Dropping the dose helped but not as much as a wanted; I'll try some of the pills mentioned as improving alertness and cognitive ability.

Throughout the period my exercise regime saw continuous improvements unrelated to the amount of alcohol on the previous day. The weights moved are increasing at about 10% a month!

[Juan BH]

Colin, 65

Hey Colin-
I just started going through your thread last night. You write a clear and well-documented journal. Your last posts are informative in how to find a maintenance dose. I have been wondering at that and it seems to be that one needs to experiment a bit and find what's right for them. I am happy for your success!

[Colin]

Colin, 65

May 19. Two pearls of wisdom.

Yesterday I completely forgot to take the second (1 pm) pill in my daily sequence of 1.5, 1, 1.5, 1.5. Between 5:30 and 7 I went for a bike ride and stopped at two bars on the way, in each of which I drank a single teensy-weensy 25 cl beer and they both tasted unbelievably good.

This puzzled me. During the last couple of months I regularly drank a couple of beers but never did they taste so good. I had a fairly busy evening when I wanted to stay alert and had already decided to delay the 6 pm dose until 9 pm at which time I noticed that I had missed the 1 pm dose. My baclofen fuddled brain slowly made the connection - just missing a single pill has remarkable consequences.

I remember one of bleep's posts where he wrote about tapering off baclofen, embarking on a mini-binge and a couple of shags before tapering back up. Good news bleep - try a mini-taper. a mini-binge, shag yourself stupid, then taper back up. You can do all this in less than a week.

For the last year I've been taking baclofen according to a fairly rigid schema and together with mirtazapine I've been sleeping perfectly. Catching up on the baclofen last night I took 3 pills (75 mg) just before bed at 11 pm. I woke at 6, which is at least two hours before I would normally wake up and got out of bed to write this post.

In my case erratic dosing leads to unforeseen disturbances. Pretty obvious to most people but I felt it to be worth noting.

[Colin]

Colin, 65

May 20

I went for a bike ride at 4:30 and a long walk at 7:30. On both occasions I was a little "edgy" and drank a 25 cl beer. The edginess disappeared with the first couple of sips and the beer tasted just too good. Next time I'll take some extra baclofen.

The feelings as I drank the beer reminded me very much of my alcoholic past and the first couple of drinks in the morning - those were real hits as the tension slid away.

Only two 20 cl beers (1/2 the 40 cl limit for low risk) but a real cause for concern.

EDIT at 3:45 pm.
I was slow-witted this morning and failed to make the connection between a stressful discussion the evening of May 19 and the edgyness the next day. The edgyness made me want some exercise and it probably gave me a subconscious prod in the direction of the cafes.