hi diver.

i start week 3 on tuesday so not much advice to give, but from what i've read on this board a bad night or bad week is often followed with some progress. so maybe you will see a decrease in units this week or next? don't stress too much and keep up the good work!

nal on!

--pepper

I have a quick question - Does anyone know if Nal can increase blood pressure? I went to the doctor today and my blood pressure was higher than normal. He is not aware that I am taking Nal so I didn't want to ask him if this could be a Nal SE. I should mention that I was AF for 36 hours at the time of the visit and my last dose of Nal was about 48 hrs prior.
Thanks,

Hiya Diver!

Blood pressure is a tricky thing especially in our mortal 40+ bodies.

I think it's my heavy alcohol use that triggered my high blood pressure and my nurse practitioner wisely prescribed Lisinopril and it works like a charm.

Give yourself a break, in that, no matter what might be CAUSING your high blood pressure, allow your doctor to nip in the bud and prescribe a medication that will calm your system down.

Easy to remedy!

Take it from me,

Ketchikan1

Hi Ketch,
Thanks for the reply, I normally do not have any issues with my BP. The more I think about it, it may be high due to the pain that I am experiencing . The reason I went to the doc was that I injured my bicep at the gym two weeks ago and it is not healing. My GP has referred me to an orthopedic.

Hopefully nothing too major, I’ve got my vacation and diving trip to Brazil coming up quickly!

Thanks again,

My weeks run from Friday to Thursday, last weekend was ugly. I kinda greyed out one night and then started drinking early the next day. I'm happy to say that as bad as that was the end of the week was great ... finished with 3 AF days without having to use much will power at all. Of course it helped that my daughters had two swim meets after work, so it gave me something enjoyable to do instead of go home and think about drinking.

One thing that didn't happen that I was expecting was after a couple of AF days back-to-back I was expecting to feel the endorphins kick in after my workouts ... I didn't really notice anything different than when I had Nal in my system. Oh well, it is a small price to pay if I can get this gorilla off my back.

Have a Great Weekend All,

I haven’t posted for a while since I was on my Brazilian vacation. As expected my units shot through the roof since the partying usually started shortly afternoon and went until after midnight on many of the days. Fortunately I didn’t have any bad behavior; however there was one night where my recollection is pretty sketchy.

During our trip I was able to have one AF day which was really important for me. The following day I was taking my oldest daughter on her first ocean dive and I wanted to be sure that I was in top form to be able to keep an eye on her and also fully enjoy the moment. We had a great couple of dives and the memory will last our lifetimes.

The good news is that I was able to give my liver a break this week and have three consecutive AF days. In the past I would have had to work myself down much more gradually. This time the first AF day required just a bit of effort and days 2&3 were really easy.

This weekend I am hoping to keep the binging under control and enjoy our 18th wedding anniversary without losing control.

Thank you Dr. Sinclair!

Keep fighting the good fight Diver. TSM is working for you!

I haven’t updated my progress for a while so I thought that I should take the time to do so. My units are still way too high, and I have been averaging 1 AF day per week. One week I was able to have three consecutive AF days and felt great. Last Thursday I was planning to have an AF day but I got a call from an old friend who was in town on business and wanted to get together for dinner/drinks. In the past I probably would have made up some BS excuse why I couldn’t make it even though I hadn’t seen him in over three years. The reason I would have skipped out is that he was staying at a downtown hotel and didn’t have a rental car. This meant that I needed to pick him up and drop him off after dinner, then drive 40 minutes home. PreTSM I could not have trusted myself to remain sober enough to drive. I am proud to say that I only had three Stellas in a couple of hours and was easily able to drive without being at risk of being over the legal limit. Even more amazing, was when I got home I went straight to bed without serving myself at least one double scotch on the rocks!

While I have had numerous AF days and have been able to limit my intake during my mid-week sessions to 3-6 units, I still have not been able to impact my heavy drinking on the weekends. From Friday night to Sunday night I am typically consuming 31-37 units - way overboard. I truly hope that I will start to see some reduction in units during the weekends in the weeks to come.

Nal On

You are still in the early innings (as you know). Your update bodes very well for your ultimate success. NAL-ON!, Diver.

Definitely early innings, but maybe it's also time to exert a tiny bit of effort? Maybe try and make a modest goal for yourself (say, 30 drinks over the weekend, rather than 37) and challenge yourself to meet it?