Hi Everyone
First I'd like to say I'm sorry for not contributing in a while, I have one computer at home that my teens are always on (also don't know about tsm) . I try to sneak on at work whenever I can.
Thanks to the cured, almost cured and the brave and patient for posting. I hang on your ever words, and my heart and prayers goes out to the ones that are taking longer. I'm afraid I may be the same( drank about 60/80 units for many years) I am at week 12.
I will post my # when I have them with me next time, but # haven't changed much. With that said my attitude to acho is so much different than per tsm, and the way I look at life in general is much better.
In fact one thing I did which I would never have done per tsm is join a gym. I was either too hung over, or drinking the hair of the dog to ever work out. At just 3 days my knee started hurting and has hurt sometimes in the past. Went and had an MRI, and guess what I have "bone infarct" dead (no blood supply) knee. After ruling out most causes, it seems years of drinking has caused this. Cure- total knee replacement. (I'm still going for a second opinion, but dead is dead no matter what.) To all of you younger people (and I'm not that old, 48) please don't wait to start tsm or anything to get help!!!!!
As much as I'm afraid of the surgery, I'm so much more afraid of going off nal
when I'm not at the place I want to be. At may be I can hang in there till then but may be not. And even though I know drinking without nal at this point is so not good, I afraid I will not have the strainth, hell that's how I got here to begain with. And am I now going to make my super highway into the Autobone?
Maybe I can take different kinds of pain killers than oipions, but was told they will not work. I can't begin to tell you all how terrified I am!
Thanks so much for all of you sharing your lifes, and may God and, or something look out for each of us.

This is awful and I feel terrible for you. I'm not sure I get it -- they are claiming that if you have a knee replacement that there are no non-opiate pain relievers available? Check Eskapa's book but I thought this was a non-issue and that there are plenty of pain killers that would work fine that are not opiate based that you can take while on naltrexone. You should really look into this with your doctor or do more research. It would be a shame to have to go off TSM because of this procedure.

I wish you the best in dealing with this very difficult issue.

Nick

Nick,
I thought the Dr.s mainly recommended going off nal for the duration required. Maybe it is that in this big of an operation that the substitute pain meds might not be potent enough?
And cantspell, don't be terrified. What else would you be doing? Just make a commitment to get back on the nal, if you have nto go off, as soon as possible. There have been others that have had to have surgeries and are still with us. The Dr.s say that if you drink w/o nal over time the addictive pathjways will come back and increase. The initial thing is that the endorphin rush will be greater w/o nal .
Take heart, get your surgery, get back on nal. It took a long time to get to your al use and it will take a while to get rid of it.

Thanks guys
I was told that during the surgery and for a week or so after it will be the opiate based ones, the others are not strong enough, than Tylenol base stuff. Not great for the liver, but luckily mine is ok.
The doc suggested a bone scan (a MRI kind of thing) to see if other joints are effected. Just how many joints can they replace, this really sucks. What we do to our bodies just for the sake of the drink, it's sick. I'm going to get a second opinion or even a third, till I get the answers I want ha ha. So it's the supper duper high way that really scares me. I think I am going to up to 75mg and maybe I'll get there quicker.
Thanks all