I thought I may as well make a weekly progress thread to condense info for my DBF. He started nal on 8/19/09. My other threads:

HELP - Too far gone for TSM? Started 8/11/09

Are the side effects supposed to be this bad? Started 8/22/09

It's the little things - Started 10/22/09

Please tell me this is just extinction at work? Started 1/20/10

Progress? Started 2/22/10

At this point, the numbers don't look much better than they ever have. However, BF is way more functional that he has been in a long time, and he's very rarely getting even buzzed anymore. Much, much more coherent. He's also drinking much more rarely during the day, and he has started sleeping all night every night rather than waking up several times and drinking.

Since it took him a long time to work up to a full 50 mg dose of nal, and since he is such a heavy drinker, I'm not surprised it's taking him a while to get through this process. All I can tell you is the guy I'm living with today is leaps and bounds better than the guy I was living with last August. I'll try to make a post in here once a week with and update.

Weekly numbers so far (US units)

Week 1: 78
Week 2: 72
Week 3: 57
Week 4: 54.5
Week 5: 51
Week 6: 48.5
Week 7: 66
Week 8: 60
Week 9: 59
Week 10: 64.5
Week 11: 62
Week 12: 69
Week 13: 60
Week 14: 59
Week 15: 60.5
Week 16: 65.5
Week 17: 58.5
Week 18: 69
Week 19: 83
Week 20: 67.5
Week 21: 61
Week 22: 74.5
Week 23: 62.5
Week 24: 80
Week 25: 76.5
Week 26: 81
Week 27: 61
Week 28: 55.5
Week 29: 70.5
Week 30: 82.5
Week 31: 78
Week 32: 59.5
Week 33: 63
Week 34: 66.5
Week 35: 58.5
Week 36: 63.5
Week 37: 59
Week 38: 46

nmarie33,

Gosh, I wish I had a GF like you. Thanks for posting all the data. Hang in there - maybe read hawkeye's post for inspiration.

Thanks for posting. We'll be watching.

-wort

Update at the beginning of week 33...

Well I don't know what to think. BF's numbers have been pretty steady over the past 3 weeks. Something new is happening though. He's drinking about the same amount every day that he has been, but in the last week or so he's cramming it all in to the hours when I'm home instead of spreading it out throughout the day. Like he has no interest in drinking in the middle of the night anymore or drinking while I'm at work, but for some reason the second I get home he starts pounding shots. So I guess that's good that he doesn't want to drink in daylight hours, but the bad thing is that now he's getting shitfaced every night and acting like a tool. I think his tolerance isn't what it used to be either, because he seems to be getting totally stupid drunk on amounts that aren't THAT bad (for him anyway). Ugh.

Wow nmarie33, it sounds like my HB the same thing, so what do you think are they doing it on purpose to tick us off or what's up with this? Let's hope it's something happening with them that we don't know that will only turn out for the good for them (and us!).

corkit

Nmarie -- Your struggle has been epic -- truly an inspiration for so many who have followed your story. Thanks for continuing to come back and share. You've got one lucky guy there.

OK all, time to check in. Well things are going a lot better than the last time I posted. BF has stayed pretty steady in his drinking levels over the past few of weeks. But he is acting a LOT better. Following a more or less normal person's schedule, not up all night and sleeping all day. He's acting more with it and looking a lot better than I've seen him in a LONG time. He's actually starting to act like a normal human being. And he's been waking me up early in the mornings to go on long walks with the dog, which NEVER would have happened before. All good stuff.

The other day we had an anniversary dinner. We went to the same place where we had our first date. I remember last year, he was so wasted he could barely make it through the dinner, and then we immediately went home so he could pass out. This year, he was totally fine. I ordered a beer at dinner and he ordered a Coke! Unreal. He didn't even want to take a sip of my beer. This is *so much* better! Now if he can just start disliking vodka as much as he hates every other kind of booze, we'll be set.

This is only week 12 for him taking a full 50 mg dose every day, so we'll see how it goes.

Very encouraging! Any update on the numbers or is that included in your previous post?

Joe, I am just keeping the numbers in my first post. I had to fix it today because I had messed up a couple lines! Durr.

OK! Well BF is being quite the baby, and not feeling great at all (shakes, puking, etc.) but he has just posted the lowest weekly numbers since we began all this. I feel like if he can get through another week or two at this level or less, he'll start to feel a lot better and be able to hack some AF days. He has a really bad attitude toward drinking, which is good. Is it possible that this crazy **** could be working?!? Well, let's hope anyway.

He must be some bit o' stuff (for our Irish friends) on his better days for you to be such a loyal GF. I truly hope he appreciates you. Tell him we said so. Thanks for continuing to post your amazing story.