very good news, Joe. Hang in there!

I bumped up to 50 mg yesterday for the first time from 37.5 for a week before. So far maybe 10% side effects and 20 minutes after popping one of those lose dose dramamine capsules I mentioned earlier I felt just fine. You truly might want to try that. Eskapa even recommends nausea/dizziness meds to help you deal with SEs. Why suffer if you don't have to? Give it a shot. Just get the "non drowsy" formula.

I had the dizziness/lack of balance for about 2 hours this evening, but none yesterday. Hadn't really thought about the dramamine for that, but I'll snag some!

don't forget -- non drowsy formula. And generic is fine. Best results are if you can remember to take it about half an hour before the nal. I'm thinking it might help a lot so it's def worth a shot

Before Starting Naltrexone average per week--40-45 Units and sometimes more.
Week 1 -- Titrating up from 12.5 to 25 mg --29 Units
Week 2--25 mg--36 Units
Week 3 -- half week at 37.5, half week at 50 mg -- 29 Units
Note: SE's on starting dose of 25 mg so backed down to 12.5 and titrated up.
At 3.5 weeks, no SE's on 50 mg taken with a large glass of milk

I am so sorry to hear this, but it does sound like those episodes are getting shorter (not saying that while you are going through it, it isn't torture). I hope that the dramamine works for you.

Did you do anything different that day when you didn't have an episode?

This is just a thought, but is there something else that you are eating/taking that may cause the side effect to come on? Maybe another supplement or possible another drug or even food? When my husband has issues with his IBS (sorry for the TMI) it is never just one thing, it is a few things that he shouldn't be eating that will cause an episode, if he eats just one of the things he shouldn't he is fine. But, if the dramamine fixes it for you, it wouldn't matter.

I wish you luck and keep us posted,

Jaba

Hi Joe. Do you take any other supplements or medications?

I guess I am fortunate as I have few side effects from NAL, and I take my vitamins and use supplements. But I have also taken MTX for arthritis in the past and if you can get used to that, you can get used to anything!

Jaba and NDF, I'm not taking anything but Gabapentin, which was recommended by my TSM doc. He knows I'm having balance/dizziness issues with Nal. On occasion I might take a multi and/or vitamin D, but really, nothing else. That said, the SE's are greatly reduced and getting better, but still enough to be inconvenient. I just tried some non-drowsy dramamine the other night, hard to say if it had and effect or not and the SE's are so capricious that it's difficult to time the dose. I suppose that my biggest fear at this point is that the SE's would return after an AF weekend, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I need to do a bit more looking about to see if I can find a likely cause for this and what I might do to counter it.

My general experience is that once your body learns to tolerate certain meds, it's sort of has a "muscle memory" for said medication that lasts a very long time...

Yeah, keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

The gabapentin could possibly be the culprit with the SE's. I'm familiar with this drug as my husband was prescribed it as a mood stabilizer for bipolar depression back about 12 years ago. It didn't work for his rapid cycling but he had no side effects except one that you might want to read up on or ask your doc about.

It's been a long time so I may have this wrong so read up on it yourself. But after my husband went into a violent rage one day while taking this drug, I looked it up on the internet Because his behavior was so out of character.

Apparently the drug goes through your system pretty fast. But if you don't take your dose at a regular time or miss a dose with some frequency, it can, specifically, cause this kind of raging behavior.

I don't mean to scare you and it could be that this info from so long ago has been totally discredited. But you just might want to check into it and if it is still being reported as a problem, just be sure to take the gaba at the same time every day. And if you decide to stop for awhile to see if its causing your SE's, prolly best to taper off slowly????

**
Before Starting Naltrexone average per week--40-45 Units and sometimes more.
Week 1 -- Titrating up from 12.5 to 25 --29 Units
Week 2--25 mg--36 Units
Week 3 -- half week at 37.5, half week at 50 mg -- 29 Units
Note: SE's on starting dose of 25 mg so backed down to 12.5 and titrated up.

At 3.5 weeks, no SE's on 50 mg taken with a large glass of milk and currently happy with 2.5 units/night (2 x 1.5 oz bourbon=.845 'units' in 1 oz bourbon=2.52 total)

I'm only taking 300mg a bit before bedtime, my TSM doc prescribed it to help me get down into slow wave sleep. I could see issues if it were 2 or 3 grams...

Nonetheless, I'll have a look about to see what other folks say about it, thanks for bringing that up!