I have been drinking heavily for years. Not so much that anyone would notice (except on occasional pub sessions and the meandering walk home, and a certain evening at Cropredy Festival recently). Just enough to be ready for bed and fall into a dreamless coma and a slow, grumpy wake-up in the morning.
Having got presumably some nameless lurgy from South America, (extreme tiredness. headaches, vomiting and retching, tinnitus, loss of appetite, weight loss) and being found undiagnosable by my doctor, in spite of her most enthusiastic and concerned efforts, including the prescription of anti-depressants (which, incidentally have played havoc with my sex life), she advised me to check my alcohol unit consumption, and to give drinking a break for a week or two, especially as my liver readings were alarmingly bad.
Well checking my alcohol unit consumption was alarming (as in sky high), and with a liver scan coming up at hospital in 3 weeks, I cut things out immediately: no more rocket fuel, a pint (and no more) at the pub occasionally when social reasons demanded it, accompanied by a pint of lemonade, 0% or 2% beer at home.
Amazingly (or not) within 36 hours, I had lost most of the nasty symptoms, and actually felt a hell of a lot better, enough for people at work to notice the difference, and for M and my daughter to say how proud of me they were. I am reluctant to tell my mother, or anyone else for that matter, as it may not last for ever (I am already giving myself a slight break at weekends: what can you do when free wine and Jim Beam is available at a party?) but at least I am paving the way for a half way decent result for the liver scan.
The thing I was most worried about, was being able to sleep at night: I sleep very lightly, but haven't sunk into a gloomy 3am depression yet, which I was most worried about, and I have dreams. So nasty lurgy (most S American lurgy attacks the liver), plus-drink-too-much is fought off successfully.
I think I can do this. hahahahahaha (but dont tell my mum)
5 comments:
Well done, indeed! I wish you hadn't mentioned drinking too much, though!
Here's an idea: give yourself an annual break, say at Lent, like wot JG and Ned do. Be good to make a habit of it, perhaps? So long as you don't spend the rest of the year making up for Lent, that is! :)
Any road up, good on yer matey!
Well done you. Life is too short to make yourself avoidably ill. There are enough nasties in the world without volunteering for them!
Go you.
Mort's Mom
I'm sitting this one out...
After I left a certain bus company, named after a John Wayne film, I noticed my alcohol intake reduced to the point of almost bankrupting the local off licence. Ever cloud has a silver lining.
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