Just a warning about alcohol...

Good evening, friends! 

I've read several threads here and seen articles online that discuss transfer addictions and how likely they are in wls patients.  I don't necessarily have a transfer addiction, but I had been relying a little too heavily on alcohol for a few weekends in a row, and it might have turned into an addiction if I hadn't had something fairly catastrophic happen:

I had a concussion the weekend before Halloween.

I was at a friend's house, got a little too drunk (okay, way too drunk, which doesn't take much since wls).  I won't get into the details of how it happened, because that part's pretty embarrassing, but let's just say that I hit my head so hard that my friends thought they were going to have to call 911 when they heard it from the next room over.  When I woke up the next morning, I didn't even remember hitting my head until someone mentioned the loud noise that they heard.  After that, I remembered the fall, but not much else from afterwards.  My memory of that night is still very patchy, and I'm not sure I want to remember it clearly from what people have told me.  The rest of that day, I had what I can basically describe as hangover-like symptoms, but multiple times worse.  I was extremely groggy, couldn't think very clearly, and had a headache from hell plus fatigue like I haven't felt since the days of my high blood sugar issues.  Through the week, the headaches got to where they would come and go, but when they came I couldn't treat them.  Since I didn't have insurance, I Googled my symptoms and felt pretty sure I had a concussion, but even according to WebMd, there was nothing a doctor could do at this point but tell me to rest.  So I tried to rest as much as I could, which wasn't much, since what little income I have right now is completely dependent on working (I have no sick time of any kind).

Here we are a month later, and I am still having headaches.  In fact, I had a full-blown migraine on Monday, where I saw spots and the whole room seemed to go shimmery when my headache hit, followed by nausea and a dull headache when the shimmers died down.  I saw my doctor on Tuesday, and she wants to keep an eye on me and if it gets worse she'll be ordering a CT scan. 

The more I think about this, the more anxiety I feel about my future on the following levels: 

1) I may have to break down and pay for a prescription to keep the headaches at bay (can't afford that)

2) I can't exercise like I like to do without the headaches getting worse... so I'm probably going to have to alter my eating, at least until I can figure out what my headache triggers are and get back to being able to exercise

3) I'm terrified that I won't be able to read enough to be able to grade essays anymore.  As an unemployed English teacher who is trying to find a job, this is probably the scariest part of the whole thing.  I've found that I can read, but it seems like my headaches are worse the day after I do heavy reading for long periods of time... and that's with good writing to look at (not sure how much worse it will be when the writing isn't as good lol)

4) Frankly, it's scary to go to work every day and not know if I'm going to walk into a situation where the room begins to shimmer again.  If that happens, I'm stuck... I can't make a scene in front of my students if I'm subbing, and I can't drive like that anyway... so I'm basically stranded until it passes.  Subbing is hard enough with the uncertainty of what you're doing in each classroom from day to day; this doesn't help!

Why am I saying all of this here, on a wls forum?  I don't know about you, but I used to self-medicate with food when I would get depressed.  There for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, I had gotten to the point where self medicating with alcohol was looking more and more attractive.  As much as I hate these headaches and what they are doing to my outlook for the future, I know that in a way things could be much worse if I had continued down that path of self medication with alcohol, especially given that alcoholism runs in my family.  I can't drink at all right now... I probably could, but I'm afraid of what kind of headache it might give me, so luckily that is enough to keep me away at the moment.  I wish I had planned better for how I was going to cope with long-term stress, so that I would have had a smarter coping mechanism in place... maybe I wouldn't have this issue now if I had!

If nothing else, please know this if you are new to wls:  alcohol does tend to affect us very differently after surgery than it did before!  Please keep this in mind, and don't make the same mistake I did!

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving :)

Thank you for your honesty.  It sounds like you have learned a lot from your incident and I appreciate that you are willing to share it with others.  I wish you all the best in your recovery.  God Bless,

Thanks.  I just figured that, if anyone here can learn from my mistake, the embarrassment of sharing what I did is worth it. 

I am sorry that you are going through this, and thank you for sharing. I am not even at 2 months after surgery and was not a heavy drinker before and was wondering when it would be alright to have alittle. I guess it is just best to stay away all together. The thought of a transfer addiction is scary. I hope that everything goes well for you.

Deb,

Be careful.  I was not a heavy drinker at all before surgery either... at most, I drank 3-4 times a year, and then it was fairly little typically... IMO, nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of wine or a beer on occasion once you are far enough out (2 months out is probably not far enough out... most doctors want you to wait 6-12 months minimally) but it can't be used to medicate like I wanted to do.  It needs to be for the right reasons if it's going to be done at all, and even then very sparingly.  This is very scary for me too, because now I'm in a place where I can't medicate with exercise because it makes me sicker, and I can't medicate with alcohol because that would make things worse, and I can't medicate with food... not having an outlet sucks lol.

Thanks for the warm wishes!

I'm wondering why your doctor did not order an MRI since you are still having symptoms and especially from reading your post you are experiencing so much anxiety since you have no answers.  I hear you on the alcohol thing.  It certainly fills a different void then it did before surgery.  So many things to get used to.

But really tell your doctor you want tests done because for most of use a break in working out can mean that it is one more thing that goes by the wayside when we break the habit or become afraid of it.  Good luck.

Oh disregard my message i just re-read your post and saw that you do not have insurance which sucks.  Well hopefully you can hold on until January 1st and be able to get whatever you might need then.  Until then best of luck and baby yourself.

Yeah, just to clarify... I have since gotten insurance, but it's more of a catastrophic plan and still doesn't really cover the kind of testing that I would need in any significant or beneficial way, so I'm still going to have to wait until January to do anything beyond following up with the doctor herself.  Thanks for your advice and understanding... it's always nice to at least hear from people who understand me right now... sometimes I think my husband thinks I'm crazy lol

Wow!  Sorry to hear about all that and will take it as a cautionary tale.  I have been able to avoid any alcohol since almost 4 months post-op.  I do plan on taking a sip or two while out in New Orleans for my birthday in April (that will be 8 months post-op).  I'm not ordering anything but thought I would take 3 sips of a beer that my partner orders since I miss having a beer.  My only true fear is going back on a food addict binge and we know what can happen out of that...heart disease, diabetes, etc.  Good Luck!

Thanks...

I hear you about the fear of going back to food addiction! It can be a very real threat to some.  I think the fact that you're self aware of the potential is always a good sign, though.  And I still don't know that I think that there's anything wrong with a beer in itself, as long as you are capable of keeping it to within your limits.  That's the problem, though; how many can really do that? 

I'm not saying anyone should avoid alcohol altogether.  I'll probably still have a few sips on special occasions... I just need to step back and rethink my reason for wanting to drink and find a new coping mechanism so that I can get back to not using it in the wrong capacity or frequency.