Alcohol and SCI

Can't hurt yourself with a pint (500mL) of beer.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180202085241.htm

This thread reminded me of the one time I have been drunk since my injury 20 years ago........ I went out to dinner about 13 years ago with a friend and I got drunk, unfortunately I could no longer walk at all, my legs completely stopped working and the restaurant owner and my friend had to carry me to the car, luckily it was late and we were the last customers. I was so embarrassed, in the past I'd know if I'd had too much to drink but this time, I didnt think I had reached my limit but my legs sure showed me that I had!
Suffice to say, I have never been drunk again...tipsy yes but drunk, no.

It sure gives realism to the saying of being legless!

I feel really cheated. My intrathecal baclofen pump enhances the effects of any drugs that I may have, including alcohol. One can of strong beer and I am paralytically drunk. Friends and family think it's quite funny when I become inebriated with just a glass of wine. What I did find interesting about this thread is the fact that alcohol lowers the immune system. I have noticed on the odd occasion when I do consume alcohol (which is very rare these days), I sometimes end up with a urine infection. And, yes, Lara ... one should let one's head down occasionally and perhaps do something rather uncharacteristic. Alcohol lowers the inhibitions and allows one's inner, perhaps more mischievous self, to become manifest. Should one be Mr Goody-Two-Shoes all the time? I think it's cathartic to loosen up a bit. One must remember the addictive nature of alcohol, though. It is probably one of the most destructive drugs on the market and yet it's easily purchased.  You can buy it cut-price in supermarkets. Many people consume far too much and yet think nothing of it. They do not realise that it is slowly destroying their bodies and brains and causing addiction. Many neighbours of mine cannot get through the day without having a bottle of wine in the evening. Deny them that bottle and they would almost certainly tear their hair out. That is addiction. It creeps up on you, slowly weaving its poisonous web throughout your body, making you dependent upon it. Yes I know it all sounds overly dramatic but I have first hand experience of alcohol addiction and I know many people who have succumbed to its insidious pleasures. Sometimes I thank God I broke my neck. Some of my friends are dead, not through accident but through drug addiction and in particular alcohol intoxication and the addition of hard drugs. One of them was the daughter of an extremely wealthy family. Her granddad was a billionaire. She was a sweet and wonderful person, incredibly well educated and brilliantly creative. She was partying with a so-called superstar and friends, drinking and merrymaking. And then the heroin was passed around. She never woke up. It grieves me to think that I painted two pictures of the so-called superstar (my dear friend asked me to paint them ... she was going to keep one and give one to the star as a gift). I was never paid, which is beside the point. The galling thing is he has one of my pictures hanging on his wall, and yet my friend lies dead. Alcohol and drugs are a lethal combination, which brings me back to my intrathecal baclofen pump. Baclofen and alcohol are a lethal combination. Don't drink excessively if you are on benzo diazepams or on drugs like baclofen. You too may not wake up in the morning.