How long has this been going on?

A beer "flight" - a tasting of several artisan brews.

About three weeks ago, I hit a low point, health-wise. It got so bad that I ultimately decided to quit my job so I could reduce stress, get some rest, and get well. It's a decision I'm glad I made.

Today I have an update for you.

For years now, my daily alcohol consumption has been at least one drink a day, often two. On special occasions I might have three. By my doctor's reckoning, that does not constitute a risky level of drinking and she dismissed it as a cause of my poor health.

However, at my last appointment, we both agreed that, since my liver was under-performing, it made sense to reduce the burden on it. We cut out a couple of pills, and I decided that I would stop drinking at home. I would only indulge if we went out to a restaurant for dinner, and then I would limit it to one glass. We dine out about once a week. So I've gone from 10-14 glasses/week to 1 glass/week.

That was three weeks (or 45 glasses of wine) ago.

Among the many things that were going sideways, health-wise, was a small bullet listed simply as "I've gained weight in the past four months." In fact, I'd gained 15 pounds over six months, most of it in the upper abdomen. I sometimes felt like I was going to explode, much like I had in the last months of pregnancy. This is a faster rate of weight gain than I have ever experienced.

Since cutting back on the alcohol, I've already lost seven pounds. (That equals the calories in about 200 glasses of wine or about 40 bottles, by the way, exponentially more than I have cut out.) My belly no longer feels bloated, and the mystery bruises have stopped appearing every morning.

These are bruises from my Victoza injection sites.
I don't think this is normal. None of the chat rooms
mention bruising as a side effect.

And, most miraculously of all, I've stopped sweating! I actually wore my hair down twice this week, and wore sweaters both times. This has not happened in 15 YEARS.

Same with the bruising, actually. I remember talking to my sister at least five years ago about random bruises that would appear on my belly and thighs if I drank more than two glasses of wine. Which is part of why I know I've kept my drinking below that threshold for the most part.

All of which leads me to believe that I've been sick and getting sicker for much longer than I realized.

Cutting it out has not been difficult, though I do miss my evening tipple. Mostly it's just been changing my habits. I now take a long, candle-lit bath to relax in the evening (it's good for my joint pain, too, which, by the way, has not been affected by the change in alcohol consumption).

I've tried to think of what else I've changed that might have this dramatic effect.

I've cut the cholesterol med and the Metformin (diabetes). (Surprisingly, my blood sugar has only gone up very, very slightly. No idea about the cholesterol.) I haven't changed my eating habits significantly, and I still am not sleeping very well. I wish I could say I was exercising more, but I'm not.

I've been working part-time for several weeks, however, so the extra rest may be making a difference. And I noticed my stress level plummet precipitously once I decided to quit, so that may be having a huge beneficial effect. Enough to produce weight loss and stop the hyper-sweating?

My non-expert conclusion is that, although my drinking did not appear to be problematic (from a statistical perspective), I seem to have some kind of metabolic intolerance to alcohol.

Isn't this fascinating? The human body, man. It's a puzzle.