diff --git a/process.go b/process.go
index aa407f7..4862ac6 100644
--- a/process.go
+++ b/process.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"crypto/ed25519"
 	"encoding/gob"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"log"
@@ -17,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
 	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
+	// "google.golang.org/protobuf/internal/errors"
 )
 
 // processKind are either kindSubscriber or kindPublisher, and are
@@ -230,6 +232,10 @@ func (p process) spawnWorker() {
 	log.Printf("Successfully started process: %v\n", p.processName)
 }
 
+var (
+	ErrACKSubscribeRetry = errors.New("steward: retrying to subscribe for ack message")
+)
+
 // messageDeliverNats will create the Nats message with headers and payload.
 // It will also take care of the delivering the message that is converted to
 // gob or cbor format as a nats.Message. It will also take care of checking
@@ -263,44 +269,55 @@ func (p process) messageDeliverNats(natsMsgPayload []byte, natsMsgHeader nats.He
 				return
 			}
 			p.metrics.promNatsDeliveredTotal.Inc()
+
+			// The reaming logic is for handling ACK messages, so we return here
+			// since it was a NACK message, and all or now done.
 			return
 		}
 
-		// The SubscribeSync used in the subscriber, will get messages that
-		// are sent after it started subscribing.
-		//
-		// Create a subscriber for the ACK reply message.
-		subReply, err := natsConn.SubscribeSync(msg.Reply)
-		if err != nil {
-			er := fmt.Errorf("error: nats SubscribeSync failed: failed to create reply message for subject: %v, error: %v", msg.Reply, err)
-			// sendErrorLogMessage(p.toRingbufferCh, node(p.node), er)
-			log.Printf("%v, waiting %ds before retrying\n", er, subscribeSyncTimer)
-			time.Sleep(time.Second * subscribeSyncTimer)
-			subReply.Unsubscribe()
-			continue
-		}
+		err := func() error {
+			// The SubscribeSync used in the subscriber, will get messages that
+			// are sent after it started subscribing.
+			//
+			// Create a subscriber for the ACK reply message.
+			subReply, err := natsConn.SubscribeSync(msg.Reply)
+			if err != nil {
+				er := fmt.Errorf("error: nats SubscribeSync failed: failed to create reply message for subject: %v, error: %v", msg.Reply, err)
+				// sendErrorLogMessage(p.toRingbufferCh, node(p.node), er)
+				log.Printf("%v, waiting %ds before retrying\n", er, subscribeSyncTimer)
 
-		// Publish message
-		err = natsConn.PublishMsg(msg)
-		if err != nil {
-			er := fmt.Errorf("error: nats publish failed: %v", err)
-			// sendErrorLogMessage(p.toRingbufferCh, node(p.node), er)
-			log.Printf("%v, waiting %ds before retrying\n", er, publishTimer)
-			time.Sleep(time.Second * publishTimer)
-			subReply.Unsubscribe()
-			continue
-		}
+				time.Sleep(time.Second * subscribeSyncTimer)
+				subReply.Unsubscribe()
+
+				retryAttempts++
+				return ErrACKSubscribeRetry
+			}
+
+			defer func() {
+				err := subReply.Unsubscribe()
+				if err != nil {
+					log.Printf("error: nats SubscribeSync: failed when unsubscribing for ACK: %v\n", err)
+				}
+			}()
+
+			// Publish message
+			err = natsConn.PublishMsg(msg)
+			if err != nil {
+				er := fmt.Errorf("error: nats publish failed: %v", err)
+				// sendErrorLogMessage(p.toRingbufferCh, node(p.node), er)
+				log.Printf("%v, waiting %ds before retrying\n", er, publishTimer)
+				time.Sleep(time.Second * publishTimer)
+
+				return ErrACKSubscribeRetry
+			}
 
-		// If the message is an ACK type of message we must check that a
-		// reply, and if it is not we don't wait here at all.
-		if p.subject.Event == EventACK {
 			// Wait up until ACKTimeout specified for a reply,
 			// continue and resend if no reply received,
 			// or exit if max retries for the message reached.
 			//
 			// The nats.Msg returned is discarded with '_' since
 			// we don't use it.
-			_, err := subReply.NextMsg(time.Second * time.Duration(message.ACKTimeout))
+			_, err = subReply.NextMsg(time.Second * time.Duration(message.ACKTimeout))
 			if err != nil {
 				if message.RetryWait < 0 {
 					message.RetryWait = 0
@@ -312,17 +329,20 @@ func (p process) messageDeliverNats(natsMsgPayload []byte, natsMsgHeader nats.He
 					p.errorKernel.logConsoleOnlyIfDebug(er, p.configuration)
 
 					time.Sleep(time.Second * time.Duration(message.RetryWait))
+
+					// Continue with the rest of the code to check number of retries etc..
+
 				case err == nats.ErrBadSubscription || err == nats.ErrConnectionClosed:
 					er := fmt.Errorf("error: ack receive failed: conneciton closed or bad subscription, will not retry message:   subject=%v: %v", p.subject.name(), err)
 					p.errorKernel.logConsoleOnlyIfDebug(er, p.configuration)
 
-					return
+					return er
 
 				default:
 					er := fmt.Errorf("error: ack receive failed: the error was not defined, check if nats client have been updated with new error values, and update steward to handle the new error type:   subject=%v: %v", p.subject.name(), err)
 					p.errorKernel.logConsoleOnlyIfDebug(er, p.configuration)
 
-					return
+					return er
 				}
 
 				// did not receive a reply, decide if we should try to retry sending.
@@ -344,10 +364,8 @@ func (p process) messageDeliverNats(natsMsgPayload []byte, natsMsgHeader nats.He
 						p.errorKernel.infoSend(p, message, er)
 					}
 
-					subReply.Unsubscribe()
-
 					p.metrics.promNatsMessagesFailedACKsTotal.Inc()
-					return
+					return er
 
 				default:
 					// none of the above matched, so we've not reached max retries yet
@@ -356,15 +374,24 @@ func (p process) messageDeliverNats(natsMsgPayload []byte, natsMsgHeader nats.He
 
 					p.metrics.promNatsMessagesMissedACKsTotal.Inc()
 
-					subReply.Unsubscribe()
-					continue
+					return ErrACKSubscribeRetry
 				}
 			}
-			// REMOVED: log.Printf("<--- publisher: received ACK from:%v, for: %v, data: %s\n", message.ToNode, message.Method, msgReply.Data)
+
+			return nil
+		}()
+
+		if err == ErrACKSubscribeRetry {
+			continue
+		}
+		if err != nil {
+			// All error printing are handled within the function that returns
+			// the error, so we do nothing and return.
+			// No more trying to deliver the message
+			return
 		}
 
-		subReply.Unsubscribe()
-
+		// Message were delivered successfully.
 		p.metrics.promNatsDeliveredTotal.Inc()
 
 		return