I'll get back to my rehab journey after this post. The incident happened while my wife was in the hospital this past week. The Video is from the UK, but just multiply those numbers for the US.
While sitting in the waiting room while my wife was in surgery, I happened to overhear the lady next to me talking on her cell phone. She was sobbing as she cried.
When she got off the phone, I asked her if there was anything that I could do. She just shook her head. The surgeon had just come to tell her that they had just sewed her husband back up and couldn't do anything for him.
This man is in his early 60's. He had known that he had kidney cancer for 6 years and finally decided to have that kidney taken out. You see, he found out that he was going to need a liver transplant. You can't get on any transplant list if you have cancer.
When they opened this man up, his liver and adjoining organs were very brittle and they were unable to move them around to get to the cancerous kidney. To move those organs around in the present condition would cause more serious problems.
This man has cirrhosis from long term alcohol abuse. Now that he has cancer, which in normal people would be very treatable, his is a death sentence. Alcohol can not only kill quickly, overdoses and accidents, but the long term effect can be a long and painful death sentence. This man had never quit drinking and he knew that he had a liver problem. This was a very sad moment for me in the waiting room as there was not much to say to console her. What I did tell her will remain private.
My wife has cirrhosis from alcohol and was in the hospital to remove her cancer in her breast. She was a lucky one. We caught the cancer early and she and I have both given up alcohol. At this point we are a little over 4 months sober. It will keep you sober to be in a waiting room with a heartbroken women crying over the condition of her lifelong husband.
Alcohol Kills.
Please get help for yourself or if you have a family member that has an alcohol condition please help them. I know, because I am an alcoholic. They will have a hard time asking for help. Links at the top of the page are to Alcoholics Anonymous, Ala-teen and Narcotics Anonymous can give you some guidance. My email and phone number is at the bottom of the page. This is serious business.
May God Bless you.
Mike
Showing posts with label Alcoholics Anonymous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcoholics Anonymous. Show all posts
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Doctor My Eyes
This song means a lot to me and my trip through rehab. It was about Wednesday, about 7 days into rehab that I was struggling with this whole idea. I didn't want to give up control and I was fighting it. Listen to the song.
You will miss the blessing if you don't listen to the lyrics. This Wednesday, we were having discussions about readings in the "Big Book", the bible for Alcoholics Anonymous. This book was written in 1939 and some of the reading were pretty mysterious. I have been an insurance man for most of my adult life and words and definitions always were important to me. We were reading "The Doctor's Opinion" at the front of the book. Towards the end of this opinion the doctor talked about "moral psychology" and I wanted and insisted to know just what that meant. This was to be my last stand. Somebody explain it to me. Neither the counselors nor the rest of the group were doing much to convince me just what that passage meant. I mean, if you can't explain something to me in the front of the book, why go any further. The best that the group could come up with is something that you hear a lot in Alcoholics Anonymous. "Keep It Simple". Well, at this point that wasn't just good enough for me. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for stumping the crowd. I had proved to myself that there was nothing here for me. Like I said it was my last stand.
That night we go to Bouldin Avenue, oh my..
The words to the last verse are:
Doctor My Eyes
Cannot see the Sky
Is this the Price for having learned how not to cry.
This is the plight of many alcoholics and drug addicts. They have internalized their pain and won't let it out. No one is allowed to go there. But as I would find out, this is the real beauty of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Mike
You will miss the blessing if you don't listen to the lyrics. This Wednesday, we were having discussions about readings in the "Big Book", the bible for Alcoholics Anonymous. This book was written in 1939 and some of the reading were pretty mysterious. I have been an insurance man for most of my adult life and words and definitions always were important to me. We were reading "The Doctor's Opinion" at the front of the book. Towards the end of this opinion the doctor talked about "moral psychology" and I wanted and insisted to know just what that meant. This was to be my last stand. Somebody explain it to me. Neither the counselors nor the rest of the group were doing much to convince me just what that passage meant. I mean, if you can't explain something to me in the front of the book, why go any further. The best that the group could come up with is something that you hear a lot in Alcoholics Anonymous. "Keep It Simple". Well, at this point that wasn't just good enough for me. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for stumping the crowd. I had proved to myself that there was nothing here for me. Like I said it was my last stand.
That night we go to Bouldin Avenue, oh my..
The words to the last verse are:
Doctor My Eyes
Cannot see the Sky
Is this the Price for having learned how not to cry.
This is the plight of many alcoholics and drug addicts. They have internalized their pain and won't let it out. No one is allowed to go there. But as I would find out, this is the real beauty of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Mike
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