It's just about two years ago now that I was first hospitalized for renal failure, at which time I also discovered that my alcohol consumption -- which began as a simple attempt to get to sleep -- had become a major problem. After a 10-week stint at outpatient rehab (described in prolix detail at the christening of this blog) I was clean, sober and in major pain. In the intervening months I managed to find a pain doc who, after the standard attempts with Percoset, finally prescribed morphine sulfate, which I had been taking prior to the hospitalization.
I imagine it's typical for alcoholics to revel in anniversaries and cherish their AA chips as badges of honor. In fact I received one such chip some time last year when I stopped by a meeting. But I feel no need to return to get my 2-year chip, any more than I feel the need, urge, compulsion to start drinking again. Probably because I already have a support group to attend (TBI, every Thursday), I don't have any real interest in attending AA or other groups.
As I've probably mentioned once or twice already, there is a liquor store next door to my pharmacy. Several times a week did I emerge with a fifth of bourbon, or a half gallon of vodka. Now I just walk by, knowing I've saved myself 20 bucks and a world of grief. Not once have I been tempted to enter. I can hear the words of my doctor two years ago warning me of the one-way street that leads out of the liquor store.
I don't need sleep that badly.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
It has happened again
So I'm sitting at the corner of Westmoreland and Old Chesterbrook roads last November, waiting to make a right turn, and suddently POW I'm rear-ended by a woman driving a domestic SUV (Chevy Tahoe maybe). I'm taken by ambulance to Washington Hospital Center (nee Arlington Hospital) where I'm evidently pronounced healthy enough to be discharged some hours later.
That's all I can say about the episode from personal experience. I don't remember the accident, or the ambulance ride. My wife contacted the police, the woman who hit me and her insurance company. The woman says she was thinking I was about to turn and thus accelerated into the intersection without, it seems, checking to see if I was still there. The negligence and flagrant stupidity of motorists, which I should be resigned if not sanguine about by now, still amazes me. But to her credit, the woman seemed genuinely contrite to my wife, and her insurance carrier was refreshingly above-board, even helpful, about the whole affair.
Three months later, I'm still suffering from back and neck pain, and my headaches are more frequent and severe than ever. Cognitively, I can't tell if the accident caused any further problems, though of course I'd be the last to know if there were any. To be certain, it didn't help.
That's all I can say about the episode from personal experience. I don't remember the accident, or the ambulance ride. My wife contacted the police, the woman who hit me and her insurance company. The woman says she was thinking I was about to turn and thus accelerated into the intersection without, it seems, checking to see if I was still there. The negligence and flagrant stupidity of motorists, which I should be resigned if not sanguine about by now, still amazes me. But to her credit, the woman seemed genuinely contrite to my wife, and her insurance carrier was refreshingly above-board, even helpful, about the whole affair.
Three months later, I'm still suffering from back and neck pain, and my headaches are more frequent and severe than ever. Cognitively, I can't tell if the accident caused any further problems, though of course I'd be the last to know if there were any. To be certain, it didn't help.
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