Alcoholism

Well, I have had the flu and stayed in bed all this week.  First time I've had the flu in quite a few years.  But I think I am on the upturn now.  Didn't make it to any exercise classes, though.  We'll try again next week.

And now I have decided to share what's been going on in my family for the past three months.  It's public knowledge so I'm not telling any secrets.

My brother is an alcoholic and in the past three months there has been an escalation of his desire to drink.  His wife kicked him out.  His job put him on probation and told him not to come back until he's sober.  It's been three months and there has been no sign of sobriety so I guess we all know what's bound to happen with the job situation so I guess it won't be too long before he will be without any prospect of income.

When his wife kicked him out, my sister took him in with the promise that there would be no alcohol at her house.  It took him less than an hour to break that promise.

He went to rehab in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but released himself after 30 days and was drinking within a day.

He fell and hit his head on a rock and fractured the spine in his neck.  He was told to wear a brace and he won't wear it, so who knows what will happen there.

He has fallen three more times and was transported to ICU in an ambulance.  Two of those times they kept him long enough for him to detox but as soon as he got out he went to one of his secret places and got some booze.  Boy, he can be so very clever in finding hiding places.  My sister went out and cut some weeds on the side of her house and found a bottle hidden in the weeds.

The other time he fell was two days ago and he was taken by ambulance to ICU again.  They did a CT scan and x-rays and found no changes in the fracture.  He demanded to be released so he could get to his bottle.  And the sad thing is, he does not appear to feel any gratitude whatsoever for my sister staying by his side throughout all of this.

When she brought him home from the hospital yesterday he went straight to where the weeds used to be and got a bit upset that she had cut the weeds.

My sister has an old trailer out in the middle of the woods.  It hasn't been used in ages.  But my brother has now been banished to that trailer to drink himself silly.  Someone will go out and check on him periodically to be sure he hasn't fallen again and my sister will take food out there.  She's going to take the most nutritious things that she thinks he might eat.  We were told that alcohol depletes the good stuff and that in addition it might be helpful if he would drink some Boost every day to help replenish some nutrients.  Supposedly, at the very least, that will help the alcohol absorb slower.   Other than that, he is now on his own and he won't do well on his own and that is sad.  And he appears to have no idea how lucky he is to have a place to go.

In the meantime, his wife is moving out of their house and as soon as she is gone, he will go back to his house.  But since it won't be long before he won't be able to pay the mortgage, he'll probably lose the house and the trailer will be his only option.

The doctor said that he is a danger to himself and others but that no one is to blame but him.  We tried to get my brother to go back into rehab and stay the full 90 days but he refuses.

The doctor wanted to keep my brother in ICU for 3 days to detox but was again met with refusal.

There's lots more to this story, but you get the gist.  My sister has been a saint.  And the irony is that she is the only member of our family who has never touched alcohol in her entire life, not even a sip.

This is incredibly emotional.  He is 15 years younger than me so I spent a lot of time taking him to Cardinals games, Bob Seger concerts, just stuff that my dad didn't want to do.  So I  have all these memories of an adorable little blond-haired, blue-eyed boy and wondering where it all went wrong.

I will update regularly for anyone who may read this who is interested in how "end stage alcoholism" progresses.