Detox

I've really lost track of the last few days.  But the bottom line is that this morning his wife called me and handed my brother the phone.  He was mumbling so bad I couldn't understand him.  So we hung up.  His wife called back and said, "He agreed to go to detox -- here, talk to your brother."

So she handed him the phone again and he mumbled but he did say he would go to detox.  I asked his wife if she would take him and she said yes.  So he said he would put his jeans on.

So she took him to the Ozark Medical Center and then called my sister and said, "You need to get over here, I have other things to do."  ????!!!!!!!! (good grief).  So my sister rushed to the hospital (which I think was about 35 miles).  If my brother's wife couldn't see this thing through, she shouldn't have gotten it started.

So at the ER, they ran tests and since they couldn't find any sort of illness they said they couldn't keep him, they were going to release him.  We spent 4 or 5 hours trying to find a rehab center that would take him and it turns out that they won't accept him unless he signs himself in and he absolutely refuses to do that.

The lady at the rehab center told us that alcoholics usually won't go into rehab voluntarily until they hit rock bottom and no longer have any lifelines.  My sister has been checking in on him several times a day and doing things for him, etc., and we were told that needed to stop.  He needs to know that he is on his own.

This is going to be really tough, not checking on him and not knowing if he is dead or alive, but I think we have all agreed that it has to be that way.  So she will be bringing him back from the hospital tonight (unless by some miracle he agrees to be taken to the rehab center in St. Louis).

Emotional.  Stay tuned for the next episode.