@CBaller2020

1 year ago

Long story, so thank you for reading! This song hits so hard for me personally. My youngest brother went from being a "kid" born with a heart condition but still able to become a great hockey, golfer, and baseball player to always taking care of himself, never touching any drug, eating clean, and only drinking water.....to a full blown alcoholic at 33 year's old, crashing his car into a parked semi, going to the hospital in full withdrawal, hanging out in crappy bar's and sleeping with random women. One day he drove to the hospital, complaining of stomach pain. I walked up to the hospital to check on him and his skin color was as yellow/orange as a school bus! Long story short, I'm a nurse, knew he was severely jaundiced, told him to get to the ER, was admitted right away in end-stage renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver. His MELD (Model for End stage Liver Disease) score was at a 39.....a 40 means death. The hospital was ready to put him into palliative care until my parent's, my 2 oldest brother's, and I said F that and had him transferred over to a better hospital. They saved his life, but he went through 3 year's of dialysis, ascites drained off of his belly (9 liters was the most), procedure after procedure until he had a liver and kidney transplant. 6 month's post-transplant he developed Lymphoma cancer and 1 year of chemo and more surgeries and procedures. He's never touched alcohol since the day I saw him, but it almost cost him his life......the only reason why he was put on the transplant list was because he was so young. 8 year's later he's still with us but is constantly monitored, blood work, follow-ups with his 5 doctor's. All of this crap could've been avoided but alcoholism is a disease as is addiction to anything....once you've "rewired" your brain, it's a bitch to get it back. Thank you for reading.

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