Lost and Needing Advice
Hello everyone, this is my first post and I was hoping to get some advice. I am 27 years old and my dad has been an alcoholic for my whole life. My mom, sister and I have been through many hard times with him, and I had written him off as a lost cause and totally unreliable for a long time now.
Then last October 2011 he was hospitalized because his drinking had finally ruined his liver and he developed a tear in his esophagus and almost bled to death (A Mallory Weiss tear). He spent almost a month in the hospital, was moved into a physical therapy rehab facility, and finally came home. Amazingly, he seem to make a complete life change. He was following up with all of his doctors (although not going to AA) but he wasn't drinking, he was going for walks and was actually like a real dad to my sister and I.
It was the best 7 months of my life and I was especially excited because I will be graduating from Dental School at the end of this month and I was finally excited to show off my family to all my friends and faculty. So here's the problem- totally unexpectedly he started drinking again. It seems unprovoked and out of the blue, and we have been blindsided.
Now I do not want him to come to my graduation. I have been working so hard for the last four years to become a dentist and I feel worried that he will ruin what should be one of the happiest days of my life. I can't believe he may not be at this once in a life time moment, but I really hate the thought of him being drunk and embarrassing. I don't know how to approach this with him, but I am so angry and I feel like he doesn't even care about how much this means to me. What would you do?