Fred,
I was sober for 7 years and relapsed for a year. I got sober again for 7 years. I relapsed again and stayed out there for 7 years (7 is not my lucky number lol). Today is 25 days sober for me. Take my advice and jump back on the sobriety wagon while the damage is minimal. The longer you stay out there drinking the worse it gets. There had to be a pretty good reason for me to get sober again after 7 years of drinking. When I look at all of the sober time I had the guilt and self-loathing can really get bad, so I am preaching "one day at a time" to myself and anyone else that will listen. When it comes down to it one day at a time is how I got most of those 7 years each time. It's when I stopped doing the things I learned in recovery that I eventually drank again. I have swallowed my pride and decided that's it's not too late to start over.