Small victories :-)
 

Got up this morning, Monday, to go to work, reached for the Visine as I have every morning of the last 1,000 mornings, looked in the mirror and _didn't_ need it! Ha! Restless sleep, but eyes were not all bloodshot and red like every other morning after heavy drinking, kind of made me laugh to myself... No red eyes in the morning, what a concept!!

And reading MJohns post about waking up with injuries, just this past Christmas Eve, I walked into a door in my house late at night in the dark (after heavy drinking of course) and split my forehead _wide_ open, just above the left eyebrow and running down thru my eyebrow. Left a hell of a scar. My wife wanted to go get me sewed up (was almost midnight) but I declined. I want to keep it for at least a year as a reminder to myself of the magnitude of my own chemically induced stupidity. Maybe after a year, I will have a plastic surgeon do a "scar reduction" procedure, but for now, the scar stays so I see it every time I look in the mirror. The next morning, Christmas morning, my wife and I are sitting there, me with multiple bandages and my left eye sealed shut from dried blood, my wife looks at me and says with terrible saddness: "Not a very merry Christmas...", once again, breaking my heart into 1,000 pieces and pushing me to this point. Sigh.... How we So hurt the ones who love us the most :-(

..Mike

- Anyone want to start an injuries thread? I've had some doozies over the past 5-6 years, cut up head, massive bruises, broken foot, toe, fingers, ribs, etc.. And that was only in my own house, I _never_ drove drunk :-)

I've run into numerous household items..mostly the marble footboard of my bed which leaves a 2 inch bruise on my upper thigh....I've slipped on the ceramic tile floor (blaming the poor cat) causing me catch my back on the bottom cabinet handle, both bruising and bleeding on that one, tripping over my own feet...i could go on when i remember them all.

I've not driven while drunk in many years, Thank God I was too scared to try that...if I had more than 2 glasses of wine, I stayed put no matter what.

Oh man... I started laughing when I was reading your post. I've had a TON of injuries due to my alcoholism, I'll just share the one that really takes the cake in my book:

I was sitting in my buddy's apartment watching Donnie Darko early one heavily intoxicated morning. I couldn't find a lighter in my pocket to light my cigarette, so I stumbled over to the coffee table where there was a zippo lying. I sat back down in the recliner and lit my smoke, but didn't manage to find the energy to close the zippo when I was done with it? Yes, I woke up God only knows how long later, zippo bottom down against the armrest, still burning with the business end ON MY ARM! Third degree burn so deep I had to keep it bandaged for 3 months before it finally scabbed over.

...and to add insult to injury (hah), the cigarette I had lit with that lighter had burned a good way into my index and middle fingers prior to going out as well...

Too bad I can't post a picture in my post here, the scar is about 2" long by 1" wide, partially covered in ink now!

Hey - we never have to deal with that again! ;)

..broken ribs..cuts on fore head..fist fights(didn't win any..lol.)..

..oh!..what memories...LOL..ozy:lmao

HaHa!! Damn I'm glad you didn't leave the house bro!

Fell off the edge of a dry canal 11 years ago. Broken back, broken ribs, cracked skull. Lucky to have made it through with just some major depression, chronic pain and alcoholism. Wait, that's not so lucky at all :(

My injuries were all mental: overwhelming depression and anxiety were a constant in my life. So glad that's over with now and I just have the 'garden variety' depression/anxiety treatable with meds, not the self-induced kind.

Hey Josh, I Cringed when I read your injury story!! Sounds brutal! I quit smoking almost 10 years ago and had a few close calls. I'd rather break a bone or two than get a burn as bad as you did! We all have our scars to remind us of our stupidity :-) Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it, glad to know I am not alone!
..Mike

self-inflicted injuries can you believe it? Drinking fuels my depression which fuels me to drink more which makes me more depressed...NOT drinking for the last 10 days has done more for towards lifting my depression than ANY of the anti-depressant meds I was on...i can't wait to add some exercise into the mix to further boost my mood....and NOT drinking seems to have returned my BP and resting HR to more normal levels....i cut my HTN meds down 50% just to check and it is still normal....

a small victory indeed!