AlaskaGirl

Last Thursday I posted about my previous weekend bender. It was a doozy, and it inspired yet another Day 1 and return to SR on Monday, September 14th.

I consider myself spiritual, but not religious. I have read some about AA, but I have never participated in a program. Last week I was broken. On Thursday, the same day I posted on SR, I prayed to God to help me. I admitted that I can’t do this on my own. Then I drank three glasses of wine.

On Friday I woke up with a terrible chest cold. It knocked me on my ass. I nursed myself through the weekend with cold meds and a very small amount of whiskey in hot toddies. Monday I returned to work but still felt terrible, yesterday I gave up and scheduled a doctor’s appointment.

About a year and a half ago I admitted to my regular GP that I had a drinking problem. He was very matter of fact about it, but not very helpful. He gave me a 10 day prescription for lorazepam, and wished me good luck.

He wasn’t available yesterday for an appointment, so I ended up going to a different doctor. I had no intention of mentioning my drinking. All that changed when the nurse took my blood pressure, three times, to confirm that it was indeed 200/110. I burst into tears and confessed to her that I was 8 days in to trying to quit drinking, coming off of a ¾ a bottle of vodka a day habit, culminating in a bender that far exceeded that amount.

She immediately got the Dr. He was wonderful. He is treating me now for acute alcohol withdrawal. He assured me that he would get me through this first phase, and then stick with me through the journey. He told me it wouldn’t be easy but we could get there.

He sent me away with prescriptions for lorazepam, a z-pack to treat my bronchitis and cough medicine that will help me finally get some sleep.

I believe getting sick was an answer to my prayer. Do any of you have a story about a time that you asked for help from your higher power and received it in an unorthodox way? I would love to hear your stories.

XOXO – Alaska Girl

sleepie

I am familiar with that Z-pack alaskagirl! For whatever reasons, drinkers are more susceptible to bronchitis. It's good to hear someone had a good, supportive experience with a doctor. Run with it!
Looking forward to more sober updates, very happy for you

Soberwolf

I pray every night for friends, loved ones, lost ones & for the still suffering

Anna

It's great that you found a dr who understands your situation and is going to help you.

SoberLeigh

Glad to hear that you are on the road to recovery, AlaskaGirl, both from your bronchial illness and from your addiction.

I believe that God speaks to each of us in many and in different ways. Perhaps he was the voice in my head that kept repeating "Enough; enough; enough; enough; enough" before I, in total defeat and despair, put down my last drink.

celticspirit

Glad you are getting help. Your BP should drop a lot too. I went from 140/90 to 110/60 after quitting booze with no other lifestyle changes. Take care and God Bless You!

AlaskaGirl

Thanks everyone! I'm eager to be done with the bronchitis so I can get a better assessment of how I'm feelin without the drinking. Today is day 9 since the bender, but only day three with zero alcohol. Feel like I dodged a bullet with my blood pressure that high. Withdrawal is serious business.

Igor94

One night I went to the ER because I felt so sick and desperate to stop drinking. After about 3 hours in the waiting room I had gotten impatient and decided to just leave and drink myself to sleep. I went to walk out the set of doors I had come in and they were locked. Just seconds later they called me up to be seen and I ended up being admitted for three days for acute pancreatitis and alcohol withdrawal.

Had the doors not been locked I would have gone home and drank, perhaps greatly worsening the pancreatitis and possibly even killing myself as a result. I'm not sure how recently I had prayed, but I've often thought of it as God lending a helping hand.

ZeldaFan

The night at the end of my long bender when I was awake all night shaking on my couch, convinced I was going to die, I prayed to God to get me through the night and help me find guidance. The next day, I called my doctor for an appointment and told him everything. Like you, he was wonderful, supportive and full of advice. Sent me home with some pills and still keeps tabs on me today. It was the first time someone really seemed to take my situation seriously (outside of SR of course) and it made all the difference. I believe God held onto me that night when I thought I was going to die to let me get the second chance I needed and to get me to my doctor.

sugarbear1

Are you willing to go to an AA meeting? I believe Alaska has them Monday through Saturday......

AlaskaGirl

Igor94 and ZeldaFan, thank you for sharing your stories!

AlaskaGirl

I'm just not sure. I've been thinking about it a lot. What I've done in the past hasn't worked, so I need to do something different. I have a kind of high profile job in a small town. I'm desperate for people to talk to about this, but scared to have it out in public. I know it's supposed to be anonymous, but nothing is anonymous where I live.

sugarbear1

Have you heard of people talking about the people who attend the AA meetings?

Most of the time those meetings aren't known by anyone other than those who attend, who are also concerned about their own anonymity.......

Delfin

Glad to have you back, AG, and to see that you're better. Maybe there are online meetings you can look into? I'm not using AA myself, but I see that SMART Recovery, which I read to get me started, has online meetings. There are other people using recovery methods that don't have meetings that you may want to look into, in case it fits your bill. It's great that we have a lot of options.

I did pray to God for a long time to help me control my drinking, but instead he brought me to a total sobriety website. I totally didn't think this is what I needed, and certainly not what I wanted, when I first landed here. Yeah, guess who knows best?

So here I am, only two months sober, but very sure that God steered me to the right place, and very grateful for it.

Be well, AlaskaGirl,

Delfin

Secretdrinker

Ah your post made me cry! There have been divine interventions in my life, yep, and I still chose to ignore them, turn a blind eye to them, I was ignorant and selfish.
I have a lot of making up to do, to my family and God.

I'm so glad you're getting some help, the right help finally

AlaskaGirl

I haven't heard people talking about others who are in AA, but someone I work with in the community has told me he leads meetings. He is a recovered alcoholic (recovering?). Could be I just need to get over it and realize he could be a good resource and friend.

SFBonvivant

Hi Alaska Girl

I also was jolted into a sober streak after dealing with an intense week of illness - in my case a very high fever and stomach flu. As in your case, Zpack knocked it out for me.

I couldn't drink during the week I was sick, and once I recovered, I decided to run with it. 20 days of alcohol-free me so far.

Funny to see such a similar story. The lord (or higher power/universe) works in mysterious ways. I am glad you are taking the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade.

Hope we can stick it out.

teatreeoil007

I totally believe in divine intervention and various people cross our path in life at certain times...to help, to guide, to advise, to minister to, to give a hand up and out of the pit. I was rescued in January by two complete strangers who took me to ER in my blacked out state. However, it still took me a bit longer to take a serious look at sobriety.

Carver

I was a staunch atheist until three months ago, when I just quit cold turkey without even meaning to. I'd tried for years to quit, but this time I just did it.

After a day or two of no booze, I found SR and the Big Book, and I thought I'd give this Higher Power thing a try. I still have wobbles, but the important (and strange) thing is, I have the power to say no.

That's never happened to me. I'm very weak-willed and have never denied myself of my 'treats'...there's definitely some invisible force helping me, I believe. Not the God as written in the bible, but a higher power nonetheless

Saskia

(((AlaskaGirl)))! I'm so happy you reached out to the new doc. When I did that it was the beginning of my real journey to sobriety. I did go to AA for about 6 months (until I moved) and for me it helped to get me to a better place. Being in a group with similar problems with many who were sober for years, was so helpful to me. I'm not religious but am spiritual.

I'll be thinking of you!