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Hospital Again!

Old 07-07-2016, 02:19 AM
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Hospital Again!

Well, after yet another mega binge I ended up in the hospital again through withdrawals.
This time they had to take me straight to coranary care, because my heart was going mad. Tachycardia I think they called it.
They gave me chlorodiazipam twice. Then sent me home with some beta blockers.
Also with warnings that if I drink again, I'm at big risk of a stroke or heart attack.
The good thing is, they sent an alcohol liason nurse to see me, and I have been referred to a new scheme run by the city. I have begged my doctor for help in the past, and he hasn't been much help.
I will need to go on the sick to go to this place, which again my doctor has not been very helpful with in the past. Even though I explained to him that the meetings at that time that I was going too were in working hours and the dole were making me go on one of their mad "schemes". He said I "just needed to get off my arse and find work.
But while I have this problem around my neck, I don't see how I would be able to hold a job down for more than 5 minutes.
This new scheme offers family therapy, which will try to get me to let go of the guilt I feel about the past.
I pray with the therapy and the big scare I have had, this will work.
Apparently this new scheme combinds components of CBT and AA and one to one and family therapy.
I also need to give up smoking, but the cardiologist says within a week or two, but stopping drinking has to be immediate.
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Old 07-07-2016, 02:28 AM
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Totally agree with your dr no more drinking your risking your life drinking it's just not worth it
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Old 07-07-2016, 03:24 AM
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Glad you've survived.

What's the plan?
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Old 07-07-2016, 03:41 AM
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The plan is to go to this new treatment that has been offered. And go to the GP and INSIST that it is no good me trying to get back into work, until I have this drinking under control, and I need him to write a sicknot to the dole for this, so they won't keep sending me on "courses" which means I won't be able to go for treatment.

If he keeps with the attitude, that I could just find a job and be perfectly ok, I'll just try to find a new GP, who can understand that even if I got a job tomorrow, without the help this organisation is offering, for which I need to be free during the day to go to, nothing will change.
I've tried to do it on my own. And I just can't. Ive tried just getting a job, and I just lose them due to the drinking.
My mother and daughter and sister, said they will help me talk to my GP, because he intimidates me, he's very dismissive and I always come out of the surgery with my tail between my legs feeling like a malingerer
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Old 07-07-2016, 11:10 AM
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Ask to see someone else. Not all doctors suit all patients, and not all doctors have a good understanding of addiction or alcoholism.
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Old 07-07-2016, 11:23 AM
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I am seriously going to change my doctor if he does not help this time Berrybean. I seriously cannot see his reasoning in his "Work will cure you" when I cannot work because I cannot keep off the binge drinking long enough to keep a job.
Unfortuetly my GP is the only one at that surgery, he just employs locums to fill in. And they change every couple of weeks. I phoned today for an appointment and they said a months wait!
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Old 07-07-2016, 11:47 AM
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It sounds to me like you are going to be receiving quite a bit of specific care through the community program and the therapy, correct? If so what your GP thinks shouldn't matter all that much as you are already approved for that program right? I'd focus squarely on that now if you can. I'd very seriously heed the warnings given about the ramifications of drinking again...this is literally a life or death situation for you. Especially if a binge of less than one day caused that severe of a reaction.
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Old 07-07-2016, 01:43 PM
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It was a binge of 6 days, about 20 units a day, that's why I was in such a state!
The reason I need the GP, is so he will put me on the sick for a few weeks, so the dole won't hassle me, making me go on "schemes..which really are sitting in a room for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, doing jobsearches on the computer (even though I have a computer at home.
To not "comply" with what they tell you to do, the stop all money, and housing benefit.
If you tell them you are not fit for work, the take you off jobseekers, and you lose all money. The only way you can claim money, is to go on the sick, if the doctor won't sign for you to go on the sick, they won't let you apply for benefits from them either.
So you are sort of left in no mans land.
Only the GP can sign you on sick, not the people on this scheme.
And then it's only for 13 weeks, after that it has to go to a thing called Atos, a firm employed by the government, who decides if you are "sick enough.
There have been people with cancer and chronic illnesses certified "fit enough" by Atos.
But even if the GP would sign me on the sick for 13 weeks, it would give me time to get a foothold with stopping drinking, I think.
I have long since given up with the GP for help with the drinking. I just need him to do this, so I can get a start with it.
I've tried lots of times to do it on my own, and despite the best of intentions, I can't.
I'm seeing the seriousness of my situation now though, and prepared to stand up to the GP.
It's just getting harder to pull around from them.
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Old 07-08-2016, 12:56 PM
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i thought you posted on the 4th and 5th that you were NOT drinking and struggling thru the rough bits of staying sober? did the w/d's get to be too much? i am so glad you are receiving medical care.

NOW is the time to seize all the help that is offered....all of it, without questioning or arguing. i should think with the recommendations from the hospital and care staff, you can just take those things with you to your GP and explain your needs/wants. he's not the boogie man. you're a grown up, he's a grown up, so don't give him any extra power in your head.
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Old 07-08-2016, 01:12 PM
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I'm a total liar when I'm drunk..sorry..I did start off on those days not drinking (but I didn't sober up enough to even give a second thought that I was)
Thanks Anvilhead, I know I'm being a wimp with the GP I have. He's a muslim, and you know their religion forbids it..so I think he just thinks I'm some kind of weak deviate. Like that nurse at the hospital before (didn't have to see her this time as they took me straight to cardiology ward.
I do realise I am lucky the hospital offered follow-up help, and I'm not about to waste it..have been trying to get it for so long!
But whatever his views, you are right..he shouldn't have power over me in my head. He is paid to help EVERYONE, not just the people he sees fit to.
I still have to go back to the hospital for more tests (Im not surprised Ive effed my heart up, just hope it's not as bad as I fear)
But I deserve the right to try to have the help that is there to save my life too, same as anyone who needs help does.
Thanks for your post..and sorry for the lie :/ the other days everyone who read it!
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Old 07-08-2016, 01:17 PM
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PS by being a lair when I'm drunk..I mean lying about having been drinking! I'll swear down I haven't when questioned in real life..even when I can hardly talk or stand and everyone can see I have!
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Old 07-08-2016, 04:39 PM
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In a way, I'm glad it's happened. No matter what the future holds. I really couldn't take one more year of drinking, like the last neigh on 20 have been.
I know people say about the anxiety and angst that come with drinking. But mostly brush over the physical disgustingness of full on alcoholism. Like having to come home from the hospital, still feeling like death, half doped up, and having to face a house with piles of vomit in surprising places. Like unwashed dishes with mouldy food on all over the place. Like finding jeans in the wash basket with poo stains on them. Like 50 texts, unanswered on my phone from worried people. Like not washing for 6 days. And having to clean everything up when you feel you can barely stand.
No..couldn't keep on like that.
Sounds disgusting doesn't it? Like living like an animal.
And yes, it was like living like an animal...and I just couldn't have gone on much longer.
I remember some time during that last binge, on my knees praying for God to somehow make me stop.
They say he moves in mysterious ways. This has stopped me in my tracks, and made me see I'm not invinsible. And it will be some weeks before I know the full extent of the damage I have been doing to my heart for years.
But it's been doing damage to my mind too.
And although the hospital staff were very nice, I could see the pity in their faces as they hooked me up to machines and I couldn't stop shaking enough till they sedated me, and they patted my arm, and I thought "I bet they are glad they are not me, I wish I wasn't me"
Now the choice is drink or die. And I'm glad that's the choice, because I haven't been able to stop it before. Well I have, but not for long.
I know full well the horrors that await if I don't stop, all my family die of heart disease. All my grandparents, in their 50s or early 60s. My father diagnosed with angina at 52, still drank, heart attack at 57, still drank, quadruple heartbypass at 58, still drank and the wound wouldn't heal for 2 years, kidney failure, coma, eventually recovered, still drank. Now dying at 73, still drinking.
His mother, drinker, dropped dead at 60 from heart attack in front of her 15 year old daughter. Aunts and uncles with strokes in their 50s. A cousin died of drinking in 40s. None of this has struck home until now.
But I'm glad it's happened.
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Old 07-08-2016, 05:21 PM
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I have had a few friends who's doctors told them to stop drinking or visit the undertaker. Some left here before their due time.

Doctors know best.

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Old 07-08-2016, 07:20 PM
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The beta blockers the hospital gave be are doing my head in though..feel like I'm moving in slow motion from morning when I have to take it, until about 4pm. And I can't sleep, second night in a row I'm up all night, and they give me a belly ache..and I can't stop moaning about them haha
I can't get an appointment with my GP for weeks, so have no one to ask, the doctor at the hospital said they would slow my pulse, and "calm me down"..but they almost comatose me!
Then again, I'm not bothered about the bins, (upatairs keeps filling my bin with their rubbish when theirs is full and I have nowhere to put my rubbish..been driving me into "crazy bin lady" status last few weeks.
Infact I'm not that much bothered about any of my "OCD" bugs that I usually am...like having the rug in line with the fireplace!
I think maybe they are making my heart beat so slow, theres not enough blood getting to my brain! ha
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Old 07-08-2016, 08:08 PM
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Originally Posted by fripfrop View Post
The beta blockers the hospital gave be are doing my head in though..feel like I'm moving in slow motion from morning when I have to take it, until about 4pm. And I can't sleep, second night in a row I'm up all night, and they give me a belly ache..and I can't stop moaning about them haha
I can't get an appointment with my GP for weeks, so have no one to ask, the doctor at the hospital said they would slow my pulse, and "calm me down"..but they almost comatose me!
Then again, I'm not bothered about the bins, (upatairs keeps filling my bin with their rubbish when theirs is full and I have nowhere to put my rubbish..been driving me into "crazy bin lady" status last few weeks.
Infact I'm not that much bothered about any of my "OCD" bugs that I usually am...like having the rug in line with the fireplace!
I think maybe they are making my heart beat so slow, theres not enough blood getting to my brain! ha
Do you have a blood pressure tester? If not I know most pharmacies in the US have them you can use for free to check it. Beta blockers are to lower blood pressure and it's possible now that things are calming down, it's getting too low. If that is the case, you can call and ask to speak to the nurse about it until you can get in to see your doc.
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Old 07-08-2016, 08:23 PM
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I think some pharmacies do, well I think one does.
I am also on blood pressure tablets Forward..have been for a couple of years. The hospital doc said the beta blockers were to take my pulse rate down. But they told me to take both. And after I have taken the beta blocker and then the blood pressure tablet, I start to feel slow and ill.
I think you could well be right, that now I am not in acute withdrawal, I don't need my pulse rate taking down.
I was telling my mother and daughter about it on the phone last night..hours after I took them and was starting to feel normal again and they were "Just do what the doctor told you"
But when I saw them this morning, they said I was "slow and slurring"..and my head felt like fuzz
I can't see a nurse tomorrow at my GPs as the surgery is closed on a weekend..
And if as you say, beta blockers also take your blood pressure down, and Im taking quite a high dose of blood pressure medication anyway...that might explain the dizzyness as well!
I'll see if I can get somewhere to test it tomorrow
Cheers for suggesting it!
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Old 07-08-2016, 08:34 PM
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maybe you need to just rest, NOT DRINK, and let the meds and sobriety take effect? there is no magic cure.....you have a long road ahead and will not feel magically BETTER by tomorrow. you have put your body thru some brutal antics.....and that takes time to recover from. you feel different and strange because you no longer have alcohol coursing thru your system. you were admitted to the hospital for a heart condition, due to severe withdrawal symptoms. you could have stroked out due to tachycardia. i don't think now is the time to start questioning the medical recommendations............?
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Old 07-08-2016, 09:03 PM
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But How come I feel better when the medication is wearing off? I'm cabbaged for about 7 hours after I take it...then ok when night time comes..for 2 days. If it was the side effects of withdrawals, I wouldn't have felt ok Thursday evening, then ill again yesterday..Friday daytime, then ok again by early evening.
I know the not sleeping is down to stopping drinking. But the confusion, stomach pains slurred speech that magically disappears by evening then comes back about an hour after the tablet is taken can't be that..surely!
Anyway, I had a brainwave I rang 111 an NHS service, and the nurse is concerned about the effect they are having on me and Im waiting for a doctor to ring me back from there
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Old 07-08-2016, 09:38 PM
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I know a lot of what you say makes sense Anvil, but these tablets are not meant to be a sedation, they are a very LOW dose beta blocker...you are not meant to feel mentally confused after you take them..I don't feel mentally confused when they wear off.
I used to be a nurse and my pulse rate is very low hours after I take these compared to the other day.
I know what you are saying about not ignoring medical advice, but the NHS being so overstretched kills thousands of people a year (google it!) so sometimes I think you have to not just blindly take medicines which an overstretched doctor who doesn't know you prescribes when it makes you feel ill to take and feel better when it wears off
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Old 07-08-2016, 09:52 PM
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you are still detoxing from alcohol, this can take a long time, so you have a lot going on right now.

maybe look up 4-7-8 breathing technique and relax for a minute and then see your doctor...... be gentle with you for now

sending love and hugs your way
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