student

addiction.

I never understood and I still do not understand addiction. in my personal opinion I always felt as though it was a choice. many people feel as though its a disease. I always felt as thought cancer was a dieses and that addiction was just a choice, a habits. I feel like addicts are selfish, their day resolves around getting high, from the second they wake up until they pass out. the next day they face the same battle.

the people who use drugs seem to think that its only their problem, and that no one wants to help them. addicts do not realize the effects that their addiction has on people around them. it makes me wounded who’s really suffering the addicts who’s only mission all day is getting money and getting high, or the people who watch the addict on a daily basic their husbands wife’s kids grandkids best friends , the people that they argue with daily about money and what they need it for, or were they really were or who they were really with. The people who know the truth but daily listen to the lies. they people who try to get them help and they sear up and down that they don’t need help they don’t have a problem that everyone else had a problem. addicts seem to thank that everyone around them are blind, that we don’t see what their doing. like we don’t see the withdrawals they vomiting they constant sleeping, the anger, the depression, the sneakiness leaving the house sick and coming home feeling fine. people that are not using see all the signs its blatantly obvious. an addict will argue their addiction and deny it even when you catch them.

December 23,2014 my mother bangs on my bedroom door, I tell her I still have two more hours before I need to get up, she tell me “I NEED YOU NOW” I can tell by the seriousness and tone in her voice that something is wrong. I jump out of bed, I can smell smoke and tell that something is burning. as I run down the stairs the house is full of a thick dark smoke. my mother scrambling around to open the doors to let the smoke out. my father lie sleeping on the coach, snoring heavily as he usually does. it was then I realized that he was not sleeping, infect we could not wake him at all. the heavy snoring sound was his body grasping for air. his face and skin was gray. I have never seen someone have that color skin tone and still be alive. my mother yelling at him, slapping his face franticly yelling his name.my mother tells me to call 911, the smoke is clearing from the house but that burnt smell still lingers. the 911 operator instructs me to take my father off the couch and move him on the floor, he was dead weight I didn’t think I could do it but knew that I had to, I get help placing him on the floor. the operator tell me to place him on his side, I had to place the phone down and use all my strength to roll him onto his side. I pick the phone back up and I as soon as I do I can hear my father stop breathing, nothing no more sound no more heavy breath no more snoring sound. just a gray complexion. I make my own choice to put him back on his back. the operator tell me to start compressions, I didn’t need to as soon as I rolled him back over he started with the heavy gasps of air but still not waking up still gray not responding at all . the operator lets me know that the paramedics are on their way, it feels like forever, I feel completely helpless, why cant I wake him up, what else can I possible do.

It feel like hours have passed, when in actuality it was not that long at all. were was the paramedics why did it take so long. I grew more and more helpless. his breathing still staggered. I could not wake him. I remain calm on the outside but inside I am crying with fear. fear that I will lose him, fear that this will be my last memory I have of him. finally a knock on the door.

the police arrived first. they told me to step out of they way they will take over from hear. I thank the 911 operator and hang up with her. the police officers place a mask over my fathers face to try and get air into him. I instantly begin to cry. I now feel as though they are hear to be strong and I can let my emotions out. the police officer could only do as much as I could, the mask was not getting air into him because it was not suctioning to his full face we fear that my father is having a stroke, he has had one before but only a mild one. he shows some of that same symptoms half of his face is droopy with no muscle function at all.

the paramedics arrive, the living room becomes crowded and has a heavy feeling in the air. my fathers still gasping for air, his color getting more gray. the paramedics quickly place an iv in his arm. they immediately know this is not a stroke. they administer not one not two but three shots of narcan . as he wakes and tries to get up and push the medics out of the way. I get in front of him and tell him to lay down that the medics are hear to help him. my father is scared and does not know what it going on. I can see the fear in his eyes. the medics tell me its and overdose. my heart sinks and I am saddened. my mother went in the ambulance to the hospital I meet her their. at the hospital they monitor my fathers heart because he has a heart condition. to the hospital working this is nothing it happens daily and it takes up room in their emergency department.

me and my mother sit and stare at his body on the stretcher. his complexion still gray but slowly coming back. my mother cries and says ” this is not the way I pictured my life” . I agree with her. no one wants their husband or father to be in this position or to be on the other end of this. as I grow angry I text his daughter a picture of him laying on the stretcher. his daughter from a previous relationship is the one who got my father on heroin. she deals heroin in the city and uses my father for rides and money and anything else she can use him for. it does not surprise me that after sending a picture of him I get no response from her. although he is her father, to her he is just another addict buying drugs off of her.

Hours later they release my father from the hospital. the hospital does not offer any kind of treatment or help. after my father is released my mother tell him he needs to get help. months go bye and he gets no help, its clear he’s still using. he has all the clear signs, although he just tell us he’s sick and not feeling well. usually when he’s sick and vomiting daily he will go to the city and come back feeling better. addicts think that they are discreet with their drug use. witch they may start off that way but all the signs are their and they think the world is blind. everyone is aware he has a problem besides him.

although the hospital and his daughter is use to this on a daily basic I however am not. I should be I see plenty of it working in the hospital however when it happens to your parent spouse sibling friend, it hits close to home and no one is prepared for it. addicts are fighting a battle, although they have love and support from family and friends they feel alone and like the world is against them, and everyone around them is against them.

my father goes on and overdose two more times. The last time was the last time for all of us and not just him. My mother did not allow him to come home, so he was now homeless. he had hit his rock bottom. While laying on a hospital stretcher he had finally asked for help. something he has never done. finally after year of drug abuse he has admitted that not only is this a problem but a problem that he needs help getting through .

my uncle paid to place my father in a motel for the night, since he was no longer welcome in our family home. the next day I took my father to the place that the hospital told us to go to. when we pulled in I realized that they had sent us to a methadone clinic. I was astounded by the amount of people in the parking lot. as I look around theirs all laughing joking some even had children with them. I new this was not going to help. so I told my father were leaving. the hospital gave us a list of places to call so I parked the car and started calling, because it was the beginning of winter no one had a bed open or required you to go and wait in a lie at 7 am every morning and maybe you would get a bed. I felt hopeless.

so I called our insurance company. I was shocked to learn that even though we have great health insurance they only cover 5 days in a detox in cape cod. I have heard of people sectioning family member through the court house but I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know anything about how to get him in a program and seeing that all the beds were full and they all had waiting list I was running out of options. I went to the court house. I left my father in the car. I went in a spoke with someone who was extremely helpful. I had to fill out a paper and go get my father and wait in the court room. I didn’t know what to expect. and seeing I was taking a more legal approach I was nervous. they called me and my father forward to the judges podium my eyes were filling with tears. after speaking with the judge briefly the explain that they were going to take my father into custody and we will go before her again because my father had the right to appeal, they took my father and placed him in handcuffs. I began crying and questioning if I was doing the right thing. they let me give my father a hug and a kiss. while he was in custody he meet with the dr and then the dr meet with me to ask me questions about his drug use and how long he was a user for.

Finally after waiting all day in the court house they called his case. I thought for sure after waiting all that time he would have changed his mined. as we made eye contact both of our eyes filled with tears. they dr spoke her case. and to my surprise he did not contest going for help. from their they were sending him to Bridgewater Massachusetts substance and alcohol abuse center for men. it was a jail were they detox. their he had to spend a week in detox I was not allowed to talk to him. the only things they would tell me was that he was their and safe. it took me almost two to three weeks to get in thought with his social working at the enter. he would not tell me much. I haven’t spoken to my father in weeks. when I finally got a hole of him he had changed him mind he wanted to get out of were he was. he was willing to go to any facility as long as is not were he was.

the social worker wanted to place him a out patient program in the heart of new Bedford. I just fought like hell to get him out and this guys is handing him a loaded gun. I then printed a list that was about 4 pages long. I sat down at my desk at work and began calling all the different rehabs. I was looking for one that was targeted for men my fathers age that was no were near home. I didn’t need him to have his daughter and friends as a distraction and I know that none of them are will to travel. I wanted to get him away from the city. I was connected with a guy that helps people and works in the field so when I narrowed down my search I called him and asked his opinion on witch place was good. I had my heart set on sending him to the North cottage program in Norton mass. I had made a 2 page list of questions that I had, I then called the north cottage and spoke to people in admissions , they were extremely helpful and answered everyone of my questions.

after speaking with my father after weeks he dident want to go and said it was to far away. that waqs my point I wanted him t o get away and focus on himself. the social worker had it in his head that out paitent program in new bedfor would have been fine. it was now a power struggle between me and the social worker. he was not taking me seriously. so I called my uncle and had my uncle speak with him. both my father and the social worker were set on newbedford. so me and my uncle decited we had they upper hand and told the councler that if he was going to newbedfor he would have no moral or finichal support from his family. later that week he was placed on the waiting list for the north cottage.

my father has been at the north cottage for about three months and has been away from home between detox and holding facility since October twenty six. he has been sober for six months. although it was difficult because he is my parent I felt the need to help him and push him to get help. I know he still has a long road ahead of him but im proud that he decided to get help and change for the better.

the therm that i am choosing to write about will be health and medicine . I have been a CNA for almost nine years now, this past year i have currently started working in a hospital. it has given me a complexly diffident outlook on life and choosing to be come a full code or a DNR (DO NOT Resuscitate) . i have also see the people that we call frequent flyers they return to the hospital constantly. i see how people react to wanting their medications, i see overdoses and how the hospital is fighting the battle against addiction, i see the battle of doctors and nurses and cna’s trying to help people that come to the hospital but do not want help. health and medicine is such a wide spectrum, from natural remedies to the use of cannabis oil to protein shakes, health and fitness. their is many types of medication that for the same thin but may have different reactions, like anti depression drugs. i have not decided witch way i am going to be going as far as what topic i am going to choose for health and medicine, i have seen disease take over peoples lives i have seen people fight for their lives and over come disease. i have seen family fight over a loved ones dying wishes, i have seen the way people turn ugly and fight over possessions when a family member has not even passed away. just this last few months in the hospital has changes my views in so many ways its almost unbelievable.

Just another Edublogs site

links

rough draft on addiction

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/categories/alcohol

topic for writting

assignment 1

Hello world!

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