To the ER Dr Who’s Wondering if his Wife’s an Alcoholic & To the Guy Whose Wife’s Wetting the Bed

I’ve been seeing my 27-year-old son run the gamet of alcoholism for the past 9 years. At 18, he starting drinking a 1/4 handle of whiskey/day and then added in liquid Benadryl to sleep. He had his first of 15 5150s that year after cutting his wrist with a razor.

5 years later, after constant begging from us to go to the hospital, he finally did. He’d been self-detoxing and claimed he took a sip of a beer and the whites of his eyes half filled up with brown, like his skin. He’d gone past yellow and the dr feared he might be on the brink of liver failure. He was diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis and was now bleeding from the mouth.

After 3 weeks of being sober, my son began drinking again and started experiencing shortness of breath, as his enlarged liver was pushing on his organs. There were now large, red stretchmarks on his abdomen.

6 months later, my son was yellow. He began bleeding from the nose and rectum. He also had constant pain in his gallbladder.

2 months later, my son fell in his apt and hit his head. I took him for a CAT scan. It was normal but he was starting to show signs of confusion.

1 month later, my son had severe tremors, so he went to the ER and was given plasma transfusions because his platelets were low. He was pissing in his shorts in the hospital.

1 month later, my son finally went to rehab. He had a seizure in the back of their van and the dr informed the DMV, who revoked his driver’s license. My son left rehab after a week, showed up at my door, and his sister let him in. We tried 90 days of “rehab” at my house with 3 BacTrack breathalyzer blows/day, daily online AA mtgs, and weekly therapy. My son’s liver levels got back down to normal and his alcoholic hepatitis was gone.

After 3 monthly relapses, I finally threw my son out of the house after an episode with the police. For the next 8 months he lived in his car in my pkg lot.

3 months later, I found my son parked in his car along the main road. When I banged on the driver’s side window and yelled out his name, his eyes slowly opened and rolled back in his head. And when I opened the driver’s side door, he fell into the street. He was covered in every bodily fluid.

At the hospital, a rep from the court brought a laptop into my son’s room for a 5250 hearing. L.A. is an overcrowded slum city, so the judge ignored my pleas and insisted the hospital discharge him.

After 1 3-week rehab stay and 1 2-week rehab stay, my son was assaulted at the park across the street. He had multiple cheek fractures and a small brain bleed.

2 weeks later, my son was so dehydrated from the heat that the nurse had to use an ultrasound to find a vein for fluids. His magnesium was so low that it was almost non-compatible with life.

My son finally told his CARE Team that he wanted to stop drinking. He made it 7 months and 19 days in rehab before relapsing and wrecking his car. He’s now back living in his car in my pkg lot.