A New Beginning ...

The weekend I got back from vacation (April 6th and 7th) my daughter and her husband were driving up for the weekend to see Ginny, a friend of theirs who was visiting her parents who also live here. My daughter and son in law live nearly seven hours from here, so the drive up is long and hard, especially on the two kids. First place they head once they get in, is to the local drug palace, and of course see people and party with some they know.

My daughter comes home around 11 with little Bella (my granddaughter) and they head off to bed. My son-in-law took their young son, Wyatt, not quite 2, with him to sleep at his mother's house. Both our homes are small and this is typically routine when they come to visit.

The next morning, mother-in-law calls for my daughter telling her that she could not wake up her son (my son-in-law) said he was foaming at the mouth and breathing funny on occasion, was snoring obnoxiously most of the night, and she wanted to know what they had been done the night before? Immediately alarmed as I overhead the conversation, I told my daughter if he was foaming at the mouth and she could not arouse him, then why hadn't 9-1-1 been called as that sounded serious. Instead, my daughter had me drive her over there and drop her off and finally 9-1-1 was called. Good thing, because he nearly died of polysubstance abuse. According to the hospital labs, he had nearly everything in his system, and his kidneys failed. He escaped death, and is lucky, most don't.

Just a week prior, a young woman in her middle 20s died from drug abuse, leaving behind two young children to live with a father they barely knew. Indirectly this story touches a friend of mine, as her daughter (who is pregnant at the moment) is married to this man, who now has his children due to this traumatic event in their lives. How truly sad for the kids. Their mother's family is battling for custody of the children.

Anyway, this weekend turned into two weeks, with him being intubated and in ICU for 7 days and then another 4 days on a regular floor, undergoing dialysis to reverse the kidney damage he had caused his body. It was a mess. All the while my daughter has these two kids and we have no help really from his side of the family, or their extended family. The kids went to daycare and in the evenings were here in the house with me, nearly driving me nuts! Not to mention daughter was very unmanageable herself due to the fact that she is on Suboxone and without the proper dosage of it, she is bitchy and at times to the point of bordering on abuse. It was horrible to see her in such disarray and out of control.

My daughter and her husband both, who now have two children, have been addicts and on heroin and methadone within the last two years, putting us all through hell. They robbed his parents of thousands of dollars to support their habit. It was horrendous, and what the kids went through; it was pitiful. They finally got started at a methadone clinic, which his parents paid for, and once they got stabilized and he got a job, they moved and found a doctor and instead of going to a methadone clinic, got started on Suboxone which at least lets them function normally. For him, he has been able to hold down a job, and soon he will be going back to work.

One can only hope and pray that they realize how precious life truly is, and stop their abuse and mixing of drugs, whether bought on the street or by prescription; if not for themselves, for the sakes of their children, who deserve to have both their parents drug-free, functioning, and willing to love to guide them.

till next time.