The Enabler and the Alcoholic: A True Story

About two years ago my husband, who is an alcoholic, really got into trouble with his drinking. No, he didn't hurt anyone but himself. He already had asthma and we found that this had progressed into COPD
(Chronic-Obstructive-pulmonary disease) this compounded an already bad situation. Through all of this he continued to drink. All the while taking blood pressure medication, for high blood pressure and some other medications.

You see, he had this routine every day. He had this friend that was retired ,and he would pick up my huband and they would spend the whole day driving to all the clubs( because they had to sign the books for the drawings), then they would either stop and pick up a fifth of cheap wine about $5.00 to bring home.When he ran out he would badger me untill I had to cave in to get some peace and quiet. I know you are wondering why I didn't get out then? Well some how through the badgering and caveing in I was not able to save anything to get out with.

As this progressed he went through different stages, from looking like an over cooked Dough Boy because of the ascites and the jaundice. He was all puffed up ,and had jaundice,he went into bruising and bleeding from the sores, had impaired brain function and was very weak and had no appetite.

On and off through all of this he would cliam that he wanted to quit drinking. So the doctor put him on Librium
to help with the withdrawl, which he took with his wine! I called my friend who is in the medical proffession and told what he was doing. She said"Shake twice and say BYE,BYE! "Well he continued and some how still survied.

We have all heard horrible stories of people who drink too much and the people who are affected by this, it has a trickle down effect that is not always noticed in the begining. My story is a little different that he drank and then didn't eat (You know the saying, I don't want to ruin a good buzz!) then he drank and couldn't eat.

I know what you are thinking. How can anyone get that bad , that they are unable to eat. It's like this, with the
COPD this manufactures large amounts of mucous which gives them nausea, then they get to coughing and
they throw-up all of this mucus and maybe what little food they could eat. I have never seen anyone throw-up
as many times a day that my husband did. And this went on for almost a year and a half.

I began to notice that he wasn't acting right, saying really stupid things that didn't make sense. He was falling down alot ,I found him on the floor outside the bathroom. Just laying there." I asked what are you doing?"\

He said something silly and I tried to help him get up. I realized that he had no idea of how to, I had to try to talk him through how to get on your hands and knees and crawl.

By this time my husband ,who is six feet one inch tall was down to 150lbs. I called his mother to tell I was calling a squad if she didn't come to help me get him to the hospital. She finally showed up and it took us 20 minutes to get him to the car.

I took him into the ER and, they diagnosed him with End Stage Liver Disease, Ulcers in his Esophagus,
a Varices in his Esophagus,Dementia (Korsakoffs amnesic physhosis) this occurs in people who drink lage amounts of alcohol espically those who are malnourished and have a deficiency of B vitamins (particalarly thiamine).

A person with Korsacoff's syndrome loses his memory for recent events.

Wernicke's encephalppathy symptoms include abnormal eye movements, confusion, uncoordinated movements,and abnormal nerve function also bulging eyes.

Korsakoff's syndrome can be fatal if thiamine deficiency isn't treated promptly.My huband had all of these
and neurophathy in his feet and hands. ( They were numb from the nerves being damaged)He also had the delerium tremmors (like with an older person who can't hold their hands still).

This to was an extreme case of alcohol abuse seen first hand. I am sure that there are others out there
maybe just as bad, However it is amazing and scarey to see what a person can do to themselves and survive.
My husband is alive and came home from the nursing home, however I can't get into that right now, that is my next story.

The information I used to reference Wernicks and Korsakoff's was found in the Merck Manuel Home Edition.