Medical Update (Disturbing Photo Warning)

On Dec. 31, 2023 I was laying on the floor in my apartment for 7 hours after falling when I got too drunk. I wan not able to get up and it took some time for anyone to hear me calling for help. I find it amazing that the people on either side of me, or across the hall heard nothing, but the lady way down the hall did hear me. She called an ambulance for me and I was helped off the floor with use of an air bag designed just for this task. I was taken to the hospital and seen right away.

When in the hospital I was advised I needed a CT scan of my brain right away, as I'm on blood thinners and they worried about bleeding into my brain, since I could not recall falling. The CT operator in the Moose Jaw hospital was not available and I had to be taken to Regina General to have the scan.

Fortunately, I did not have any bleeding in my brain. I have to say, that after being on the floor for 7 hours, if I did, I'd be dead or a salad plate by the time I was found. But better to be cautious than to not. But I did have Rhabdomyolysis - a condition that was caused by the excessive drinking and the fall. It literally damages the muscles and emits a dangerous enzyme into your blood. This can in extreme cases (and mine was) shut down your kidneys or even kill you.

For many days I was not able to lift my own feet into the bed in the hospital and needed help. I also needed help getting up from a sitting position. The damage to my muscles was astonishing to me being that it happened in a short 7 hour span. It was also rather difficult to walk for a couple of days.

I was in for a total of 9 days and it took that long to have the strength back to be able to function in my own home alone again. It also took over 2 months to get back to the way I was before I fell. It was hard to even get into my friends car, and I had to lift my legs in with my hands, one at a time.

I was visited by a therapy person and she gave me exercises to do to help build the strength in my legs again. At first it was hard to do them, but it got more easy as the days went on. I was also very much a fall risk for a while there as I was unstable on my feet. But now I'm mostly back to normal and grateful that I am still able to be in my own home.

My right knee as it was on Jan 4, 2024. This is not as bad as it was when I went into the hospital, but you can see I scraped it up rather badly. I was nude at the time of my fall, and I got carpet burn. I also had burses on my back for some reason. By stomach also had burses on it, as well as my right side. The worst part of the knee was it became itchy as heck and stayed that way for many days. Below you see the same knee today (time of this post) and you can see, there are marks that will never go away.

To this day, I still desire to drink, but have abstained for the most part (had a couple of slips ups). It's amazing how even almost dying did not kill the desire to drink until I'm fall down drunk.

As well, the fact I'm on blood thinners, and the amount of booze I consumed that night, I could have ended up bleeding inside and died. If I do drink in the future, I'll be dramatically limiting it (I have drank a couple of times and have kept it to a minimum). The best thing to do, is to not drink of course, but I can't say I won't. I can however say, I won't drink until I'm blacked out drunk ever again. I do very much enjoy the feeling of being altered by the booze. But I WILL limit intake for the rest of my life, or just not drink at all when I desire to do so.