scuba
Newbie
Joined: 01 Jan 2008
Posts: 1
Report abuse
|
 Posted: 01/01/08 - 22:25 Post subject: |
  |
|
it's been 6 months, but i'm replying anyways... hopefully this helps someone! I'm a 23 year old male who just moved to Virginia Beach, VA and in the past year been through 2 alcohol detoxes. the first one i made it through ok aside from being sick and throwing up a lot. the second i wasn't so lucky. after about 4 or 5 days of binge drinking i needed to stop and "get my life together". I stopped cold turkey (which is extremely dangerous and painful) all that managed to accomplish was having me drink throughout the day to stop the shaking, tremors and high blood pressure. I called my doctor and she told me to go to the ER because alcohol withdrawal can be fatal. after kicking it around for a few hours i went to the hospital and the doctor told me that was a good decision, he also said that people can have a coranary embolism that proves fatal during withdrawal, not to mention seizures, delerium tremen, etc... anywhooo, he started an IV on me and administered Ativan (which is a benzodiazipine) to control the shaking, chills, and tachycardia. he then gave me Lebutorol or something like that to bring down my blood pressure, which had sky rocketted to like 155/95 by the time i went to the hospital. after 2mg of Ativan, a hell of a lot of IV fluids and some meds to bring down my blood pressure I was feeling comfortable. they then gave me some medicine to put me to sleep. In the end, it cost me about $1500 to detox in the ER since i didn't have insurance. this was a small price to pay in order to come back to normal sobriety. I've been able to limit my drinking to 1 night a week since then and 2 to 3 drinks the following day to kick the shakiness. I never want to feel like that again.
My advice for the reader: If you can't stop drinking, go to the hospital for detox. the first time this happened to me i was able to taper off alcohol and get a good night's sleep with Nyquil. the second time i needed professional help and told the nurse at the ER that i was sent there by COMPASS (a behavioral health treatment facility). I felt weird being there for what many people think of as a really bad hangover but this is a serious medical problem and all the nurses and the doctor that treated me saw it as a serious issue and treated it as such. I woke up at the hospital the next day feeling really groggy and stayed that way for a couple days. this was to be expected with everything my body had been put through. Basically, you don't have to suffer through detox, it's worth it to go and get meds that will help you withdrawal SAFELY from alcohol. As for me, never again will i drink that much that often... what a mess |
|
