30 Day Challenge

Today is July 11 and I have not had a drink in 30 days. Some of you may know that my mother suffers from advanced dementia and requires round-the-clock care. She is on hospice and I have been out on FMLA leave helping with her care (which is why I missed SMACC in Chicago). This time away from work has allowed me to do some soul searching about life. Life is hard. Working in the emergency services is hard. Being a caregiver is hard. Being a good husband and father is hard. I was drinking a lot. My mother goes to bed between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. and my Dad and I would sit down at the kitchen table and enjoy a honey whiskey and ginger ale. Mostly it was honey whiskey with a splash of ginger ale. Then we’d split a bottle of wine. My Mom’s illness has been hard on my Dad. My GERD was getting worse. I was taking Prilosec and Zantac every day. The results of my annual physical came back. My liver enzymes were abnormal. I told myself it was probably from lifting weights. It was subtle at first. Like tiny little stress fractures you’d need a magnifying glass to see. I think we in the emergency services have very strong coping mechanisms. Maybe we don’t have any choice. We see abnormal things every day. We deal with people more screwed up than we are. We endure stress. Lots and lots of stress. I thought to myself, “I should probably cut down on the drinking.” I was forgetting to take care of certain things. I was waking up almost every morning with a ...
Source: EMS 12-Lead - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Uncategorized 30 Day Challenge Source Type: research