Climbing From The Pits Of Hell

I've always enjoyed life. Good family, love, sex, the Arts. I've been a professional entertainer since I was quite young. Never got rich but I was good enough to pay the bills. It was during my 50th physical examination that things started to go south, as they say. My blood work wasn't quite right so after further testing I was diagnosed with acute chronic advanced Hep-C with a massive viral load that was engaging in a major offensive against my liver. Learning that the only treatment was Interferon and Ribavirin and that it wasn't very pleasant I was given a suicide waiver to sign and we could be on with the treatment. Although I was never suicidal, I did tell the Dr. that I loved myself and my family far too much to harm them. If I ever felt homicidal I would come down there and pop a cap in him and with that I signed the waiver and slid it over to him. All kidding aside this was not a pleasant experience.

After the treatment was over my wife and I were having a good life until one day I discovered we had marriage difficulties. This was extremely stressful and then shortly thereafter my wife's mother's Alzheimers condition worsened. No one in the family would care for her and my heart is so large that even with our marital problems I gave in and we moved her and all of her possessions into our home. The stress was mounting when we discovered I had relasped with a vengence. This time I was given dosages so large that they were as close as they could be without killing me. The stress was now beyond stress, it was becoming the pits of hell. I was so sick that the only thing that could keep me going was large doses of narcotics which eventually ended in a monster of an addiction. At the very beginning I weighed 210lbs. and during the 2nd chemo I was as low as 125lbs. A skeleton with skin. During this terrible chemo my wife's mother was getting worse until one early morning she passed. At this point both my wife and I were addicted and caring for her mother had kept that in the background. Now the hell became intense particularly when I relasped again after the 2nd chemo.

One can get so far in the pit and not actually realize they're as far gone as they really are until it becomes time to climb out. With the help of Substance Abuse assistance and a strong love for one another we are just starting to see the opening at top of the pit. We were really down there and I would never wish this on anyone. You can read about different aspects of this in my other Hubs

We are going to make it, stronger and scarred but back on top. Remember it can be done, with strenght and love and anything else you can muster up that will help. WHAT A LIFE !!!!

James Edward George