OPIOID ADDICTION

After being shot by a sniper, I was in the hospital for about 3 months. I was shot in my femoral artery and needed multiple blood transfusions. In Langstuhl, Germany, I received a blood transfusion and the medicine that I was on had me feeling like I was on clouds for 3 hours straight. After being sent back to Ft. Carson, I was hooked up to a morphine drip. About every 4 hours I received a new batch of painkillers through my IV.  This was the beginning of a problem that I didn’t know I had. After I got out of the hospital, I had this urge to go back to the hospital. I would go back to the doctors and tell them that I still am in pain, and I need to be on the painkillers again. What I didn’t know was that I was addicted to opioids. Even after I got out of the hospital, I was still on Vicodin and morphine in pill form. However, it was nothing compared to receiving the painkillers through an IV. ​I was then stationed to the Ft. Carson WTU (Warrior Transition Unit), a unit for injured soldiers. In this unit, I saw soldiers die from overdoses while I fell deeper and deeper into my own addiction. Something that impacted me deeply was seeing one of my friends die after falling face-first off a curb without bracing himself. He fell on a Saturday night, and I got a call on Monday morning that he was dead. I eventually got out of that unit and returned home to Rochester, Ny. My opioid addiction came along with me, along with an even worse drinking problem. The combination of pills and alcohol led me to a failed suicide attempt in 2010, only 4 months out of the Army. After that I was done with the pills. There’s so much more to my story! If you’d like to hear more, send me a message!