Oxycontin Addiction

My husband and I have been married for twenty-one years now. But the last three years have not been very easy for us. It has been a long struggle. The children have required a great deal of reassurance.

It all started on a Wednesday in January, three years ago. He had been out chopping firewood for the evening fire. Little did he know that the axe had been tampered with.  As he raised the axe to strike the stump, the blade left the handle and went spinning down and crashed his femur.

At the hospital, they put him under a sedative, but the pain was evident on his face. The doctors gave him an oxycontin prescription. He was in the hospital for a month. When he was discharged, he took the prescription home.

At home, he slowly became depressed. He could no longer go to work. He was now confined to a wheelchair. The only times he would seem a little happier was after taking the oxycontin prescription and then he would slowly slide back to depression after the medication’s effects wore off. He began taking a larger dose of the tablets so that the effects could last longer. Each day he took more and more, gradually replacing meals with those tablets.

Money started being a problem, yet he couldn’t do without the expensive medicine. He became lean with each passing day. Talking to him was no good, as he did not listen. When his parents tried to talk to him, he simply nodded in agreement then went back to the drugs as soon as they were out of sight.

Soon after, he started complaining of a backache. We were back to the hospital. Tests showed that he had severe spinal injuries due to abuse of oxycontin. He had to spend another two months hooked to machines. Friends and relatives contributed towards paying the bill, but that was not enough. The health insurance denied liability, claiming that the injury was self-inflicted. Problems piled up as friends gradually became tired of contributing.

The hospital could no longer house him so he was discharged. He took the new medication that was prescribed to reverse the effects of oxycontin. Day by day he regained health even started talking again. He admitted that he had been aware of the effect oxycontin was giving him, but he couldn’t stop using it. He is ready to get help and I am happy to have a second chance to get my family back together again.

I had it all.  Sure, some people just say that but I am not kidding.  I literally had it all.  I was the proud mom of three gorgeous kids.  I had raised them for six years as a single parent following the father’s death in a car accident.  So when my own car accident happened, I did everything to keep my children from worrying.  They were having flashbacks to losing their father.

I was in the hospital for four days, thankful that none of the kids were in the car with me that evening as I ran to the store and was hit by a drunk driver.  I smiled as I looked into their eyes, filled with worry and fear.  I promised them I would get better.  Before leaving the hospital, the doctor gave me an oxycontin prescription.  I was grateful as I was still experiencing a lot of pain.

The pain seemed to be worse when I got out of the hospital as I no longer had the IV administered drugs.  I began doubling, then tripling my dosage on my own.  The more I took?  The more I needed.  Without realizing it, I was hooked.

Okay, yes, I did realize it.  The oxycontin, though, made me feel good, made me forget the pain of not only the accident but the last six years without my husband.  The kids were teenagers and busy with their lives and it was easy to keep it a secret for a while.

One night they were all out and I was going stir crazy pacing back and forth needing a fix.  Suddenly I knew what to do.  I drove out to the east side of town where the dope dealers and prostitutes hung out.  I needed some oxycontin and if someone knew where to get it, then it was them.

I quickly assured the prostitute walking that particular corner that I was not a cop, I simply needed some oxycontin.  She took out her cell and made a call.  She gave me directions to a hole in the wall bar just down the street.  When I got there, a guy standing outside told me to follow him to the alley.  I did and there were two other guys back there.  They told me they wanted to have a little fun first.  I saw the bag with the oxycontin pills and I wavered, then I gave in.  Was it rape?  Some might say so.  I only know that I did what I would never have comprehended doing for a bunch of pills that night.  On top of that, after being used by all three?  I still had to pay money for the pills.

The next day, I looked at my beautiful daughters.  I knew I could never do that again.  I got online, found a treatment program near me, and as soon as the girls were out the door to school, I placed a call.  “Hi, I’m a single mom with three teenage daughters and I am hooked on oxycontin.  Can you help me before I ruin all of our lives?”