| Welcome to Edition 18 |
| ALCOHOLIC REPRIEVE |
| ANNE'S MIRACLE |
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| The day that I went to the hospital all was bleak and I didn't care if I lived. I looked like a Poster Child. I could not hold my head up straight and my bloodshot eyes were rolling in the back of my head. I had stopped functioning as my liver was shutting down. My blood alcohol level was at 3.9 % and even my hair was falling out in clumps. I had deteriorated to 94 pounds and I would not have lived much longer if I had not sought help. I was a true jaywalker. That was on October 4th, 1999. My name is Anne, and I am a friend of Bill W. So why sobriety October 5th? Well, I can say foremost was because I finally was truly sick and tired of being sick and tired. This was the seventh time I had entered detox. On this debauch, my doctor said, "Anne, do you know that you are going to die if you don't stop drinking?" I just looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. He further said. "You are the worst alcoholic I have ever seen." This of course made me very mad. I told myself that I would show him. It had been already October 8th, and I was just starting to remember who I was. This last debauch was strictly on booze. I had liquer in my desk drawers and they were stocked. On October 9th, my doctor released me to go home. I had told him that I would do whatever he suggested. He stated for me attend two AA meetings this coming weekend. I had always thought that I could control alcohol consumption. That Saturday I was still detoxing at home and I could hardly move out of bed. I was in the fog with my brain and shaking like a leaf in a breeze. I had told my spouse that I would try AA, but they could forget about the 'God' thing. On Sunday I felt much better and the shakes had dissipated almost completely. There was a meeting at 1:30 in the afternoon, and I was deadly scared to go. Well, I arrived at the meeting and within one hour I was catapulted from a scrap pile to the 4th Dimension just like 'IT' happened to Bill Wilson. I had been working step one for years and didn't know I was working a step of Alcoholics Anonymous. So step two was easy to conquer. I realized as I got deeper into the program that I had worked step two at my first meeting and found the God that I had forgotten about 30 years before when I had joined a church. I walked out of that first meeting crying and running to my car. I then realized that I was in a church parking lot on a Sunday afternoon and was not drunk. This very thing was a miracle to me. I had my first spiritual awakening that day. To this day I keep having them or what I like to call my spritual experiences. I realized then that I had found home. I had no idea there were so many people just like me. They were sharing about their alcohol hiding places. They were talking about gratitude. They were laughing at themselves. They were hugging each other. They all had what I wanted and it cost me $1 to hear the best and most honest show I have ever seen. I went to a second meeting on Monday and picked up a 24-hour chip. That was truly the beginning of a new life. After the meeting they invited me to go for lunch with them. I could not believe that these people were at a restaurant ordering tea and coffee and not cocktails. This really amazed me. It turned out to be the best lunch I had ever had. I even ate my entire lunch. Page 2 |