Oops Hospitals can be deadly

So Bob had his much needed back surgery. The only obvious complications at the beginning, were that he was probably one of the worst nightmare patients a doctor or a nurse could ever want. Something just happened to him in a hospital room. Looking back it is oh so obvious why. He became that angry man. Complaining about everything, causing such commotion.

His dad actually had to come in and try to calm him down and apologise to the doctors. His neurosurgeon was also Bob's. His dad tried to make everything right and because they respected him so much, they bent over backwards to make Bob as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
The lesson for me was:

YOU CAN'T GIVE AN ADDICT A MORPHINE DRIP THAT THEY ARE IN CONTROL OF, AND EXPECT THEM TO ACT NORMAL. Morphine is a heavy duty narcotic and just because he had a reason to take it, it didn't mean his state of mind was going to be good. It was far from it.

That is just my advice to the medical community. I had so little knowledge about what I was really dealing with at the time, I didn't get it.

I should have searched the back episodes of his life,stored in my mind for reasons to help explain to me, what was happening to him. Back then I didn't really see the connection. I was brainwashed into thinking he would be fine taking massive amounts of pain "Medication".
Just to jolt every one's memory, the last time Bob was given a morphine drip was after he came back from Tahiti the first time, and got a serious staff infection.
His "fiance"/madame/drug pusher, was sneaking him in bottles of Vodka to go along with his antibiotics and pain killers. So he was happy back then, he didn't care that they were about to amputate his leg because nothing was helping him, he felt wonderful, loved being high on it.
All that had to happen to wet his appetite again for drugs was just give him a little taste of morphine and every nerve cell in his body had a certain type of memory that actively cried out for more.
The problem was his tolerance was so large for anything he was given,because he had been taking massive doses of any type of medication he could get his hands on for years before he actually got and stayed sober.
The mind and body does not forget and he was right back where he left off.

It was the beginning of a terrible time in his life. Wanting to remain sober, but not really being sober. Just because your addict mind didn't actively seek the drugs,doesn't mean it won't alter your personality, just try ingesting them medically. The result is the same. A craving is set up that will not be satisfied, at least his appetite was not satisfied.

I still look back on these times and admire the strength he must have had, the courage to not go into full blown alcoholism back then. He was actively practicing what is known as "White Knuckle Sobriety" hanging on by a thread, that's how bad he wanted to stay off alcohol and beat his disease. My hat and my heart went out to him for his courage.
I never had to walk a mile in his shoes, but I can tell you this much. I wouldn't have made it. I'm not quite that strong.
Hell, just tell me I can't have a coke with dinner and just watch me order it. Imagine having such a terrible craving and knowing that if you give in to it, chances are, at least in his case, that you will end up in jail, a hospital or maybe even dead. That was the monkey on his back, day after day, year after year.

I admired him, I rooted for him, I didn't have the strength he possessed and I knew it. He went fourteen years without one drop of liquor passing through his lips. Without the help of AA. He did it just by living a great life. Those were the best years of his life, but his physical problems would be bringing that all to a close shortly.