Cocaine Trying to help a dying buddy get off Crack

[Joey]

If he wants to be out running around in the streets instead of stay home with quantity hes probably looking for trouble. I buy quantity crystal meth and stay home, and Im definitely a true addict so there's a point I want to make there too. Either way it sounds like he is a true addict, and a reckless one too wanting to be caught up in the lifestyle.

I bet he uses more than he lets on when hes not under the radar. I predict that when he gets his money, he will buy quantity and it will escalate both at home and out in the street. He will get caught up in some bs druggie drama when his buddies find out about his lump sum. I think itll drag over into your house somehow with people sniffing about wanting dope, and itll be one big blowout that ends quicker than it started when he runs out of cash and itll take no time at all. Then he will be desperate, maybe very sick all over again and thatll cause more issues. So the cycle continues until you set some hard boundaries or let him go.

Sorry man, nothing about this guy reads like someone who wants help or has it under any control. I think youre being used.

 

[Xorkoth]

I used to inject heroin and crack (converted it to cocaine with an acid). I literally lost complete control doing so, and would keep engaging in riskier and riskier behavior especially if I was sick. My first blood infection was due to a missed shot in my leg using crack and red apple vinegar because I had totaled my car and the gas station within waking distance of me didn't even sell regular vinegar, let alone being able to get ascorbic or citric acid from the needle exchange. That turned into an infected abscess that needed to get lanced and drained that I ignore for too long, but luckily I only need IV antibiotics for to clear up the first blood infection.

Fast forward 4 months later, after doing a shot of cocaine into my hand that blew my medial vein further up, that turned into an infected abscess as well. Between that, reusing needles, etc. that turned rapidly into a second blood infection and also septic shock and it infected the triscupid valve in my heart, called endocarditis. IV antibiotics failed, had first open heart surgery in May of 2017. The problem with our medical system is the different specialties don't communicate, so all of us IV addicts sit there for months in a hospital room with no help or therapy for our addictions, get OHS and released with opioid pain medications and relapse right away.

And so I did, I had blood infection/endocarditis/open heart surgery again in July 2017 and again in October 2017. By the October one I was ready to die, I was shooting up into my PICC line in the hospital. I no longer cared. Well, you can only keep having so many heart surgeries. After my second one they used my femoral vessel for bypass and cut my femoral nerve, I was in a wheel chair for months and still have no feeling in my inner thigh. Because of all the scar tissue on my heart, the third surgeon cut my SA node and I have complete heart block now, needing a dual chamber pacemaker for the rest of my life. I also had bacteria fling off the valve at some point, called emboli, and get stuck in the pulmonary artery causing my lower right lobe to die.

Because of all of this, I'm no long eligible for another open heart surgery so when the valve fails (usually 10 years, but I heavily beat it up for about 6 months, so who knows), it's game over shortly after that. After the 6 months, eventually had the worst overdose ever, had a near death experience, and learned I wanted to stick around on this planet for a bit longer. And, here I am.

There's also a promising new technology where they may be able to do tricuspid valve replacement in the future without open heart surgery by going in through the femoral vein - if I ever get a blood infection again though and the valve gets infected, it's a for sure refusal to operate (unless I can find some crazy ass surgeon somewhere, but I'm sure I would need to be rich to set up something like that.) Needless to say, I've never been so scared of those microscopic bacteria fuckers in my life.

Wow Deru, that's harrowing. I'm thankful you're still with us, and with us here too.

 

[Deru]

Did the wife stick around?

Yes, thankfully the one good thing I ever did in my life was cultivate a healthy relationship and marriage prior to this happening. Without her, I can almost confidently say I wouldn't have survived without her support.

He is still smoking crack every few days, but from what I can tell only $15-$20 dollars worth (all he has the money to buy). He says that's all he's ever used, and he doesn't have any intention of using more, even if he had more money. but I don't necessarily trust him.

He's going on Social Security soon and is going to get a rather large lump sum payment ($10,000). I kind of tested him, I said: "how about you just buy a large amount of Crack, such that you don't have to keep associating with the streets every other day, you know, help you get away from these people?" He didn't like that idea...

I guess we're going to find out soon if he really has this thing under control, or if indeed he is a true addict...,

For what it's worth, that's what I do. Same concept with Social Security, I kept telling everyone I had a lump sum coming, and it took forever, but I wasn't lieing about it - the process just takes forever - and I eventually did get my disability and lump sum payment. It was a huge issue in my own marriage sometimes, because my wife sometimes didn't even believe me. It's tough, because it's so easy to justify whatever an addict says as lies and motivated by greed, but how would one feel if it was them in that position? I've been hurt by a lot of people who I thought were true friends, and was in many similar situations as you describe, especially before my SSI benefits kicked in. I also would never buy large amounts of crack, it's one of my built in mechanisms to control my usage. I'm not suggesting one way or another, as I have nowhere near enough context with your friend, just food for thought. It all boils down to wanting to help an individual, but not trusting them with money, when money is what is required to survive - so does help come with conditions, control, monitoring, oversight, accountability and/or strings attached? It's a mess from every angle, that's for sure.