Reply to What does dying from alcoholism look like?

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[quote=Anonymous]My father died 7 years ago at age 82 after drinking for nearly 60 years.  When I was growing up, he usually drank between a liter and two liters of vodka a day.  It amazes me that he lived as long as he did.

Miraculously, he was sober for nearly 18 months before he died, the longest stretch of time of sobriety of my lifetime.  He was hospitalized in the ICU for pneumonia and multiple organ failure, in and out of consciousness for days, and doctors decided to do dialysis on him to see if supporting his kidneys would help.  Not only did dialysis support a return to function of his other major organs, but somehow, it cured his craving for alcohol.  Pretty much entirely.  And his days in the ICU, in and out of consciousness, took care of the worst of withdrawals and DT's.

The amazing thing is that we were working with him on writing a living will before he was hospitalized, and he was leaning toward declining dialysis.  Now, we are SO grateful that it gave him a new lease on life.  It was tough -- he had to go to dialysis for 3-4 hours a day, three days a week, and the rest of his body was still pretty close to death for those 18 months.  But, in my mid-30's, I got to have a relationship with a sober dad for my first time ever.  It has given me great peace.  It has also helped me to begin to forgive him his years of drinking.  A biochemical change in his body released him from the prison of his physical dependence on alcohol, and it made me realize that it was not all a matter of lack of willpower or lack of love for us that kept him drinking.

I share this story only with the thought that if there are other folks on here who are caretakers of elderly alcoholics, if you are offered the option of dialysis for your loved one, please consider taking it.  My dad's nephrologist said he had one other elderly alcoholic patient whose alcoholism was essentially cured, too, but otherwise he had never heard or read of the phenomenon.  It could be just a fluke.  Or it could be something that could bring you an opportunity to have a brief sober relationship before your loved one's death.[/quote]

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