My brother-in-law was hospitalized for alcoholic hepatitis; in his case, it progressed to coughing/vomiting up blood before he did anything about it, and that involved a trip to the ER and months in the ICU due to his liver failing, kidneys shutting down, pneumonia, a small stroke. He was fortunate enough in that it didn’t kill him, his liver slowly started working again, kidneys too, and after months of recovery and a long stay in a physical rehab institute (so he could walk again after being in a hospital bed for so long), he decided that was the wake up call and has been sober about a decade. He still has lingering physical issues and is basically disabled in various ways, but he’s glad to be alive and have a second chance.
Chefguy, I hope your son’s experience and commitment to doing an inpatient stay wakes him up enough that he figures out what he needs to do in order to stay sober.
baileygrrrl, I’m glad to hear you’re at least moving in the right direction. I hope 2014 will be kind to you.
Thanks. Not to derail the thread, but I’ve also found out that my daughter has been drinking heavily over the past couple of years. The Christmas letter to my four children this year is seven pages long, chronicling the sad and disastrous damage alcohol has done to my family over the past few generations. I hope they take it to heart.