DOSE:	repeated	smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)
	repeated	oral	Alcohol - Hard	(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

165 lb

Last night, new years eve 2004, was the second time in only a period of a few months that I almost died several different ways in a drunken stupor. This only happens when I hang out with my friend 'S', quite possibly the worst drinking buddy ever; but what he did for me last night is just amazing.

My plan the whole day was to just go hang out with S and his girlfriend, get a little drunk, and go home at about ten to my family because my mom had planned a dinner thing and I wanted to be with them at midnight of course. As it turned out I got home at around 4 in the morning after being discharged from the hospital, and was probably in a coma at midnight. Many a thing happened last night, a great deal of which I don't remember at all and has been told to me for the purpose of this report, please take to heart this terrible night and be careful when drinking; I'm damn lucky I made it through all of this as well as I did. I am pretty much convinved I have a drinking angel or something that watches out for me when I get myself drunk, and I am NOT in any way a religious person. Now on to the story...

I think I met up with S and his girl at about 4-5 pm; his mom bought him a half gallon of vodka, and we were making the rounds to rite-aid and such looking for a 2 liter or something to mix it in. We stopped at the house of a friend of S's, I'll call D, to get some pot, real good shit. We chilled at D's for a bit, had a round of shots and smoked a few bowls and a blunt; he's a big poker enthusiast, and we all talked quite a bit about the strategy and luck components of games like that for a while, the eve was off to a great start. We left D's after about an hour and were in search of a place to go drink, S's mom technically doesn't like people drinking in her place (it's a guarded apartment building with some 'unsavor characters' living in it and it's an issue when people stumble out the door all shitfaced) but there was no other place, so we went. 'Mom' (as his mom is known to all) wasn't too pleased as she'd planned a quit and early evening to herself and didn't like the idea of us being there too long. We mixed our first 2 liter there, and wanted to go spend some subway stamps and get some subs but the bastards closed early, can't help but to think that had I had a little more food in my stomach I might not have gotten as bad as I did; as it was I had a small piece of pie and an english muffin at mom's place and that was it (of course I had been planning on going home and feasting later, so I wasn't looking to be full and thought I'd just get an extra buzz, BIG MISTAKE!)

We all took healthy guzzles from our drink; vodka and that new berry 7-Up are a great combo, barely even notice the booze, and decided to go visit S's aunt 'P'. Mom hadn't seen P for a good bit, and wanted to come along so we all mobbed out towards her place; on the way mom bought S and I each one of those Sparks things (the malt beverage energy drink), which are damn good.

By the time we got to P's, S and his girl had been drinking hard, but I had only had a few chugs and was hardly feeling anything. P was one of the best people I'd ever met, I love that woman in every way but a romantic one, it's hard to describe but she was just very 'cosmic' and intelligent in a more spiritual way. The last thing I remember is S's girl filling up the next 2 liter, and S and I had just smoked a bowl that I was preparing to match him on. I asked him the time and he said it was about 9:45; I was prepared to smoke another bowl, have a another drink for the road and head home, but instead came to 5 or so hours later in the ER. From this point foward my memory ends, and this is only as has been retold to me. I must have hit a blackout very shortly after asking the time, for me blackouts are just periods that I never remember and in which I say and do very stupid things.

I must stress how little I drank in comparison to S and his girl, and I was only starting to slur my words a slight bit and had a bit of difficulty manuevering around tight spaces and such; basically the starting point of intoxication as I last remember. After the bowl that I matched S, P took out her stash and I matched her several bowls (I almost smoked my whole $60 bag with her!) meanwhile she kept telling me to put mine away; I guess I just kept telling her that I loved and respected her so much I would do anything for her, or something along those lines. At one point I tried to put it away, but instead spilled it all over my shirt, then when S got down to pick it up and was putting it back in the bag in front of my face I was accusing him of ripping me off. The alcohol I had consumed was slowly starting to hit, but this is what threw me over the edge. P had trainwreck, which is known to veterans to be very powerful 'creeper' weed (don't feel anything at first then it hits HARD like 5 minutes later when I smoke it, very dangerous in large amounts especially with alcohol) and we smoked bowl after bowl after bowl etc. S said later P was so blazed she just kept loading. This is how I know I was in a blackout though, it was like 11:00 and I was sitting around smoking, when I had planned to leave an hour before; I also don't like to smoke more than 2-3 bowls at a time becuase I never feel much higher and instead I just get a headache from all the smoke.

At about 11:30, we got up to go, the problem was I couldn't stand, or move much at all. I guess I got up and crashed into a bunch of furniture (didn't break anything thankfully) and S told me I was staying there for the night. He tried to put a blanket on me but I wouldn't let him and was trying to fight him, eventually I puked all over the blanket and on myself. I don't know why, but after that the 4 of us left; I think S was going to put me on the train and ride with me until my stop (which is very far from where the three of them live, they really were looking out for me) but we never made it. I have very hazy memories of looking up and seeing that I was being dragged along by the arms and I just kept falling, my legs wouldn't move or cooridinate at all. S likened it to one of those dolls where one pulls the string and it does jumping jack motions. I guess I repeatedly kicked him in the knee on accident, which isn't cool because he has bad arthritis problems in that knee.

At some point I just charged towards some random house; the door was at the bottom of a stair well, and I just ran down and smacked straight into the door, fell backwards, and hit my head several times on the concrete. After that I was unconscious and completely unrousable, which has happened to me before, I think they're like mini comas or something because I don't respond to ANYTHING. Mom was worried I had a concussion, and S's knee was killing him, so they wanted to go to a hospital. S called my sister from my cell and told her I was passed out in a stair well, when she told my mom and dad that they all piled in the car and raced out towards the other side of town (I guess something about what S said to my sister was enough to scare her) counting down the minutes until new year in the car.

I hear they pulled up and I couldn't move and was still unconscious, so all of them had to drag me and stuff me in the car. S, his girl and his mom all told me later they were damn sore after dragging my ass around like that. By this point I was soaking wet from falling in puddles and pissing my pants which I did several times, plus probably reeked of puke. They took me right in to the ER once I was falling into walls and such in the waiting room. I must have been awake at that point but still in a blackout; I think I passed out again later because I was unconscious for a lot of the proceedings in the ER, like the catheter insertion for example, and I don't think unconsciousness could ever be more merciful. It took me a really long time to figure out I was in a hospital and that my family was there, though I was awake for a good few hours of it. They gave me a cat scan and I was talking a lot to the guy doing it, I babbled to everyone and ceaselessly asked what time it was.

The only part about it I remember however was being told once that it was almost 4 am, and that's when I looked around and saw my mom, dad and sister and became a little more aware of the fact that I was in the hospital and such. I was crying a lot and thanking everyone for 'saving my life', I also asked the nurses and doctors some very peculiar questions, people said that I wasn't slurring too bad actually. For example, I asked the doctor if methamphetamine lowers you tolerance to alcohol, and then adamantly swore I had only tried meth once (which is true), they must of thought I was the most dipshit tweaker-drunk. The doctor bitched me out several times about how drunk I was (my blood-alcohol level was .352!), she was saying the fact that I wasn't in a coma with that much booze in me meant that I was an alcoholic and had a dangers dependancy; which doesn't make much sense in my little world, seems to me that just indicates I've got a high tolerance (which I do, very high and with many substances, 1000 miligrams of vicodin to me is a barely noticeable buzz). Meanwhile, and speaking of vicodin, my friend S got a prescription and 6 pills for the road; this is a guy who drinks himself into oblivion every night and is the most insane drunk I've ever known or would want to know, and yet I get the lecture?

If my BAC was .352, he must have been like .6; he drank SO much more than I did, and him, his mom, his girl, and anyone else that was with me that night continued to say how little I had actually drank (especially in comparison to S). My family (sister aside) had never met S, I wish I could have introduced them, but instead they met under these circumstances; my mom went and thanked them and said that S was hugging her and shit, he was wasted but held it much better than me in more ways than one. S's girl hit on my sister (she's bi and thinks my sister is hot, I've known this for a while) and told her she wanted to have a 3-way with her and S; then S came to see how I was doing, I kissed him and said that it wasn't romantic, I kept telling people I loved them and wanted to kiss them in a non romantic way, so I guess I finally did.

What did I learn from this? A lot. I'm not drinking anymore because I do like the buzz A LOT (I'm what you'd call a lush, a borderline/low level alcoholic) and am getting tired of spending so much money on it and having to drink every night etc. I really hate getting DRUNK, to the point where you can't even stand and such, a little drunk is great to me but I absolutely detest when it goes over the line. Other shitty things happened too: I lost $30 out of my wallet somehow which I know I'll never see again, I almost smoked all my weed, my dick hurts like hell and pissing is just agony, the hospital always sucks and when the staff treats you like shit (they were pretty surly) it makes it much worse plus whatever asshole put my IV in did a hell of a job because my arm is so full of trackmarks I look like a smack junkie, and I acted like an idiot in front of some people I really love and respect; S, his girl, his mom, P and lots of others.

It's just a terribly humiliating thing to be that way and have to get dragged to a hospital because you can't even stand; I missed new years completely and made many other people miss it too, not cool. I also really found out something about S, I always trusted the guy and liked him as a friend, but he stayed with me and dealt with me like that, and in an area of town where I would have surely been beaten and robbed if he'd left me or tried to let me take care of myself; then come the morning the drunk bus would've found me and taken me to detox, which is worse than the hospital, if I hadn't choked on vomit or something and was still alive that is. If it weren't for S, this already very shitty event would have been much worse (for me at least) and I think of him like a brother at this point, which he told me last night is a mutual feeling. I'm indebted to all three of them for taking care of me like that, I couldn't ever repay that but certainly would return the favor if it came up.

The biggest thing I learned out of all of this is that I just should never even start the drinking, at least the heavy drinking, until I get to a place you want to stay; avoid at all costs the notion of trying to get home or wherever I want to be while completely shitfaced.

Exp Year: 2004	ExpID: 39407
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 12, 2006	Views: 34,451
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Alcohol - Hard (198) : Difficult Experiences (5), Small Group (2-9) (17)