Dying for Triplicate: A True Story of Addiction, Survival & Recovery

I had been addicted to Vicodin and Norco for almost ten years when I received my first "scrippie" or prescription for Oxycontin. I took two of the little pink beauties and washed them down with a soda. While driving, the Oxycontin hit me like a freight train. A warm rush filled my veins as I pulled my car over due to the intensity of the feeling. My jaw became soft, my temples were ringing with joy, and I was this soft, gummy person that became a fixture in the seat of my car. A teardrop rolled down my eye, and any bit of physical pain I had was gone. Much more powerful than Vicodin or Norco, it was pure religion. I thought, "This is exactly how God and Jesus Christ want me to feel for the rest of my life, nothing should feel this good." I tried rehab facilities, medically supervised detoxifications at home, I even paid $10,000 to have a procedure performed to clean my blood in hopes that it would "fix me." *For the last two and a half years of my addiction I was on a breathing machine to keep me alive. I would stop breathing 40-50 times a night due to the depth of my insanity with the drug use. *I checked myself into rehab on February 16th, 2007 and near certain death. Dr. Daniel Headrick, Medical Director at South Coast Hospital in Laguna Beach, Ca said, "I have worked with and detoxified more than 12,000 patients, and your case is probably the worst I have ever seen. *I didn't sleep for the first 44 days of my recovery. I made a deal with myself that if I didn't sleep by day 50 that I was going to end my life. *I shook physically for close to nine months as the years of opiate pain pill addiction slowly exited my system. I love my life today, but it wasn't that way for a very long time. In order to be built back up I had to be completely torn down. "Dying for Triplicate" is an inside glimpse of a horrific story of addiction, and proof that we can change, and break free of something that we never dreamed possible.