While I was in bed contemplating life and everything I had to relearn, it was overwhelming.
There was so much I had to change, including my marriage. I wasn’t sure that my wife at the time would come to see me or not.
Before the stroke we weren’t in a good place. Over the years I had cheated. It was in the past but it was very hurtful, and there were tensions between us. I screwed that up deeply.
She did come to the hospital to see me, and I was thinking that we will work it out. Instead, she brought our friends with her. Some of them were great to hang out with and support me. Some of them were still wasted to the point the nurses, and security guards kicked them out.
When I was ready to finally go home to Fairbanks. The doctors said I would have to come back for more surgery, part of my brain was still missing. Then they gave me a big warning. The stroke risks with my preexisting conditions if I didn’t clean up my lifestyle were huge: The doctors said that with any alcohol use was 200% higher, and cocaine was 700% higher of having another stroke. I was never the guy to have a beer or two for me, it was all or nothing. So in that moment I made a huge decision, I stopped drinking and drugs, and I am straight edge to this day.
I finally got on a plane, right around July time. I walked in my door and my wife and friends were getting ready to go out and party, and there was beer on the table. What a welcome home…
Stay tuned for the Fairbanks, Part 1
Dave Keller 