Lets start at the beginning, my drug life started when my step dad passed away after a long 7 years fight with terminal cancer, my mom got a new boyfriend after his passing what was heavily into prescription pain meds. i saw how messed up they were and i decided to steal a few of there xanx bars and roxys, and i loved it and i couldn’t get enough, soon i was telling my mother my back hurt and she would give me a half of roxy, so we became more open to each other about doing pills, soon she was handing me 3-4 at a time and i would sneak into there room and steal 10-15 at a time and do them in a day or two, soon that wasn’t enough, my good friends was also into more hardcore pain meds, dilaution and opanas, i was soon enough stealing from my family to get money for my addiction. after a few weeks of doing pills with my friend i found out he was ejecting them, and said the high was amazing and he offered to shoot me up, i agreed trying to be accepted into his group of the “cool kids” in my eyes. soon enough i couldnt afford the pills anymore because they are so expensive, so i moved onto heroin when the pills ran out each and every month, after a year of injecting pills/heroin i get terribly sick, i went to the doctors and they said it was just a bad cold and gave me some antibiotics like it was no big deal. (i did not inform my doctor i was injecting drugs) a week after i went to the doctor i was soon getting dizzy, light headed and short of breath from simple task like walking, i thought it was just me being dope sick, little did i know it was my heart failing as i had a bad infection in my heart, i was laying in bed for 2 days before my mom insisted on calling a ambulance to go to the hospital, they took blood work and sent me home. (this is a well known hospital in my area for being shitty) My mother sent me to another hospital and they actually took concern on my sickness and took blood work and found out about the infection. They said there was nothing they could do for me and wanted to let me die that night, but by the grace of god they transferred me to the university of michigan hospital (a 2 hour drive from where i was) they quickly took control of the situation and got me stable enough to perform a emergency surgery to replace a valve in my heart with a calf valve. after a month of being unconcious in a hospital not having any idea where i was, i woke up. the 1st thing i remember is trying to move and get out of the hospital bed, being as stubborn as i was at the time thinking i was fine, i quickly gave up on trying to move and came to terms that i had a serious problem i have to deal with my whole life… only after a year of injecting drugs i have lost respect from my family because of stealing, and had major surgery what will effect me for my entire life. i had to go through a month of rehabilitation to be able to walk again. But i did not learn from my mistake after i got out of the rehabilitation place within a week i was talking to my “friend” who i was injecting pills with. (let me add that through this whole ordeal i was having dream of shooting up and it was constantly on my mind and still is to this day). i soon got back into the same loop i was in. drugs, drugs and more drugs. on my way back from my dealer one day i got into a car accident and got charged with fleeing a accident and possession of a controlled substance and possession of heroin. only then did i learn this is not the life i want to live… i had gotten clean (had to due to probation) but i was and still am happy with my life. i currently am in a relationship with the love of my life and have a beautiful baby girl i love with all my heart. and i would not change what i went through because it made me become the man i am today, constantly trying to better myself and trying to get a drug counseling degree to hopefully prevent kids from going down the same path as i did. and how it might be fun getting the rush of drugs but its not worth it in the end. its true, theirs 2 ends to drug addiction jail/prison or death. there is no in between. hopefully someone reads this dealing with drug addiction and i can make a difference.