12th Anniversary of Sobriety

Today is a very special day for me as I celebrate my 12th anniversary of sobriety.
My sobriety means the world to me, with it I have everything in the world to live for, without it, I'm nothing. Has this past 12 years been a breeze? Not at all! In the early years it was always on my mind, would I make it or would I fail. As the years have gone by it has gotten easier but it is still my number one priority when I wake up in the morning! Recently I was tested big time. This past fall my right knee really started giving me lots of trouble. I had to go in for surgery to clean it out, unfortunately I came down with a bad infection, more surgery and lots of pain. I was given narcotic pain pills to help with the pain. The good thing is this time I was NOT in control of my medicine, my wife Jill had them and when I would need some she would dispense them out to me the way they were supposed to be taken. This time the doctors knew about my addiction and I was monitored very carefully. On January 7th I had a total knee replacement of my right knee, major surgery and more pain meds. Could I have gotten by without them? I suppose I could have but it would have been very difficult as the pain was relentless for the first 3 weeks after surgery. As the pain decreased I was able to use less and less pain meds, I'm happy to say that I no longer need the pain meds, only some ibuprofen or Tylenol from time to time. It was scary going back on the pain meds, but knowing the support I had surrounding me was very reassuring that everything would be OK. Over the years I have received so much support from so many people, I want to say thank you to all of you from the bottom of my heart. Your thoughts and prayer mean so much to me. I give my word that I will continue to do my best through the Dick Beardsley Foundation (www.dickbeardsleyfoundation.org) to get the word out about the terrible disease of chemical dependency, to work with all my passion to raise money to help those afflicted with a chemical dependency to get the treatment they need so they can get there lives back, to talk to our young kids about leading a healthy, active lifestyle, chemically free. This is my mission, we have a long way to go but with your help I am certain we can get it done. For those of you who would like to donate to the Dick Beardsley Foundation you can do that through our website. Please don't think for one minute that even one dollar won't help us, I promise you it will help tremendously!

Thank you for your kindness and continued support, I really appreciate it!

Have a great day "one day at a time"!

God Bless you all!

Dick