Jimmy's Story

My mom posted this on her blog about my brother - people don't understand how serious these addictions can be - it's not like illegal drugs that you buy from a punk on the street - you legally get a prescription to kill yourself... the word needs to be spread - lives need to be saved. Jimmy was a good guy who got hurt and took medicine to help with the pain - now he's gone ~ Never Forget!


Jimmy's Story
I am sure many are wondering what happened to Jimmy and I feel I need to make sure everyone knows the facts.

Several years ago Jimmy was working at a Guest Ranch in Colorado and injured two vertebrea by lifting a very heavy rock, he was in severe pain so the doctor put him on Oxycontin (this was before we had ever heard of that drug and how terrible and powerful it is). This injury was really bad. Later Jimmy would be told he needed a risky surgery but refused because of the chance something might go wrong. Jimmy needed the medicine for his pain and eventually his body just needed the drug. He tried several times to go off the drug but just couldn't, the withdrawal symptoms were so bad. Sometime not long ago (I'm not sure when but within the last year) a doctor put him on Methadone to help him get off the Oxycontin. This past October, out of the blue Jimmy came to Rexburg for a visit, he was really sick the whole time he was here (I thought he had the flu) but after he left Glenn said Jimmy told him he was going cold turkey off the Methadone. Jimmy felt this drug was as bad or worse than the Oxycontin. He had to go back to Seattle (being away from his son was hard) so he went back. Thanksgiving he came to Utah and came home with us again. He was still trying not to take the Methadone and still had terrible symptoms (couldn't sleep, terrible anxiety and stomach problems) but seemed to get a little better. He wanted to go back to Seattle to have an early Christmas with Jayden and then come back to Rexburg. Something went terribly wrong, we would call to see when he was coming back and he just kept saying tomorrow. The last day, he didn't even sound like himself. Glenn tried to get a flight out on Saturday and couldn't, then they found him dead Sunday morning. We thought at first he had taken his own life but after the investigation they (the police) think (Cindi and Michael agree) his symptoms were still bothering him which made his depression worsen. He tried over the counter drugs but they did not help. He still had some Methadone which he took but after being off it for so long the dose was just too strong and his body had a violent reaction and he died in his sleep.

I believe that Jimmy never got a drug that he didn't have a legal prescription for. It really saddens me that doctors hand out powerful medicines just for the asking. We all feel we made some terrible mistakes, we should have encouraged Jimmy to work with a doctor and not go off the drug cold turkey, he should have never gone back to Seattle alone (he needed constant moral support to handle the withdrawal symptoms) and we should have gone immediately when we saw things starting to go wrong. We will forever wish we could go back and do thing differently. We do know Jimmy knew we loved him very much and we are so very grateful for the last few weeks we had with him.