Well don't want to be too optimistic but things are looking pretty good.

No deterioration of the pulmonary system other than my bronchitis has gone up a notch but the antibiotics seem to be working.

Regarding my approaching opiate addiction.

When I used to attend AA meetings you'd often come across multidisciplinary individuals who also had drug and gambling habits and were usually dissuaded from airing all their laundry as the AA crowd are a bit possessive about the order of hierarchy. But I loved the gamblers. They often had a swagger about them and they dressed beautifully. And the balls. OMG. Their stories are a mathematician's wet dream, not that I remember any but their devotion to their craft outperformed the alcoholic any day.

Those guys who had gone through 2 or 3 family homes including those of the parents and the grandparents were my favorites. They were so confident they would triumph again and their families obviously believed them. They are the epitome of Churchill's heavenly epigraph, 'Never ever give up'. These people are probably the backbone of the stock market. You could sometimes see them down the racetrack edging close to the big financiers looking for that secret tip. I was often surprised at the camaraderie between these different social strata.  As a boy I watched my father the tailor mingle many times with the high and mighty. A good tip has avid listener's.


But the drug addicts.
They come in 2 classes. Lost and almost lost.

Lost probably never attend meetings. They stay out working the streets. Their time is short. They won't be around too long so they have to keep busy I guess. I also guess the dedicated drug addict often OD's somewhere. Death is the reward for living right on the edge.
Almost lost sometimes you'd find them at meeting hoping to either sell or score. But the thing that struck me about drug addicts I've met was their apparent above average intelligence. They appeared smart in my frame of reference.

So what came first , the smarts or the addiction?


Hopefully I'll soon find out real soon whilst backed up by my innate Primary Fundamental Right to do what I like to my own body.