00:00 The craziness and addiction is I just did not think I could stop.
00:03 So I just continued using even though I was watching my arms die.
00:07 As I graduated college, I started messing around with other drugs, cocaine, ecstasy,
00:18 stuff like that. When I got a little bit older, the opiates came in. I got addicted to them.
00:23 So I started buying oxys and 30 milligram Park sets off the streets.
00:28 Got to a point where, you know, I'd spent all my money and I was around the wrong person
00:33 and they were doing heroin and they were like, here, try this. Took that one bag and it was like
00:40 the magic thing, you know, from the first time I injected, I got addicted to the rush
00:48 and I never stopped. I was putting a needle in my arm every day from that point. Literally
00:53 shortly after I started injecting the heroin, it changed from heroin to fentanyl in Philly.
00:58 And that was, you know, bad enough, but it was really when COVID hit the United States,
01:03 the fentanyl started changing and it went from being clear to being like a light pink.
01:09 All of a sudden, within, like I said, four to six months, I started getting these bruises on my arms.
01:14 And at night when I would inject, it would be a bruise. And then the next day I would wake up
01:20 and my skin would be like black and crusty and I didn't know what was happening. So I started
01:25 cutting it off because I didn't get any information online. It was just, I kind of went with what I
01:31 wanted, what I figured would help. You know, I did damage from doing that. In cutting the dead
01:37 tissue off my arm, I cut a tendon. So my right hand, I can't move my hand like that because I
01:43 cut this tendon. But the craziness and addiction is I just did not think I could stop. So I just
01:49 continued using, even though I was watching my arms die. Man that I was dating at the time,
01:55 you know, had injected it into his finger and it caused him to have to have his pointer finger and
02:00 thumb amputated because it stopped the blood supply to his fingers. And I watched my arms die
02:06 and his fingers die and it just wasn't enough. You know, once I found out it was xylosine and
02:12 there was nothing on the internet because no one, you know, it was brand new. You know,
02:15 no one knows what this drug was. No one was talking about it. And I tried to go back to
02:20 just regular fentanyl without xylosine in it. And I was sick 20 minutes later. I was addicted to the
02:27 drink at this point. I was living on the streets, homeless in Kensington. I was 85 pounds. And then
02:32 there was one day I had finally seen myself in a mirror and I was just like, who are you? It was
02:38 one of the hardest things I've done getting clean, but it's possible. I went into a hospital for two
02:44 days. The withdrawal lasted about a month, month and a half, give or take. You know, the rehab I
02:49 went to, they gave me comfort, um, meds, but then I just didn't take them. I didn't want it. Um,
02:55 I knew I needed to go through it to get to where I'm at. And today, you know, just celebrating nine
03:00 months last week. Um, I'm truly grateful I did because I still remember that pain. With xylosine,
03:07 you can die without medically getting help. And the thing is, you know, doctors don't know what
03:13 this drug is doing. Like we're just finding out you're seeing what it's doing. Like you can see,
03:17 you know, this right here, you're seeing what it does to the outside. So we can only imagine what
03:23 it's doing to the inside. You know, it's so new, you know, like people are just talking about it.
03:28 And I'm grateful that I'm able to be on this side and show people that it is possible to get off
03:33 this drug. You know, you don't have to be stuck and lose your limbs or your life because of it,
03:39 because it is possible.
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