Denver man who battled addiction shares recovery story to inspire others

DENVER — September is National Recovery Month, and according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, seven out of 10 adults with substance use disorder consider themselves in recovery.

Doug Eisiminger said a skiing accident in 2007 led to a downward spiral.

"Life was good. I was a bartender downtown, making great money, living my best life. Then I tore my MCL skiing," said Eisiminger.

Eisiminger was prescribed opioids for pain control, and he quickly became addicted.

"The opiates started becoming very popular because they were saying that they were safe and they were nonaddictive," said Dr. Ernesto Herfter, a physician with AdventHealth Porter Hospital, of typical medical advice during the 90s and 2000s. Herter did not prescribe the opioids to Eisiminger.

Eisiminger said his painkiller addiction eventually led him to heroin use. He said his severe addiction lasted for more than a decade.

"I was out committing crime every day to feed my addiction. I got pulled over by the Denver Police Department and I was given Denver Drug Court," he said. "I focused on getting done in one year and being back to the same old life. About probably six, seven months into the program, I realized that life wasn't for me anymore."

His recovery treatment led him to Dr. Herfter.

"When he came to see me the first time, he was discharged from the hospital, he had just been amputated, one arm, because he got necrosis from getting multiple injections of heroin. He was also withdrawing from opioids, so he was in a very bad shape," Herfter said.

The doctor added buprenorphine to Doug's recovery plan, a painkiller that was approved by the FDA as an opioid addiction therapy in 2002. Since then, it's become a well-used treatment for recovery.

"It's a partial agonist. It doesn't fill the whole [brain] receptor. It doesn't give you the sensation of euphoria, but it decreases the cravings completely because it covered that part of the receptor," said Herfter.

Now an addiction recovery advocate, Doug hopes to inspire others to find the help that works best for them.

"You have to get to that point in life where you want that help," Eisiminger said, "Life's great. I have a full-time job, I'm paying my bills. I love life."

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