Drug addiction has taken a toll on whole family

My younger sister's addiction to prescription drugs began, like most, with a legitimate medical need.

Dana was 25 when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2003. Doctors gave her little hope, since the disease runs in our family. Subsequent testing showed she carries the gene mutation for breast cancer, hence the diagnosis at an early age.

Following the diagnosis, Dana had both breasts removed, along with her ovaries. She also received heavy-duty chemo and radiation to rid her body of the cancer cells.

The chemo caused tremendous body pain, especially in her bones. Dana had been in several car accidents as a teen, so her back is pretty messed up. Because of the pain, doctors began giving her prescriptions for strong pain killers. She had a legitimate reason to take such pills. What doctor would deny a cancer patient access to pain relief?

Once Dana was in remission, a legitimate need for the pills was gone. But she befriended the wrong person at this time in her life.

She was down. Dana became a single mom to her two young boys when her boyfriend left her for the woman who stood by her side during cancer treatment. She also lost her home during Hurricane Frances in 2004 and had to move in with our mother when we lived in Florida.

Despite her ordeal with cancer and losing her home and boyfriend, Dana decided to enroll in the community college in hopes of one day becoming a teacher. She loves kids and thought teaching was her calling. But that plan was eventually derailed.

Living next door to our mom was a lady who was and continues to be a bad influence. She's had multiple back surgeries, and has an addiction to about everything. It was then the prescription pills became a problem.

Dana, at this time, was taking mild pain killers and was a functioning adult. Then she started hanging around this woman, who encouraged her to visit a pain management doctor to obtain stronger meds. Dana fell for it, and the two of them supported each other's addiction.

When one was out of pills, the other would lend some until the next script was filled. Dana was taking many more pills than her doctor recommended.

She would fall asleep at the dinner table during holidays. Our mom actually found her passed out one night with her head in a bowl of cereal.

Dana was once a cleaning freak. Before she moved in with our mom, her house was spotless and dinner was cooked every night.

Once the pills took over her life, Dana no longer cleaned like she did. She slept all the time and was constantly sick, vomiting up everything she ate.

She no longer took care of herself, took up cigarettes and drank Mountain Dew as if it were going out of style. Since she is a cancer survivor, we thought Dana should be taking better care of herself, fueling her body with fruits and vegetables, exercising and just living.

Her life was reduced to sleeping all the time, either in her bed or on the couch.

Our mom had a constant fear that she or one of the boys would find Dana dead from an accidental overdose.

Dana would have moments of clarity, when she would ask our mom for help or check herself into rehab. She's attempted to wean herself off the pain killers on many occasions, only to return to the pills. Every time she stopped, Dana would experience withdrawals. She would vomit, experience hot and cold flashes, sweat and suffered other unpleasant body functions.

Even today, living on her own in Florida, she continues down the addiction path. Dana can't maintain a job because she is always sick from the pills, and she has quit school. She has become a shell of the person she once was.

Prescription pain killers are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they are a blessing to those suffering terrible pain. But while it helps ease the pain, it can suck the user into a pit of addiction that is hard to escape.

Prescription drug addiction is a hard one to fight. It has taken its toll on our family, as well as Dana herself. Hopefully she will get help again and beat this addiction once and for all.