It's Under the Bed - An Essay

I have written many books. Most of them - well, actually all of them - are unpublished. This is not unusual when most of those books are personal journals filled with self-talk and plans over many years. And then there are the stories and poems neatly tucked away in a digital junk drawer. Well, maybe not so neatly. And then there is 'the book'. 'The book' I have been working on for the past possibly ten years.

This book has gone through several revisions and refocuses with changes to audience and approach. You can’t even imagine how many words have poured out of my head and through my pen or keyboard. But it has been important. In fact the issue I would like to address - the importance of withdrawal management in the continuum of substance abuse recovery care - is still a critical issue to me. There is actually another issue: the value of nursing assessment, care and the health teaching during that critical time that is detoxification or withdrawal.

Last week, I decided, with many tears and great angst to take a break. The book I wanted to write and the knowledge that I have do not match. As one author put it, 'when you know what you’ve written isn’t acceptable to you, put it under the bed and let it rest'. (I can’t remember which of the many authors I read provided me with that insight.)

For any or all of you, family, friends, nurses and other health care professionals, who have heard me expounding ad nauseum on this topic, that have been encouraged (?guilted) into reading some incarnation of my writing - Thank you and Thank you.

For those of you who have believed in me and my passion for this very interesting and challenging nursing specialty - I thank you as well from the bottom of my heart. 

I will continue to write this blog and my journals while expanding my knowledge of writing and the world past my writing desk. I continue to believe passionately in the effective, solid nursing care that this health condition requires, that the slender time in withdrawal management has not been utilized effectively, and that our clients deserve to be cared for as any other patient with any other acute or chronic disease receives.

“Thanks are justly due for boons unbought.”

~ Ovid