Nothing like it! I’ve been nursing for five decades. I’ve been nursing in withdrawal management since 1989. I was asked last week what sort of changes I’ve seen since I started working in detox facilities.
And there has been nothing like it. From Saskatchewan to Texas to British Columbia there has always been alcohol abuse at the top of the list. The list of the substances that kill has grown longer and more deadly. Cocaine, crystal meth, heroin in all their many forms. Smoking, snorting, IV drug use and just plain pills. Pills. Pills like oxycodone, hydromorphone and now fentanyl. Did I forget to mention all the benzodiazipines?
Everyone of these drugs, and in whatever form, have a certain withdrawal syndrome. When they’re mixed, the withdrawal syndrome is confusing and more dangerous. Some people actually survive. Some may have their lives saved, but their bodies and brains are damaged. Damage that is reversible or damage with long lasting consequences. And too many people of any age die. They just die.
Controlling drugs and alcohol has not stopped the use and development of more refined drugs and alcohols. In all of this mess, where are the studies, research and treatment for addiction and the medical effects of substance abuse? Short stay in a detox is barely a bandaid. Long stays to give the body, psyche and brain a chance to heal are what is really needed. My only satisfaction as a detox nurse is to help someone survive to live another day whether the services are out there or not. I depend on each individual to navigate our myriad of inadequate systems.
There has been nothing like it. Who do I blame? All of us. Our health care systems, our pharmaceutical companies, our families, our very cultures. Am I angry? I don’t have time to be angry when I am shepherding a youngster, a mom or a dad, or sometimes even a grandparent through a complex withdrawal. At some point, these dangerous, toxic substances trump survival.
“We’d stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first.
You’d think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn’t.”
~ Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave
In the shadows 
I decided to do something dangerous. Risky. The night was cool and soft. The grass moist with dew. The grand old trees reached up to the stars disappearing into the darkness. We had all been told as kids that walking in the park at night was risky. There were boogie men hiding in the bushes, trampling the gardens. As a kid, I believed all the stories. Tonight, the stories were just that. Stories to scare us and get us home before dark. I had been warned of many dangers and risks. People that roamed the night. People who were finally free of the day eyes. But just for tonight, I could breath easily. The weeks of heavy humidity slid away into the cool midnight air. Those people that were so scary? We all kept our distance from one another, enjoying the space and freedom to breathe. Walking home in the dark, I smiled. I was satisfied that my journey into danger and risk had ended safely.
While the sun’s still asleep 
In a world of many dangers 
Opportunity bounces and bounds through life, sometimes in the blink of an eye. At a writer’s meeting earlier this month, a ‘book smack’ was introduced. I had never been to one, nor even heard of a book smack, so I said I would go. I entered it on my cell phone so I wouldn’t forget. Today, at coffee with the walking group, it was finalized. Tonight was the night for this ‘book smack’
Audience members shot up their hands to claim the book being proposed - an automatic library withdrawal. (I came away with the Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro. I have it for 21 days.) Those of us with a library card were good. Anyone that didn’t have a library card could get one there - the miracles of technology win the day once more.
