Cracked : putting broken lives together again : a doctor's story

200 Pages·2007·0.95 MB·English

by  Pinsky

Cracked
PUTTING BROKEN LIVES TOGETHER AGAIN
A Doctor’s Story
Drew Pinsky with Todd Gold
DR.
For my wife and children
Contents
Introduction
FROM THE ROAR of the crowd in the bleachers, I…
One
IT’S THE SECOND week of a warm August. Early morning.
Two
AFTER A TWODAY absence from the unit, I’m greeted at…
Three
AS A CHILD, I feared the man with the red…
Four
IT’S AFTERNOON, AND I’m in the conference room with a…
Five
I GET TO the unit at about eleven o’clock, happy…
Six
EARLY THE NEXT morning I go online and check my…
Seven
“HOW IS SHE?” I ask Alexi.
Eight
LOS ANGELES HAS two distinct flavors. By day, it’s a…
Nine
AFTER TWO DAYS off from the unit, I come back…
Ten
WHEN I ARRIVE home, I find my wife on the…
Eleven
WHEN I GET off the airplane I feel half dead,…
Twelve
ON HER WAY to have lunch, Amber suffers the first…
Thirteen
“DID YOU KNOW Katherine gave me a good-bye hug?” I…
Fourteen
RICHARD NORTON WAS taken to the hospital during the night.
Fifteen
LINSEY THINKS SHE’S fat. Or that she’s getting fat. Or…
Sixteen
IT’S AFTERNOON. I’M on my way to the treatment team’s…
Seventeen
PAT’S COMMENTS MAKE me toss and turn through the night.
Eighteen
“HOW’D IT HAPPEN?” I ask. “One minute two patients are…
Nineteen
NOT EVERYONE GETS a break.
Twenty
UNFORTUNATELY, AFTER ALL my attention to Amber, I’m in
New…
Twenty-One
THE WAIT ISN’T long. A few days later, Max is…
Twenty-Two
ON THE DAY Amber returns to the unit, I’m treating…
Twenty-Three
FOR THE NEXT two days, I am useless. I stay…
Twenty-Four
IT IS TWO days later, and I am listening to…
Twenty-Five
IT’S A LOVELY afternoon, several months later, and I step…
Twenty-Six
THE NEXT DAY is Saturday, and I stop at the…
Postscript
End Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Dr. Drew Pinsky
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
FROM THE ROAR of the crowd in the bleachers, I know I’ve missed something
good. It’s Sunday afternoon, and I am being torn apart. Actually, I’m tearing
myself away from the Little League field, where my ten-year-old sons, Douglas
and Jordan, are in a tight spot in the middle of a game. Just a few moments ago I
was yelling hitting tips to the boys as my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Paulina,
gave me what-are-you-doing-type looks. Then, with Douglas on first and Jordan
at bat, my beeper went off. Now I’m headed to the hospital, a medical problem
in front of me and a ballgame left behind.
Welcome to my life. Sure, I’m happily married, the father of triplets to whom
I’m devoted. But I’m also chief doctor at a chemical dependency unit. So as
much as I love watching my sons play ball, and probably could have done so
today without risking anyone’s life, I know I would’ve been on my cell phone
the whole time—or at least long enough for Susan to say, “Just go.”
That’s why I’m weaving through traffic, grim-faced, while talking to Kathy,
the evening charge nurse. Though she’s normally even-tempered and in control,
I can hear she’s pissed, anxious, and overwhelmed. That alone tells me a lot
about the patient: She’s a borderline, a trauma survivor, someone who’s
projecting her pain onto everyone around her, including the nurse.
“It’s wild over here,” says Kathy, almost chuckling; she realizes she’s
deflecting the patient’s chaos onto me. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I say. “I’m in the car now, though; I can hear you. Run me
through it me again.”
“I just took in a new patient. She’s a twenty-eight-year-old female. Taking
thirty to fifty Vicodin a day. Nine milligrams of Ativan. She says that’s it. I
placed a clonidine patch. She started the narcotic protocol.”
“Add in the phenobarb protocol starting at two hundred and forty milligrams.
With sixty Q6 PRN. Routine labs. Pregnancy test if you think it’s appropriate.
Any IV drug history?”
“No. But I have a problem.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Her mother is here. She’s hysterical—she wants to talk to the doctor right
away. Like it’s not soon enough, if you know what I mean.”
“I hope you set some limits with her.”
“I tried, but she’s really out there. She’s beyond wanting to know what’s
going to happen during treatment. She’s major drama.”