WINDS of CHANGE

Believe it or not I heard the wind blowing. That meant a change was coming. I had no idea what a change it was bringing that night. I also noticed there was a full moon on this night. I know a lot of folks don’t believe in this but I am telling you when a full moon appears people with mental problems are really affected!!I I will give you credit, dear reader, I never believed it either until Bob came.
I had mentioned Bob before. He is the WW2 veteran who was a prisoner on the Burma Road death march. He was held prisoner and they cut the bottom of his feet so he couldn’t run. When he returned to the states after the war he was placed in the Veterans Hospital and he lived there for years. They determined his mental condition would not allow him to live independtly. He was diagnosed as a manic depressive schizophrenic. When he was in his 60’s he came to live with us. He was in the hospital and his sister called to see if I could take him. I went to pick him up and discovered I was really going to have my hands full. While riding in my car from the hospital he threatened to jump out of the car if I didn’t take him to see his attorney IMMEDIATELY!! He had his hand on the door handle and I knew he was serious. I got him quieted down by telling him the attorney was on vacation and would be back next week. That worked for a while. When we got home I showed him his room and he seemed happy. He wanted six glasses of water, lukewarm, placed on his dresser. I did this right away and this was a standard thing and no one was allowed to touch the. He kept this up until the day he died. I had placed a metal wardrobe in his room for clothes and he put everythiung he had away. He opened the doors on this so many times he drove Emily crazy. She had the room next to his. I said “Bob, why are you opening these doors all the time.” He said “I have to make sure no one takes my clothes”!! I said “No one will take anything while you’re here; Bob so please keep them closed”. He replied “ I don’t trust anyone but I will try to leave them alone”. It wasn’t five minutes later and you could hear him opening the doors!! I said, Bob, Your making too much noise and you need to stop this immediately”!! He said “I am not making any noise”!! That is when I realized he couldn’t hear well. The next day I took him to the Veterans Hospital in Albany and he was seen by a specialist. The Dr. cleaned his ears out and one of the first things he said was “Why are you talking so loud”?? When he got home he opened up the closet door to put his coat away and then said, very seriously, “Boy!! That is really noisy”!! He quieted down quite a bit after that. When Dr. Pitkin came to see him he explained about all the medicine Bob took and said how important it was for him to be on this. He was on Lithium and Thorazine. He didn’t like taking medicine but he would take it, sometimes very slowly. Then one day I noticed he was acting very differently. Not like him at all. No matter what anyone said he would argue and when he did it was “in your face” type with a voice slightly raised. I suspected he was off his medicine. I checked his room, closet, pockets and everyplace you could think of. I couldn’t find anything. Of course he wouldn’t let me search him so I figured out a plan.
I told him he had to go to the hospital for a checkup. He said Ok so he got in the car. I drove him to the Corinth Hospital where I knew Vic (PA) was working. I left Bob in the car and went in and told Vic what was going on. Then I brought Bob in. Vic told Bob to empty his pockets first. Bob did so immediately. One thing about Bob was he was afraid of authority and if told to do something he did. Guess what was in his pockets!!!!He had over 40 pills all mixed up. Vic said, Bob, what are all these pills for”? Bob said, She gives me them and I don’t think I need them so I put them away”. Vic said, very sternly, “Bob you have to take them every day or go back to the hospital”. Bob replied, raising his voice a little “I am never going back to the hospital to live”!!
Vic said, very calmly “Then you go home and take your medicine and we will forget about this”! When we got back home that evening I noticed the wind had died down to just a breeze!! Needless to say Bob started taking his medicine again and things started getting back to normal. I was never sure what normal was at our home but it sure was quiet for a while. There was a few times later over the years when he would quit taking his medicine but by then I could get him to the VA Hospital. They would put him in a “lock down” ward for thirty days and then start his medicine back up. I would always go get him of course.
Dear reader you will find this very interesting. Dr. Pitkin stopped at the house one day to show me an article he found in a magazine. Lithium was one of the main ingredients put in Cokes for many years in the 1920”s!! Do you think this had anything to do with the “Roaring Twenties”??? It really makes you smile when you think about it, gentle reader.
Speaking of smiling I remember Larry and ……..
Love Red