ECT etc.

For those of you wondering what happened on Thursday after Wednesday's fiasco........well, it was another peculiar day. We arrived at our usual time and went through our usual meetings, only the second meeting, the one with the entire staff, was performed with the truly disruptive patient (we'll call him the assclown or AC for short) was up to his antics. AC danced around, practiced his karate moves, banged on the windows, screamed profanities and was his usual AC self. We ended up not leaving the conference room for the next few hours and, ultimately, leaving the floor entirely at 11am. The lunatics do run the asylum evidently, at least at RPC. The attitude on the floor remained that of the neglectful parent better off ignoring the problems than dealing with them. Moving on.

Our new floor is one that deals with long term care patients. Patients who have been in the institution for better than 25 years in some cases. My patient had been in and out of RPC 40 times since he was 16 (61 at present). Some may wonder why you would let a person out again after their 10th, 15th or 20th admission. I do. Especially after talking to him.

My patient claims the following things: he is the wealthiest man in the world (trillions); he has located more than a half dozen nuclear weapons in and around Rochester; he is a psychic who has used his ESP to assist in the arrests of hundreds of criminals; his psychic ability makes him immortal; he is being poisoned by the staff (who work for the mafia), but has an antidote he takes daily; etc. The litany is interesting but also continues uninterrupted for long stretches. Other patients tell similar tales of oddness including the need to do abdominal exercises to "strengthen your testicles and strengthen your seed." It is so peculiar I dont think I can adequately describe it. That said, it is much much better than the other floor because they are all well medicated, have a strong rapport with staff, and the staff seems to work very well together.

ECT (electro convulsive therapy) was interesting to say the least. First off, I had no clue that they still shocked people. The second "shocking" (get it? :) thing about it was how short the duration of the actual therapy is. It encompasses all of 10 seconds of the hour the patients come in. There is no way to describe how it feels to be sitting and talking with someone and then, 20 minutes, later they are laying on a gurney, paralyzed and unconscious, getting pumped with alternating current. Within 20 minutes of this experience, they are up and walking out the door with the only caveats on their behavior being abstinence from alcohol and signing contracts. The therapy evidently works by directly stimulating your brain and, in this manner, helping to cure symptoms of depression. Interestingly, it also causes memory loss. Perhaps it just makes the patients forget what it was that was depressing them in the first place.

There is little else to add at the moment. Classes are still stupendously dull (we are having an entire 2-3 hour lecture on APA style in the research class......I expect to be admitted to RPC shortly thereafter) and there is little else to remark upon. Another week begins.....hopefully it is quick.