I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not fake.

I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not fake.
This page is copyrighted by Deborah Dorey Wilson, The Lebanon Truth Seekers. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

A Tale of Two Addictions. A Story Uncovered While Researching the Heroin Problems in Our Area.

~~from the desk of Deborah



Sometimes I get caught up in research a little more than what I intended.
With a resident's question on heroin and NARCAN use, I've opened up a larger investigation that I thought perhaps might actually wind up helping a few people, and so I've decided to write it.........
Cause writing's what I do......
So here is a story of two addictions, with two very different outcomes....

I'll start my story with a woman that for the purpose of this story, we'll call Jane.
Jane was interviewed via telephone from her home.
Jane was a precocious child. She was daring and brave. She didn't ever take any guff from anyone and she was prone to doing crazy things like driving through the backwoods at 80 miles an hour and crashing into a tree "just to see what would happen." Her friends all knew that Jane would always be the first to try the new rope swing, jump from the bridge into the river, or jump from a 2nd story window into a waiting pile of leaves or snow. The people at the local emergency room new Jane and her parents on a first name basis. Broken bones and surgeries for injuries were commonplace.
When Jane grew older, the injuries began to catch up with her. Arthritis came to stay in many of her joints and bones, and new injuries were added to make matters worse.
After one surgery in 2008, Jane began a what would become a lifetime of disability, pain and medications.
It started with Vicodan and Percocet, and when that was no longer enough, there was Oxycontin and then Morphine, Methadone (yes, methadone is a very strong pain killing medication), and Fentanyl. There were muscle relaxers, anti-inflammation meds, and meds to deaden nerve sensations. The pain meds made Jane very sedate, and it wasn't long before she found herself crying a lot. The doctors remedied the sadness with anti-depressants, and when those made it hard to sleep, sleeping medications. When Jane was sleeping too much, Amphetamines were added to wake up with in the morning. The doctor next noticed that Jane's thyroid was slow, so meds were added for that, and then cholesterol medications and blood pressure medications and medications for tummy and bowel problems along with one or two for controlling the high sugars in her blood.
In October of 2012, Jane found herself needing more surgery and entered the hospital. When the nurses were prepping her for surgery, they gave her a medication in the IV to help her stay calm before surgery. Just that little bit of nothing sent Jane into an overdose, with the complications of 3 days worth of cardiac arrest, several jolts with the defibrillator, and a family at bedside wondering if Jane were ever coming home again.
But Jane lived, and she did come home. With a handful of prescriptions for the very medications that had jeopardized her life to begin with.
But while at Portsmouth Hospital, a nurse had a talk with Jane that would change her life. The nurse told her that taking pain killers did not actually kill the pain. It only stopped Jane's brain from recognizing the pain through chemical means that stopped her BRAIN, not her PAIN. She said, "If a child suffers a bruise, and it's the worst pain they've ever experienced. Is their pain any less than an adult who has suffered a broken bone or two?"
Now this is where Jane's story takes a turn from where you expect it to go. A family holiday dinner was coming up, and Jane was not invited. Speaking to the host, Jane was told she could not attend. There would be in-laws and guests, and frankly, Jane with her drooling, stuttering, and improper conversation topics was an embarrassment. But her family promised to save her a plate and come for a visit in a few days. Jane went to bed with a heavy heart.
The next morning, Jane phoned her doctor asking how she could get off of some of the medications. The doctor told Jane that he was sure she could not manage the pain without the medications. He forbid her to stop taking them, and told her that without the medications, he was sure that suicide would be her future. That talk sent Jane into a tailspin. Suicide?? That was not an option in Jane's mind. She decided that the medications needed to stop, and being a willful person, on November 15, 2012, she took all the pill bottles out of her drawer and walked to the bathroom and flushed every pill down the toilet. All of them. No matter what they were prescribed for.
The days that followed Jane's decision were some of the hardest of her life. She lay alone on her bed, shaking, throwing up, sleeping, crying. There were many times she thought she was having heart failure. There were cramps that felt like her body were twisting in two. There were times when she thought she should call 911, and the only reason she didn't is because living life as a legal drug addict was worse, to Jane, than the possible alternative.
As of Summer of 2015, Jane is healthy. She has moved on with her life from the worries of what pill is due at what time and how she will make the money to pay for her prescriptions (over $280 a month in co-payments). Jane sees a doctor regularly to check blood levels for her thyroid, cholesterol, sugar, and heart enzymes and they remain well within normal levels. The pain. Oh yes. The pain is still there. But Jane went to a holistic doctor and learned to control the pain by other methods. Exercise, proper eating, and keeping busy have helped Jane to learn to stop her own brain from recognizing the pain instead of relying on chemical means to do so. There are days when it is not easy and the pain is more than others around her could imagine. But a good cry and then a long sleep seem to do the trick until the next time.

So let's leave Jane's story and focus on another woman only months apart in age from Jane. For the purpose of this story, we'll call the second woman Wanda.

Wanda was interviewed via internet, also from her home.
Wanda was just as curious, daring and brave as Jane.
When she was younger, she had suffered an accident that had left one arm paralyzed, and then a few years down the road she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Wanda was started on pain meds during treatment for the cancer. Very similar to Jane, she was started on Percocet, Darvon, and the need progressed to stronger medications such as Oxycontin, Morphine and Methadone. Due to side effects, medications were added for depression, hypothyroid, blood pressure, tummy and bowel troubles, sleeplessness and amphetamines in the morning to wake up with. When the pain outweighed the medications, Wanda supplemented with a few extra pills from friends, neighbors and family, or purchased them from people she knew. There was also alcohol for when Wanda was feeling lonely and needed to have a party to surround herself with friends. There was marijuana, cocaine, and crack. Wanda met a man and they began a relationship. He was an alcoholic and there were domestic disputes where one or the other, or sometimes both of them, would wind up in the emergency room.
When the actions got out of hand, Wanda's doctor, perhaps detecting a problem, decided that he would stop her from legally obtaining the medications, but by then, it was too late. Wanda knew all the right people and all the right pills to take. She went to other doctors and got more pills and she was introduced by friends to heroin.
"I started out small," Wanda says, "only a half a gram or so, but the more heroin you use, the more you need to not be sick. You start small, but every day you need a bit more just to feel good." Before long, Wanda says she was using 2 grams, then 5 and she started to drive to Boston to get the drugs as Portland was more expensive. When her heroin habit got to be to expensive, Wanda began selling the heroin in order to be able to afford hers for free. "By then I was using a couple of fingers worth," she said, explaining that a "finger" is about 10 grams and about $450 worth of heroin at street value, "So I was using $800-$900 worth a day, but going to Boston, I could get that for about $500 and sell some to wind up getting mine for free."
"You just get sucked up into the life," Wanda explained. "You're running, buying, selling, and all the time trying not to let anyone around you know what's happening to you."
In the early months of 2013, Wanda was taken by ambulance, to the Emergency Room, 5 separate times due to drugs and/or domestic assault. In August of 2013, she was having a cookout and overdosed on a mixture of morphine, pills and alcohol, falling onto the floor of her apartment. Her boyfriend, also high, left her on the floor and went in to take a shower. A guest at her cookout found Wanda and called 911. Wanda was administered NARCAN (which works on all opiod medications not just heroin), and she was rushed to Maine Medical Center in Portland. For 6 days Wanda lay in a coma, experiencing cardiac arrest several times. "I was basically DOA," she says.
When I asked Wanda if she were arrested for the overdose, she said "No. There are no charges for overdosing. Basically a call to 911 is a safe call. If you would get arrested for overdosing, no one would ever call 911 and there would be more deaths."  Wanda went on to explain that although the police were present, "they left all my stuff right on the table and just took me." stating that when she returned home from several days in the hospital, all her drugs, pot, pills and alcohol were right there on the table waiting for her. "It's not against the law to overdose, it's not against the law to have it in your system," she explained. "If there's stuff on the table, usually they (the police) just take your stuff and take you to the hospital, there are never any charges involved, unless you get caught with a lot of it, and then there may be charges."
Wanda has decided that she needs to get help with her recovery. As of Summer 2015, Wanda attends an outpatient drug recovery program and is doing well. "It took me from February until June 24 just to find a place that had room for me," she says, talking about how being on Medicaid, she had to wait a very long time for Medicaid approval before even beginning to search for placement for herself.
Wanda is hoping for a bed to come open in a residential treatment facility, and is currently taking Suboxone, which has the main ingredient of narcan in it. While Suboxone is also a narcotic medication, it is has a special effect that reverses the effects of other opiod narcotic medications. While some people take Suboxone and are weaned slowly from narcotic addiction, because of the damage done to Wanda's intestines, kidneys, stomach, and liver, and because of the continued pain from pancreatic cancer, Wanda says that she's been told she will be on Suboxone for the rest of her life, on what they call a "maintenance program". Wanda also contracted MRSA. Although she suspects it was from the hospital itself, she's not sure how.
"They never told me if I followed doctor's orders I would become a junkie," Wanda stated. "It's just not fair, what happens to you."

We wish both women well in their efforts to stay away from both prescription and street drugs, and thank them both for their honesty and candor about their addiction. But this is a story we hear all too often. An injury, surgery, or disease brings pain and the doctors freely hand out bits of paper with their signature scribbled across the bottom, and because of the very nature of the medications being handed out, legal drug addicts are born. Once a person is addicted to the opiod pain killer medications, if their medication prescriptions are ended, they either get past it on their own, or they go looking for something to replace the narcotic need that has been created in their bodies.
While some people believe that drug addicts walk down the street and stop a drug dealer and ask for drugs, that's not usually how it all begins. Usually drug addiction is begun through a need. A physical need, left empty from the absence of another chemical in the body.
This has been a very interesting part of the furthering investigation into the rampant drug use that has not only gripped our area, Maine and New England, but what appears to be a growing problem across our entire country.
We hope the stories of Jane and Wanda have opened some eyes, given you some pointers and some things to think about when you, or a loved one, are prescribed narcotics over a long period of time.





Rochester Main Street's Factory Court Hosts Linda Pouliot During Brown Bag Lunch Concert.

Linda Pouliot, Jazz Artist
Factory Court's Brown Bag Concert
August 7 from 11:45 am to 1:30 pm
 
(Courtesy Photo)
 
Rochester Main Street will present Linda Pouliot, Jazz vocalist at the August 7 Factory Court Brown Bag Concert in downtown Rochester. sponsored by Citizens Bank and a grant from the NH State Council On The Arts/National Endowment for the Arts, the Factory Court Brown Bag concerts are held every Friday from 11:45 am until 1:30 pm. Concert goers are asked to “bring a chair and buy or bring a lunch” to enjoy... a musical performance in the heart of downtown Rochester.
Known locally as “The Jazz Lady,” popular singer and Rochester Resident Linda Pouliot, will bring a cabaret-style set of songs and great American Music to Factory Court. Because of Pouliot’s French heritage, her song repertoire includes numbers by Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker, and Madeleine Peyroux, along with some of her own original songs.
The Factory Court Brown Bag Concerts are held weekly through August 28. In case of inclement weather the concert will be cancelled. Free parking nearby is available at the North Main , Union and Congress Street Parking lots. For more information please contact the Rochester Main Street office by calling 603-330-3208 or email director@rochestermainstreet.org. Appearing in a special concert on Monday, August 10 will be Pat O’Brien in celebration of Rochester Arts & Culture Week. The series continues on Friday, August 14 Susie Burke and David Surette.

 

RESIDENTS QUESTION: What Happens to a Patient Revived with NARCAN After a Heroin Overdose?

Questions asked by a Lebanon resident today led to a fact finding mission and some very serious questions regarding heroin use in our area.
Now that NARCAN is on the market and available to reverse the effects of heroin overdose, just what does happen to the person who has overdosed once they are revived?
Are they transported to the hospital?
Are they arrested and tried for heroin use?
What is the next step after revival?
The answers may be interesting, scary, or hopefully of use to people who would like to have a voice or speak to their Representatives, Senators or United States Legislators.
My first phone call was to Frisbie Hospital's EMS Director Gary Brock. Since it was after 5 pm on a Wednesday evening, he was not available, but I left my name and phone number on his voice mail and hopefully he will call me back and I can update the information.
I then called Southern Maine Medical Center in Sanford (the former Goodall Hospital). The emergency room staff said they could try and answer my question, but when I asked them just what happens to patients treated with NARCAN, they said they were getting busy and advised me to call Biddeford on Thursday and speak to hospital administration.
I then called York Hospital and posed the same question to Sean in Customer Relations. His answer? "We can not answer that question Ma'am, have a nice day. I suggest you call your local EMS Department." and he hung up the phone.



Now wait just a minute!!
I was not rude. I gave each of these people my name and told them why I was calling.
But okay.
I called Lebanon Fire and EMS Department Chief Daniel Meehan. According to Chief Meehan, he has attended one overdose and revived with NARCAN in Lebanon since his arrival as Chief at the beginning of the year. He had me on speaker phone and was sitting with two other responders, one of whom (and I won't use their name without permission) said that he had attended three in Lebanon so far this year.
I asked the Chief my question about what happens to the patient after they are revived, and I was a little surprised at the answer. According to the Chief, the NARCAN is administered, the person wakes up from their stupor after 20-40 minutes, and at that point, the EMS personnel on duty TRY to talk them into going to the hospital to be monitored.
When I say TRY, it's because there is no way to force anyone to take an ambulance ride to the hospital for a heroin overdose.
According to Meehan, State Police also respond to calls for heroin overdoses in Lebanon, and once the person is revived and stable, if they refuse to go to the hospital, they are asked to sign off, and EMS leaves them in the hands of Law Enforcement.
"NARCAN isn't a permanent thing," said Meehan, "It's a quick fix, and the person can relapse. But it's completely a law enforcement issue once they're conscious and alert."
The next step in my quest for answers seemed logical enough. Call the State Police and find out what THEY do with the heroin users once they have been brought back with NARCAN and have refused the ambulance ride to the hospital for treatment.
I called the Alfred State Police Barracks who would cover Lebanon for such a case and asked to speak with Sgt. Shapiro, who is the officer in charge of overseeing crime in Lebanon. It was 5:53 pm and the young man who answered told me that Sgt. Shapiro was unavailable at the time. Thinking he might help me, I told him who I was and why I would like to know the answers.
According to the man on the other end of the phone, Maine has no set policy on how to deal with a heroin overdosed patient who is refusing hospital treatment. "It depends on who the officer is that's handling the case and what the circumstances are," he said.
I asked if it were still against the law to use heroin and he asked again who I was and why I was asking. And I answered.
The young man stated that Maine State Law gives no set policy that tells what is supposed to happen, or any set procedure on what a Trooper is supposed to do once a patient is revived with a heroin overdose.
I thanked him for his time and asked him for his name, at which time he said, "Why do you want to know?"
I told him that I was giving this information out to people in the town of Lebanon, Maine and I wanted to be able to state who had given me the information.
He answered, "I don't need to give you my name, have a nice day," and for the second time in less than an hour, I was hung up on.



I did do a little bit of internet investigation, and I haven't found anything in Maine Law that speaks specifically to a heroin overdose. While it is a crime to possess the drug, it's questionable to the policy or procedure of what to do with a patient who has possessed the drug, but who no longer has the drug, after ingesting or taking it intravenously.
I did find a reporter with WLTW in Cincinatti, Ohio who was doing research on this very issue and after over 1,000 hours of investigation and research, was no closer to the answer that I am after a couple of hours.
Perhaps the laws defining the use of heroin or other substances needs to be a bit more clear.
Many of the people suffering from heroin overdoses do not have insurance, or adequate insurance to cover an ambulance ride to the local ER, or to pay for the ER visit at the local hospital. So who winds up paying the bill for the EMS crew, and the administration of NARCAN? I'm assuming it's us, the taxpayer. Although I can't seem to get a definitive answer on that yet.
Many of the people treated with NARCAN have overdosed several times and their addresses are known to EMS officials and law enforcement departments. However, there seems to be either a limit on what law enforcement can do, or the need for some type of new policy, procedure or law defining what happens to the overdose victim.
Please rest assured that I will continue my search for answers to this question on Thursday, hopefully following up with Mr. Brock at Frisbie Hospital EMS, and perhaps getting a telephone call back from Sgt. Shapiro with the Maine State Police.
Stay tuned!!!

LEBANON TRUTH SEEKERS: It's Spaghetti time again


American Legion Post 214 will serve its monthly spaghetti dinner this Saturday, Aug. 8, at the First Parish Congregational Church on Center Road from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The cost is $7.00 for all-you-can-eat spaghetti, bread, salad, and beans and hot dogs, with homemade cakes and pies for dessert. I have said before and I’ll say again, the Legion puts on an excellent meal, and the proceeds go to a wonderful town organization. I hope everyone gets a chance to show up and support the organization

Governor LePage to Convene Experts to Address Maine’s Drug Crisis

 
AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage will convene in August a group of top officials from state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, addiction treatment and recovery advocates and other experts and professionals to address the deadly drug epidemic facing Maine. The call to action by Governor LePage came immediately after learning about 14 heroin overdoses in Portland, all of which occurred in a 24-hour period of time.
Governor LePage will hold a summit later this month with a variety of experts from state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies, substance abuse treatment centers, the medical community and others to focus on ways to make an impact in the fight against heroin trafficking and addiction in Maine.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Legislative leadership, Governor LePage urges lawmakers to reconsider allocating funding for much needed resources to combat the State’s drug problem. “The national and state media is finally paying attention to Maine’s drug crisis, and we are hearing stories on a daily basis about overdoses from heroin and other opiates. You must take action now to stop the flow of this deadly poison into our state,” he wrote.
The original biennial budget submitted by Governor LePage included funding for 4 new District Court Judges within the Judicial Branch, 7 Investigative Agents in the Department of Public Safety and 4 Assistant Attorney General positions within the Office of the Attorney General. The Legislature provided only half of those resources.
“How many more Mainers must die before you commit the resources we need to fight this drug epidemic? Deaths from heroin quadrupled from seven in 2011 to 28 in 2012, then went up to 34 in 2013 and surged to 57 last year. Even more alarming is the rising number of overdose deaths involving fentanyl, which is 40 times stronger than heroin and is often combined with heroin without the user’s knowledge. Fentanyl-related deaths have increased dramatically from 9 to 43 from 2011 to 2014,” stated Governor LePage in the letter.
Funding for these critical positions is needed to combat the increased threat to health and public safety of Mainers. Adequate resources within law enforcement and the judicial branch, combined with treatment and recovery, will help prevent and treat the devastating effects deadly drugs, especially heroin, has on thousands of families and individuals in Maine.

Town of Lebanon Announces Bid for Sanding and Painting of Town Office.....Bids Due August 14, 2015 by 5:00 PM

Town of Lebanon


Town of Lebanon Sanding and Painting RFB



1. Objective and Purpose
 
The Town Hall located in the Town of Lebanon is in need of sanding and painting. As a result, the Town is bidding out for this service.
 
2. Key Dates
 
Bids must be submitted no later than August 14, 2015 by 5:00pm
Bids will be opened on August 17, 2015 at 5:00pm
Selectmen will award the bid on August 20, 2015 at 5:00pm
 
3. Service and Work Requirements
 
I. Expectations:
The winning bidder will be expected to maintain a clean work area during office hours. They will also be expected to tape-off the required areas, as directed by the Select Board, before painting.
II. Pricing:
Please submit a block rate for services including any additional charges that may apply. The work quoted in this bid is expected to be carried out immediately and completed no later than September 30, 2015.
 
The Board of Selectmen of the Town of Lebanon reserves the right to reject and/or accept any and all bids.

 

III. Submission Guidelines:
All bids must be submitted in a sealed envelope and clearly marked "Sanding and Painting RFB". Please send all bids to the address listed below.

Town of Lebanon

Sanding and Painting Bid 

15 Upper Guinea Rd.

Lebanon, ME 04027
 
 

Lebanon Ladies.......Do You Exercise Your Right to Vote?? November Elections are Coming!! Be Sure to Register to Vote!!

 
Ninety Five years ago, on August 18, 1920, the United States Congress passed into law, voting rights for women, in the form of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment was certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby only 8 days later, August 26, 1920, changing forever the power of American women and their voice in shaping the future decisions of our country.
When women sit at home and do not exercise their rights to vote, it is so often because they have no idea of the women who went before them who guaranteed them this right. From as early as the 1870's, women argued, attended lectures, marched in parades, wrote articles, passed out pamphlets, brought forth court proceedings, lobbied their representatives, participated in civil obedience, held hunger strikes and were arrested and even beaten by opponents to granting them full voting rights as equal citizens under United States law.
Women's sufferage began early in Maine, dating back to post-Revolutionary War times when Maine women petitioned their local government for pensions, relief from bad marriages, property disputes after husbands had given their lives to war, and began entering into marriages with loosely woven pre-nuptial agreements. Women became interested in turning Maine government's deaf ears to their attention when widowed mothers began to work to support their growing families. Maine women are noted as requesting the right to vote in the very early 1800s, noting that the newly formed United States guaranteed the rights of every citizen and their roles in building society out of the Maine wilderness.
By the 1850s, Maine women, especially those in maritime areas, were corresponding with such important noted historical figures as Elizabeth Cady, Mary Fisher and Sarah Frost, and historians note their letters were filled with educated discussions regarding women's rights, the status of women in society and what was expected of them as women in the day's society.
Many years later, when America entered into World War I, and women provided much of the work force, many women turned to charging that President Woodrow Wilson was more like Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany than he cared to realize. They charged that he was fighting the Germans for the self-governing of the German people, while denying the benefit of self-governing decisions for the women of his own country.
 
 
President Wilson began to see their point, and in 1918 declared that his own political support of the proposed 19th amendment had changed.
Very soon after the President changed his views on the women's voting movement, the United States House of Representatives handed women a victory, they passed the amendment on May 21, 1919, and the United States Senate followed suit only 2 weeks later.
The final hurdle for women voters was realized on August 18, 1920 as the State of Tennessee became the 36th State to ratify the amendment, thus giving the women 3/4ths of the States in support of the amendment, and allowing it to pass as the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
 
August is an important month for women's rights in our country. Why not take a minute to exercise your rights to vote as a tribute to the women of long ago who won those rights for you?  Head down to the Town Office and register as a voter in the Town of Lebanon. Attend Public Meetings or watch the video taped versions of the meetings to inform yourself. Speak to other town residents and educate yourself on things that are happening in town. And then be SURE to come to the Lebanon Elementary School this November 3, 2015 and exercise your right to vote, as guaranteed 95 years ago by the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Native Seafood is at a Season Low!! It's TIME for an Old Fashioned New England Clambake!!

 
The New England clam bake is a traditional method of cooking foods, especially seafood such as lobster, mussels, crabs, steamers, and quahogs. The seafood is often supplemented by sausages, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn on the cob, etc.
Clam bakes are usually held on festive occasions along the coast of New England.
 
Backyard Clambake (Serves 6)
 
Ingredients:
•4 to 5 pounds steamer clams (be sure to soak to remove sand)
•6 (1-1/2 pound) live lobsters
•18 small potatoes (washed not peeled)
•6 ears of corn (in the husk with silk tops removed)
•6 small/medium onions
•2 pounds Maine Rockweed (seaweed or fresh spinach)
•12 pieces of 18" x 36" cheesecloth
•12 pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil
 
Instructions:
Place two pieces of cheesecloth on two pieces of foil large enough to wrap around 1 live lobster, a dozen clams, 1 ear of corn, 1 onion, 3 potatoes, and some Maine Rockweed (or spinach). Then tie the cloth tightly around the food and pour about one cup of water into each bundle. Make sure to not to puncture the foil so that it will securely hold the water during grilling - and turning.
Place six packages on a barbecue grill (with cover) about 4 inches over the flame. Turn the steamy bundles every 15 minutes for about one hour.
Double check a bundle to make sure the potatoes are done.
Discard the seaweed or spinach, breakout the nutcrackers, melted butter and enjoy your backyard clambake!