"Day 7 in Rehab"

Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Rehab - "Day 7 in Rehab"

Rehab, 7 April 2008...

Nurse Marlene* is probably the nicest nurse on staff. She works night shift most of the times and this morning she is the one bringing us our medication. She makes her way from bed to bed waking each of us up almost like your mother would do. This in contrast to the other nurses that seem to explode into the rooms and giving you a fright only your alarm clock could duplicate. Nurse Marlene hands me a cup for a urine sample… oi, did I smoke weed again last night?

I hand the nurses my urine sample and don’t hear anything from them again so I figure they got their negative. I don’t care how many times they test me. I am one week clean today and I don’t think anything can break my spirit.

Darrell (friend, codeine patient that booked in the same day as me), Matt (friend, heroin patient that booked in same day as me) and I are on a medicine program to come off our addictions. The program lasts 16 days and they gradually reduce our medicine until the 16 days are over. The thing is all three of us are getting the same dosage even though our drugs of choice, methods we used and amounts we used were very different. The result is Darrell and Matt fast asleep during the day and me still sitting with pain and cramps.

We are allowed a weekend out before we go home. Lynette* went home for the weekend and came back yesterday. She and Michael (‘the sexy guy’ in the group) have really gotten along and are quite close. She soon finds out how I feel about Michael and we both tease him about it a bit. In fact, even the Matron said something which I find may be directed at me joking with Michael. She said no patients were allowed to share beds and then everybody looked at me! Damn!

It has been a wonderful day, full of classes and chats with my new friends. I have this burning desire to start the day tomorrow and next week and the rest of my drug free life!