2000
Diane gets a prescription for Prozac from Dr. Broadkin. No "talk therapy" accompanies this whatsoever.
Tuesday July 2004
Diane begins a new medication and in the evening is sitting on our bed going "WAAH. WAAAH." over and over and over again, without cessation. I want to take her to the emergency room. We're halfway there and she insists that it's not a reaction to her medication. We head back home.
July 9
We take Diane to Aurora and she checks in for two weeks
Two Weeks Later
Diane is transferred to Sharp Memorial for Electro-Convulsive Therapy
Two Weeks Later
Diane is released and we drive her home
The Next Week
We take her to two ECT sessions. I see no improvement and try to get hold of Dr. Fideleo, her shock doc. He proves very difficult to reach. I decide to cancel her next ECT appointment, which was scheduled for Friday the 13th. I do not see that the ECT is doing her any good at all and may be frying her brain down to nothing. How ECT is therapeutic remains beyond my comprehension. It seems like it's a bare step above applying leeches.
The Next Few Weeks
Diane hangs around the house not doing much of anything, and not participating in the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) which Dr. Diamond (our psychologist) and the psychiatrist @ Aurora recommend that she participate in.
After That
Diane decides that the PHP might be a good thing and begins participating in the program.
After That
Diane had taken over her own medication administration about a week after the last ECT session. One night she overdoses on one of her medications. She's wobbly like she has no bones in the morning and wants to go to her program anyway. I insist that they're going to send her to the emergency room. I drag her to the car. I drag her into the building. They insist that she go to the emergency room. I drag her back to the car. I drag her to the emergency room. They keep an eye on her for a while. We take her home again. She's not as wobbly, but is clearly not herself. This is a long afternoon and a very long night with Diane hallucinating and acting delusional. In the morning she jumped out of the car and ran to her program, apparently thinking I had "cut her clothes" or otherwise wronged her. I hear from Dr. Diamond that she does not feel safe at home. I assure him that I do not want her to return and that she's only too welcome to remain far, far away. Dr. Diamond recommends that I write a letter to the nurses at the PHP stating that I did not "cut her clothes," which I write at once. Writing the letter clarified issues in my mind and presented a course of action which I have followed since that time. Our marriage was over and now Diane was perceived as a potential threat to the kids, through action or inaction. And that was that.
I researched and contacted a lawyer's office specializing in family law. And proceeded. Paperwork was filed.
I had the locks changed and Diane materialized that Friday night, looking rather pale. She had walked from Dr. Diamond's office. So we drove her to Aurora Behavioral (again) so that she could check herself in again.
I forget how long she stayed there that time.
She was released and asked to stay at the house while she looked for somewhere to live with her stupid fucking dog (love you too, Diane). That ended up being two weeks, which I spent dozing on the couch making sure she wasn't going to mistake the kids for loaves of bread and slice them up or something.
Oh, did I mention that during all of the hospitalizations I was watching her dog? Her Doberman Pinscher..? What kind of selfish nimrod is going to acquire a Doberman Fucking Pinscher while living with and ostensibly helping to raise two small children in a 1200 square foot house..?!?! But I digress.
She finds a house, I help move her stuff out of the house, she finally packs some things... she's gone. Wow. Ah, wait, then Dr. Diamond contacts me and then Diane contacts me asking if I can go to her new house and get her dog and watch it for up to a month while she's hospitalized again. She has a breeder out in Alpine who can watch it. I look on the computer to see where this place is, it's 42 miles away out in meth lab country. So I elect to keep the dog here. The dog seems satisfied with the arrangement. The dog seems happy to have someone who walks it and feeds it. A week later Diane and her sister Martha collect the dog.
That's about the whole story as I can remember it.
