It's Been a Hard Day's Night...

1. Volcano over Antigua

2. Me on the cathederal steps

3. Jesus on his deathbed inside the cathederal

4. Inside the cathederal

5. The main cathederal in Antigua

The ibo arrival lit a flame under our asses. Before we do the staff sessions we need to get a few things in order, so we've spent the day trying to organize (and by that I mean me making lists while the doc plays with and measures the medicine and capsules, in turn I chastise him for his lack of focus). We need to get all emergency medical materials and meds ready at the house, as well as stocking it with food and basic living necessities.
We had a meeting with the "advertising head" he's doc's long time friend Sergio who is a photographer/designer. We gave him a tour of the house and discussed all the things we need to put together for him; an outline of the web site- which means we need to put together a mission statement, logo, put into words the vision doc has for its themes, hotel/tourist info for clients from outside Guat. Also we need to target a few hotels and try to work out a deal/partnership with them-Maybe this wkend, which will be a great excuse to sight see : ) Hopefully we can finish all of the above before next wk so we can start doc's session. It feels good to finally have the pressure on.
We had a little meeting with a rep. from "Medpharma" to propose our idea and try and work out a deal with them; If they give us their meds for free to treat our patients for PAW (post acute withdrawal) syndrome, we'll use their products exclusively, which will provide advertising for them, plus we're a good cause so it'll give them charity cred. Doc wasn't very optimistic going into it because of previous dealings with typically slimy, greedy pharmaceutical companies.
But the rep. was surprisingly interested in our treatment and had a lot of questions about PAW, he even requested docs PAW presentation and documents via email. He wasn't what I expected at all, he had a great concern for our cause and agreed that the alcohol problem here is appalling and unrecognized. He's going to run it over with the higher ups and hopefully get back to us.

As soon as the rep. was out the door, the doc's next patient Delmi, was on her way in. Delmi has been coming to the doc for therapy sessions for a long while. He has a strange sort of approach to therapy that I'm not completely sure I agree with yet- it's very Freudian. He hooks up a very small IV to a vein just below the patients knuckle and gives them a very small doses of a barbiturate and a benzodiazepine, which creates a slightly sedative effect, almost a hypnosis state where the subconscious is easily accessed. He films the entire session and has the patient speak about their problems and feelings for anywhere from an hour to 3 hrs, until the patient falls asleep for a short while. During the next session they review the video and he tells me the patients are typically shocked at what they've said during the treatment, they are able to see what their issues are without the veil of denial.
He's been describing these sessions to me for a while and I've watched some of Delmi's sessions on dvd. Tonight I got to sit in on it. Honestly it was pretty anti-climactic, mostly because I couldn't understand what she was saying. Delmi is a really sweet middle-aged mom. She suffers from low self-esteem due to her husbands constant infidelity and depression. I tried very hard to understand what was happening, but my attention span was doing cartwheels as I sat there for 2 hours trying to get it to sit still and translate. Eventually she fell asleep and doc answered my questions and we discussed his approach until her drowsiness wore off.
I'm not sure if I completely agree with the use of sedatives to access the subconscious, but he claims to have made tremendous progress with Delmi and many other patients this way. It'll be interesting to see her reaction on Saturday, where we'll review the dvd. It seems to me kind of like express thearapy, you dont have to get comfortable with a therapist for months before delving into the meaty issues. I'm wondering though if there is more of a benefit to having a therapy break through while conscious as opposed to sedated, maybe she'll have a concious break through while watching the dvd. I guess we'll see. Till then there is much work to be done..