We wish the world well / Where's the bipolar protocol?

Times photo

- Japan earthquake-tsunami-release of radioactive material

- Quadaffi's brutal dictatorship re-gaining momentum over hopeful insurgents who vow to fight to the death

- Bronx bus crash kills 14, many retired Chinese immigrants, violent deaths

Still we hang onto life, hoping for the best.

My problems seem minor, inconsequential.

My main problem today was I attempted to complete my homework assignment in Poetry but wrote poems that made me sad. Here I am tearless before you.

Turned in my latest story to Patch.com. It's about these:
speed-humps on Greyhorse Road. Whoa, slow down, mama.

Read the story here. Unfortunately when my editor fixes something I wrote, he makes it worse. One sentence makes absolutely no sense, where he 'fixed' it. It didn't need fixing at all.

This is why studies show that when you're your own boss you have less anxiety cuz you can control things. I ain't even the boss of my own articles when I write them.

Just read that the editorial writers for the Times are never censored by the higher-ups. Frank Rich said that in his g'bye column.

What I really wanted to discuss was the lack of standard protocol in the treatment of bipolar disorder. And what if anything I can do about it.



Once upon a time I suggested to my board of directors that we form the national Bipolar Foundation. I told them there were foundations for the treatment of diabetes, heart problems, kidney problems, cystic fibrosis...just about everything has their own foundation with standard ways of treating disease.

Except mental illness.

Incomprehensible!

My board of directors, though well-meaning, were ambitious in their own personal lives - one was the Karl E Rickels professor of Speedbumps at University of Pennsylvania - but were totally uninterested in my great ideas.

I'm trying to remember if I was disappointed or not.

The reason I thot of this was I had a call from an out of town friend. Her 30-year-old daughter, 'Suzi,' married with children, was having a psychotic break. When her family marched her off to the nearest outpatient psychiatric facility for some medication to quell the girl's racing mind and horrid paranoia, she was given a homeopathic dose of a tranquilizer and then sent home to sleep it off.

This is truly bad medicine. Had Suzi had a heart attack or a stroke standard practice would've swung into place and she would've been given the attention she needed, hospitalized at least overnite, and sent home with symptoms alleviated.

Why not in psychiatry? Why haven't psychiatrists, who are smart men and women, thought of this? Why aren't they up in arms demanding psychiatry join the modern era and help the desperate patients who seek them out, often shamefully b/c of stigma?

In quick succession I had a short story rejected from 3-Penny Review in Berkeley and then Five Poems rejected today. My poetry teacher told me the Review is very hoity-toity and I shouldn't feel bad.

One of the poems - The Lucky Seven - will be published by my friend David Kime who said it was the best poem I'd ever written. I've also submitted it to a nursing journal. I wanna see if I can get paid.

Well, here's ole Starzl's book which is due on St Paddy's Day. Don't you hate people who spell it St Patty's? I've got terrible stigma against poor spelllers.

I reviewed it on Amazon.com. Possibly I've reviewed as many as 65 books on there. I couldn't quite figure out what they were talking about.

But listen to this! When I uploaded my story onto Patch, it was easier than ever. I had made a suggestion about giving us more space when writing photo captions and it's been Taken Care Of. This is astounding and may be just a coincidence.

Oh, look who I saw at our Giant meeting on Thursday? Good ole Bill from my painting class. Our minds take us on a brief journey when we're trying to decide: Is this Bill or isn't it? Well, he's tall like Bill is. He's wearing the same kind of clothes. I hadn't realized what a long face he had but hey I'll bet it's Bill.

Gosh, there are so many Bills in my life that I like: Gates, Clinton, Babb, Hess, Kulik and dead Cardinale who found himself in a foxhole in the Korean War, far far home.