A Pharmacist's Story
This book is my attempt at navigating, with words, my feelings and life changing moments since I graduated high school in 1981. In great detail, I discuss what it was like, what happened, and what it looks like to be clean and sober for nearly three decades.
Importantly, it is my hope and goal to model what it looks like asking for help and reaching out to a professional healthcare recovery program. As well, it is my intention for readers to understand it is possible to work through licensure issues, return to a healthy professional practice, grow in a loving relatiionship and raise a beautiful family, all while in recovery.
My story will share glimpses into what drove my decision process while working my way through college, as well as my inability to appropriately share my emotions during the early years of my professional career. Moreover, I strive to give credit to my wife, Susie, for the faith she had in our family and life together.
Distinctly, I recall sitting in a group session, the first night in a rehab facility in Santa Cruz, listening to other alcoholics describe how they ended up here. Remarkably, although our stories were, in many ways quite different, they were also incredibly similar. This began a lifelong practice of learning and applying the tools necessary to live a sober, honest, and grateful life.
Both our children were under five years old when I came home from 28 days in the drug and alcohol treatment facility. The story of living sober, with family, begins here. Our focus on building a solid foundation, the expansion through the wonder years, and finally, preparing our children to launch into their own lives.
As a pharmacist, I had been granted a second chance for a career. With a new understanding of the tools necessary to live an authentic life, I re-ignited my career as a hospital and community pharmacist. With multiple opportunities to develop clinically oriented programs, I hope to share some of what I have learned while practicing pharmacy for nearly four decades.
It is my sincere hope that while reading the pages of my emotional documentary, you may, on some level, relate to the spiritual, physical, and emotional challenges we face as humans. Our authentic self is within us; however, we all wear masks to define us otherwise. With grace, and a healthy serving of naked vigilance, we may begin to peel away the layers and expose our authentic self.
Steve