Just Move On...

*Warning, passage below discusses self-harm and suicide.*

Recently, we (myself and my partner) were dispatched to a home. Seemingly commonplace, it was a quiet neighborhood, with a well manicured lawn, two car garage, and a large, mighty tree rooted in the front yard. Our patient had ended her own life. She was discovered by her neighbor, who frequently comes to visit her. This morning was different. This visit was different. The neighbor came, likely within the hour, of her ingesting the totality of her prescribed medications. She poured all of it into a blue pastel painted coffee mug, and drank the concoction that she had made. The same medications prescribed and filled to sustain her life, were also ending it. The same medications researched and developed to delay her disease process, delaying the inevitable to her, ended her life. The same medications. These events are not frequent; nor are they rare. It is the expectation to move on. An unspoken, but well-known culture perhaps to forget, never dwell, and if you need to discuss it, make a remark or two to your partner, your coworkers, but never bring it home. Do not let it penetrate your life, do not sit in it and dwell, do not reflect. Just move on.

Love,

K.