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Carlos walked out of the room where he saw Mary and back into the waiting room so he could return to Annie, Eric, and Lucy. The look on his face said it all. Mary had really gotten to him. He looked like a soldier just returning from combat. It was an awful sight to see.
"How did it go?" asked Lucy.
"It went fine," Carlos said, "but she's awful." Carlos looked at Mary's parents next. "Has she been like this since she came out here? How could all of you not notice that? She a wreck, a total wreck."
"Don't blame us," said Annie. "You're her husband. You're just as responsible for her as we are."
"Is that what this is about? Who's responsible for her?" Carlos shook his head. "Now I understand why she couldn't see the two of you," he spat. "Well, I'm going to do the responsible thing and go and see if I can talk to her doctor."
"Everything here is confidential. They won't let you talk to anyone," Eric said.
"Have you tried?"
"Well, no."
"Then I'm going to. I have to. I'm worried about her." He sighed. He didn't want to be fighting with Mary's parents, they were just frustrating him so much that it seemed to be unavoidable. "You don't have to wait for me. I assume you want to get back to GlenOak."
Now Lucy chimed in. "No, we'll wait. We want to know how she is, too."
"All right." He nodded at her. "Thank you."
Carlos walked around toward the front of the hospital where there were more people. He thought that the more people he could talk to, the better of an answer he would be able to get. He really hoped they would let him in to talk to someone.
Carlos walked up to a woman in green scrubs. "Hi," he said.
"Hello. Can I help you?"
"I hope so. My wife is a patient here, and I was just wondering if I could talk to a doctor about her, um, mental state?"
"I'm sorry. Patient information is only available to patients."
"Well then could I talk to a doctor about my wife's condition and not my wife herself?"
The nurse sighed. "I guess so. What's your wife's name?"
"Mary...Camden, I think she's listed under."
"All right. Let me look her up." The nurse walked up to a computer and started typing away. "Dr. Perkins. You're in luck, he's the doctor who is on duty today."
"Great," said Carlos.
"Wait here and I'll see if he's busy." The woman left and Carlos stood in the middle of the hallway, waiting for her return. She did in a few minutes and then ushered Carlos into a room that looked like an office, complete with a desk and two chairs in front of it. The doctor was middle aged and mostly bald, except for some grey hair around his ear and the nape of his neck.
"What can I help you with, sir?" He seemed to be a nice man.
"My wife, Mary Camden, was admitted here a week ago and I understand you've been seeing her."
"Yes, I have."
"She's told me that you diagnosed her as being schizophrenic."
"That's classified information, Sir."
"Carlos, you can call me Carlos."
"Fine then." Dr. Perkins nodded. "That's classified information, Carlos. It falls under doctor/patient confidentiality."
"Please, Doctor. I'm really worried about her. I haven't seen her in months and now when I did she was petrified because she wasn't sure if I was real or a hallucination of hers. It was terrifying for me."
"Imagine how your wife must feel."
"I can't," explained Carlos, "because I don't have a very good idea of what's going on. I don't really know anything about it."
"Well, schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality and by significant social or occupational dysfunction. A person experiencing schizophrenia is typically characterized as demonstrating disorganized thinking, and as experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations."
"And what does that mean?"
"It means that those hallucinations Mary refers to is a clear sign of her being schizophrenic. If you're worried about me misdiagnosing her, believe me, I have not."
"Oh, no," Carlos said. "That was not my intent. All I want to know if how she is doing."
"Right now she's pretty stable. She seems to be responding well to medications and therapy, although she did have a bit of a spell last night when her medications were switched."
"They switched her medications accidentally?"
The doctor could see the anger in Carlos's face rising. "No. I changed her medication because she said that one wasn't working for her, but then the new one seemed to make her extremely drowsy."
"Oh, all right. How, how long would you suggest she stay here?"
"I know that Mary wanted to leave after her two weeks were up, but I would not advise that. She's not ready to go out into the real world knowing that she has this condition. It can be very debilitating."
"So how long, would you say?"
"Four to six months. It's going to take that long for her to feel like she has this under control enough where she can change up her situation again and still feel stable."
"That's a long time."
"Schizophrenia is a lifelong illness. She's going to battle this for the rest of her time now."
"What about recovery? Can she recovery?"
"Not really. It depends on the situations she faces and how she deals with them."
"Would I have any effect on her recovery time?'
"You might. Like I said, there are a lot of environmental factors. You would be part of her environment. What I usually tell families is to watch their loved one closely and to try and be as supportive as they can. I know it's not an easy thing to do, but it can be done."
"Will the hallucinations ever go away?"
"We have her on a neuroleptic, which counters her hallucinations, so they should be gone as of now."
"Will she be on that medication for the rest of her life?"
"Most likely some form of it, yes."
"And she will need therapy for the rest of her life?"
"I would suggest it, yes. Unless if she has someone good that she can talk to, someone she is comfortable with."
"Like me?"
"Well, I find that sometimes spouses aren't the best way to go because the person with schizophrenia feels like they are too close to the person, so they can't really communicate what they are feeling adequately. But what you can do, even if she doesn't want to talk about it, is to watch out for her. Changes in behavior are warning signs."
"For what?"
"Usually a psychotic episode. Sometimes another suicide attempt. Maybe her next one would be more serious. But what I should advise is that, now, Mary is always going to need care. Not twenty-four hours, but often. This disease grows exponentially."
"What about our son? We have a six month old boy. Would she be able to take care of him?"
"Yes, but not entirely by herself. Once the boy gets older, this would probably be better, but not until he's about five."
Carlos's head was spinning. "OK. But what about him? Is this hereditary?"
"Yes, but not necessarily. Just because your wife has this does not mean that you son does or will."
"All right."
"And that fear you mentioned when you saw your wife today, that's common among patients with schizophrenia."
"So that won't go away?" Carlos was hoping that would most of all.
"No. It will only get worse."
Carlos lowered his head and then looked back up. "Can't I just take her home then? She moved out on me a few months ago, probably when all of this was starting, and now she was living with her parents. Can't I bring her home and take care of her? If she's this sick, I want to be helping her. She'll need me. I'm her husband."
"It's good that you want to help her, and it's nice of you, but she's better off here." The doctor knew Carlos was overwhelmed. "Look, I think we got it early enough. Hopefully, she'll enter a maintenance period. That's when the most intense symptoms of the illness are controlled by medication, but there may be some milder persistent symptoms. Many people continue to improve during this phase, but at a slower pace. She should be all right."
"OK. Thank you doctor. I think this is about as much as I can stomach for right now. I appreciate your talking with me."
Dr. Perkins handed Carlos a business card. "Here's my card. If you ever have any questions, or if you want to check up on your wife, feel free to call."
Carlos stood up, took the card from the nice man, and shook his hand. "Thank you," he said once again. "This was very helpful."
"No problem. Good luck with things."
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A/N: All right, well, not the last chapter like I had said. Sorry. This information all came from the Internet, from like two or three sources. A lot of it was from some site for family members of people with schizophrenia, which Carlos would be.
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Want to wish Carlos luck? He's going to need it. Review.
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