Jana’s Emergency Clinic and Hotline

Ink and watercolor in 6×9 Aquabee sketchbook and ink in my AM/PM journal
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

Since my studio time got thwarted by emergencies this afternoon (read about it below), I just took a few minutes to do this watercolor using the little sketch on the right as a reference (a branch of the tree outside my bedroom window that I did this morning in my AM/PM journal). I was really surprised as I drew the flowers how many different shapes there were since at first glance all I saw was a bunch of little round flowers.

I’d planned to have the whole afternoon and evening in the studio but right after lunch, Brian, the young man who lives across the street, came over and asked me to call an ambulance for him, that he was having trouble breathing, felt dizzy and faint, had a headache, and that something was wrong with his vision. At the same time, I got a call from work with technical problems that urgently needed my help.

The good news is that I went through this a week ago with Brian. I had called 911 for him, knowing that strong young men don’t knock on the doors of total strangers asking for that kind of help unless they really need it. My living room was soon filled with half a dozen incredibly handsome and hunky firemen and emergency medical techs while their fire engine and ambulance waited outside. They checked him out and took him to the hospital where he was told he was having an anxiety/panic attack, they gave him a pill that put him to sleep. When he woke up he was OK and was sent home.

I know people who have panic attacks and I get stress-related migraines and I was sure that’s what was happening with him, so I knew what to do. Instead of calling an ambulance I sat him down, gave him a brown paper bag to breathe into (to reverse the effects of hyperventilating–dizziness, faintness and the sensation of not being able to breathe). While he sat on my couch doing that I sorted out the problems at my office by conference call.

Then I asked Brian (who I’d only met last week) what had been going on in his life (other than being a job-hunting African-American male in the U.S. which is stressful enough). He said that a year ago he’d had a good job, was writing and performing music with his girlfriend and was happy. Then they were in a horrible car accident in which he’d had a head injury, fractured a vertebrae, had a collapsed lung and had been in a body cast for 3 months. Right after he got out of the hospital his best friend was shot 17 times and killed. He and his girlfriend drifted apart and he misses her.

At this point work called me again and so did his mother. Switching back and forth on the two lines, I solved the work computer problem and explained to his mom what was going on. She said she didn’t know why he was stressing right now, since everything seemed fine. I told her how he’d never dealt with all the trauma he’d experienced and listed the traumas. She said, “That’s true…AND we had a house fire and lost everything–that’s why we moved to this house in September.” While we were sitting there a bill collector called him on his phone, and I’m sure that’s getting to him too.

I explained to him what I know about depression, anxiety, stress, migraines, medication, grieving, the importance of counseling, etc. and then I gave him the phone numbers for the local free clinic with volunteer doctors and peer counselors and also the number of the Suicide Prevention Hotline where he can call anytime to talk to someone when he’s in that panic attack condition. I hope he will use those numbers. I’m glad to have been able to help him but I can’t be doing this regularly!

He’s such a bright and sweet young man who’s been through so much! I know if he just had help working through everything he’s gone through and a chance to cry and grieve his losses he’d be able to get on with his life. It’s such a crime that there’s no public healthcare in the U.S. If you know of any good (free) counselors who would be interested in helping him in the East Bay area, please let me know.