The Latest Chapter in the Story of my Sister, Loren

From the blog, you know that Loren came to live with us for a bit. She moved here in February and got a job right away at a bagel place. She also got into an outpatient clinic to help her with her mental issues and her drug addiction. That all lasted until the Tuesday before mother's day. Loren left for her meeting that day, and didn't come home. In fact, we didn't see her again until she showed up at our back door again on Mother's day. Sadly, she was found by a woman and her pre-teen daughter wandering the streets in Albion (which is about 40 minutes from here, out in the middle of nowhere really). You can probably conclude that she was on a binge. We had filed a police report for a missing person, printed and hung missing person posters, posted that she was missing on this blog, and had done all that we could with our network of friends and acquaintances to see if anyone could find her. In fact, a city cop friend was able to locate her within about 6 hours, but by the time that they went to pick her up, she was already gone from the crack house that she was in for a bit.

When she came home, we told her that we loved her and were very sad for her, and happy that she was still alive, but that she could not come back into our home anymore. We suggested that she go to an inpatient facility and get help, and she said that was what she wanted. It was a Sunday though, and nobody would take her. The woman that found her wandering in Albion then took her to a hospital in a far away town called Medina (closer to where Shawna lives) and sent her to the emergency room since she thought that Medina's inpatient would accept her. Though they didn't take her into inpatient there, they kept her in the emergency room overnight, and I went to get her the next day. Through more networking and a lot of string pulling, we were able to get her into an addiction center here in Rochester for inpatient help, where she has been since last Tuesday. So far, so good. I went to visit her there yesterday, and although she really wants to get out of there because of some of the people there (she says some of the women are bullies, and the men try to get her in trouble by trying to get her to talk to them - they are not allowed to talk with men), she is making progress. It is smoke free too, so she has not smoked in nearly a week, and they provide all of the help and meds that she needs, including her $5/pill suboxone, chantex, and even acupuncture!

When she leaves the inpatient, she will of course have some more choices to make, such as what her next step(s) will be. We have helped secure her a bed at a halfway house here, so if she chooses to continue to accept help, she will have that as a place to continue her recovery. After that, I don't know what she will do, but we have been very clear that our house is no longer an option.

Sooooooooo, that is what is going on with Loren. As always, I will post any and all updates to the blog to keep everyone informed on what happens. All in all, this has been a true trial, but we are doing all that we can to support her without enabling her, and I honestly think that we have done a very good job at that. The rest is of course up to Loren!

Of course, she welcomes any thoughts and prayers. If anyone wants me to get a message to her of any kind, just let me know. You can post a comment and I will make sure that she knows that you are thinking of her.