Early morning ramblings

It is 3:38 AM. I can't wait until 7:00 AM. I usually do not get so involved at watching the clock but I am having crazy thoughts. I think it was the drug addict I just saw. She was busy telling me her 18 month old was "just fine." This was after I had looked up her admission from his birth to see that she was using cocaine and marijuana the night he was born also.

I no longer ask why Child Protective Services doesn't do something about this mother. How can they do something about a population so large it would fill one of the suburbs. These women sell themselves to support their habit so there are usually from one to four sexually transmitted diseases to treat also. No one takes care of their children. And no one cares all this is going on. After a year, I understand why. It is too exhausting to deal with the drug addicts except when you must, which is usually when they are in labor. Two days ago we were able to arrange for a patient to go to a rehab institution that accepts Medicaid only to have the patient refuse and leave the hospital against medical advice. I suspect the baby will go to her mother who is responsible for raising her other three.

I am not saying this to be funny but this job is going to make me a Republican. There is no way the United States can support the drug habit of all these people. While I will never be a fundamentalist of any kind, I must admit that I am coming to believe in a kind of natural selection Armageddon. Why? When I look around me at 3 AM, I know there is no way this country can sustain herself with such a large population of marginalized individuals. I wish this were just a nightmare. Then all I would need to do would be just wake up.