I originally posted this story yesterday and 2 HOURS LATER my therapist emails me saying my HPRP case manager contacted her asking about it. I took it down to avoid any backlash but I got a call from my case manager this morning saying “they were informed about my blog post from my provider” which was obviously a flat out lie considering my therapist said they contacted her and my psychiatrist obviously doesn’t know about it. And I don’t have any other providers. I also noticed my blog had two followers- my friend and a random account with no name and no email and literally nothing on google meaning it was a fake account literally made to spy on me. There is no other way they would’ve found out about this so quickly. This is so messed up on so many levels. They are spying on you and will apparently go to great lengths to do so, oh and flat out lie about it. Also, you know, this is supposed to be anonymous but I guess that’s totally gone too.
Since the cat is out of the bag now I’m going to repost the original story. I told them the truth just as written in this story. They are mad because I didn’t tell them about it when it happened but we all KNOW if I would’ve told them the truth they never would’ve believed me and they only would’ve punished me, even though I did nothing wrong except put my job and others first once again over my own health and safety. I only took my prescribed medications exactly as prescribed and I knew that for a fact (at least now I have the proof of that). We’ll see if they still end up punishing me… like I haven’t been punished enough over this already.
Original post:
During the height of corona we were short staffed and incredibly overworked. One day after staying late for like the 14th day in a row, once again sacrificing my own well being for others, I fell asleep at the wheel on the way home and ended up parked, asleep, on my neighbors lawn. The only damage was to a couple flowers but I guess someone saw me and assumed I passed out and called the police. Without even knocking on the window or trying to open the unlocked door the first thing the police did was smash my passenger window, which obviously woke me up. They immediately started flashing bright lights in my eyes and interrogating me, asking me if I remembered what happened, which I obviously didn’t because I was asleep. It was very loud with sirens and yelling and I could barley hear what he was saying. He pulled me out of the car and apparently I “stumbled” (granted I just woke up and was starting to have a full on panic attack by now) so he immediately put me into an ambulance without even doing sobriety tests. I was still in my work scrubs. I blew a 0.00
They took my blood in the ER for drug testing, which I willingly gave telling them over and over I was completely sober. They cut up my license and “arrested me” aka gave a piece of paper saying I had been arrested for an OWI even though it would take 3 months for the test results to come back and all the tests done in the ER were all completely negative. They said I could still drive in the meantime but had to carry around a piece of paper saying I had been arrested for an OWI. With literally no proof that I was on anything at all. They treated me like a criminal and it was humiliating. After reading all my ER notes I saw the doctors originally put a history of “intoxicated” but later changed it to “motor vehicle crash” when it was clear I was totally sober. They let me leave after only one hour, when all the results came back negative. The police said they got my phone out of the car, which they didn’t, and I had to pay 400$ to get my car out of the impound lot the next day. And another $200 to get the window fixed. It was one of the worst nights of my life.
This whole time I just assumed when the blood test came back negative this would all just go away, then about 4 months later I got a letter in the mail from the police with a date for an arraignment. Completely dumbfounded and scared, I hired a lawyer.
I was only able to see the blood test results after my lawyer was able to get them for me, otherwise I would’ve gone in completely blind. Once he showed me it was only positive for my prescription medications adderall and gabapentin I figured I was in the clear, but apparently they don’t say how much of something is present, only that it’s present, which is absolutely ridiculous especially when it comes to prescription medications. Theres a big difference between taking your one prescribed pill and 30. For those of you who don’t know what gabapentin is, it’s an anti-seizure medication also commonly used off label for neuropathic pain, in my case migraines. It’s a 3x a day prophylactic medication, meaning you take it every day to prevent a headache, not treat it. I’ve been taking it for 5 years after trying just about every migraine treatment you can think of, it had the least amount of unwanted side effects (including drowsiness) for me compared to all the other medications I tried. It became a controlled substance (the lowest level controlled) about a year or two ago because of people using it when combined with opioids (which I was obviously not on). You would probably have to take 30 of them at once to feel any side effects at all. It PREVENTS pain, doesn’t treat it. Well the police talked about gabapentin in the police report and stated it was a “medication used to treat pain” and appeared to be equating it to an opioid, which it is very much not. I then had to pay $500 to get the second vile of blood sent to an independent laboratory to get the exact levels of the mediations, which were both right in the middle of normal ranges, far away from a level that could possibly cause any negative side effects according to all the literature. I figured now I was definitely in the clear. I was wrong
Apparently it is completely up to the cops discretion whether or not you are impaired DESPITE the levels in your blood. Basically you could have one pill of Benadryl and if the cop thinks you’re impaired they could charge you with an OWI. It’s totally fucked. I told my lawyer that there is plenty of literature out there stating that sleep deprivation is just as impairing as alcohol, and I had been very very sleep deprived from the 100 hour work weeks and emergency surgeries. The ER doctors even stated in their notes that just 1 hour later I was completely normal. I was woken up from deep sleep with my window shattering and a bunch of cops shining flashlights in my eyes screaming “what are you on” so yeah I’m sorry I wasn’t immediately steady on my feet and ready to answer all your questions, not that you even gave me the chance. I was literally in my work scrubs at 10pm at night almost to my house.
My lawyer (which cost me another 5 grand) was able to at least get it down from an OWI to a reckless driving ticket, which isn’t a criminal offense but resulted in 4 points on my license and a 90 day suspension of my drivers license, which is obviously going to be incredibly inconvenient requiring my boyfriend to drive an extra 3 hours out of his way every day to drive me to and from work or a lot more money in ubers. Oh and it cost me another $750 in court fees and fines. In order to fight the reckless driving ticket I would’ve have to go to a jury trial which would’ve cost me a LOT more money and time off work to try to explain that my daily headache medication didn’t impair me and I was sleep deprived from once again sacrificing my own safety and well being to save others. And this is how I get treated in return. Not “are you ok”? but destroying my car, humiliating me, and costing me almost 7 thousand dollars to avoid a criminal charge and possibly losing my medical license. And if I didn’t hire a lawyer I would’ve been totally fucked.
PART 2
Oh I totally forgot to mention part 2 which happened on my WAY to work at 9am 2 months later before the blood tests results came back. I was stretching my neck at a red light (I had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome a few years ago and it gets really tight/sore in the morning) and the cop pulled me over because “it look like I was passed out” even though as soon as the light turned green I went and was driving completely normal without swerving or speeding or anything. He said it looked like I was “driving with my eyes closed” and when I told him that didn’t make any sense considering I was staying in the lanes just fine he said “I know what I saw”. He then pulled me over to the sidewalk in my scrubs on my way to work and did about an hours worth of sobriety tests a mile from my hospital where patients could see me, searched my whole car, and went through my entire prescription bottle googling every single pill (it’s basally a traveling medicine cabinet and mostly over the counter stuff) and matching them all up the my prescription records. I was two hours late for work and when they were all done they let me out of the back of the police car and simply said “well we don’t have enough evidence to hold you” I was mad at that point and said “evidence of what??? That I have a sore neck??”. They saw a girl with pink hair the day after halloween and I’m positive were trying to find something to justify everything that happened the first time, but once again didn’t find anything and humiliated me and made me late for work. Then he just let me go, no traffic ticket or anything. Didn’t even apologize to me.
This is 100% completely accurate btw. Not overdramatized at ALL
Silent No More 