Read Online Body Parts by Caitlin Rother - Free Book Online Page B

anything in the food here before we eat it?” he asked the nurse. Once he was reassured that his food had not been drugged, he ate all of his meals.
    On October 2, Wayne was back with the rest of the patients and in a better mood, doing sit-ups and push-ups by the afternoon.
    “I have a positive attitude about getting out of the Marine Corps—I know I will do well,” he said.
    A nurse noted that his talk of becoming a lawyer seemed rather grandiose, given the situation. She wrote in his treatment plan that he should be encouraged to verbalize his feelings, “but toward a more realistic goal.”
    Ninety minutes later, another nurse noted that he was exhibiting the potential to harm himself or others and had become abusive.
    “I’ve been hearing gossip that I’m trying to seduce a sixteen-year-old girl,” Wayne said. “If anybody tries to accuse me of that, I’ll break their fucking head.”
    Six and a half hours later, Wayne was cheerful, happy, and optimistic about his future again.
    “I am being administratively discharged from the service. It’s just what I was hoping to hear,” he said.
    On October 3, Wayne said he was feeling “some pain and hurt” for the teenage girl because he knew what she was going through.
    The next day in group therapy, Wayne seemed upset and was having trouble controlling his anxiety. One of the nurses wrote that Wayne complained the staff was trying to “control his mind and that we (staff) were out to get him. Reassured patient that no one was here to hurt him. Received feedback from female patient who assured him that the staff wasn’t controlling anyone’s mind or out to hurt anyone.”
    Wayne was restless during group therapy, cracking his knuckles, pulling threads off his clothes, and playing with the flame of a cigarette lighter until it was confiscated.
    Later that night, he told a nurse, “There comes a time in every Christian’s life when he must make a sacrifice. From now until this is over, I won’t touch food or water, and no word to another human being shall pass my lips.”
    He swore that he wouldn’t hurt anyone, but he grew agitated and increasingly angry.
    “Go ahead, give me the shot—you can’t hurt me physically,” he said. “That’s what you’re doing now, hurting me physically.”
    He was given some medication, but when he refused another dose, he was placed in seclusion, where he wouldn’t eat or speak and began singing, praying, and pacing. He was placed in four-point restraints and was given more Haldol.
    After five days of being medicated and restrained, Wayne was no longer aggressive. Depressed and tearful, he complained about the Haldol’s side effects, saying his muscles were stiff and sore.
    By October 7, he was acting more cooperative, so staff reduced his four restraints to two.
    “I’m in control of myself,” he told the nurse. “I wouldn’t hurt myself or anyone else. I would like to get out of here, if possible.”
    Wayne was released from locked seclusion the next afternoon. He seemed appreciative, his mood bright and alert.
    On October 9, Wayne expressed anxiety about his future again. “Now I won’t be able to work where I want because of my hospitalization,” he said.
    Ultimately, the doctor diagnosed Wayne with Borderline Personality Disorder, “severe and chronic,” noting that he’d recovered from the episode of “acute decompensation.”

    Wayne called his uncle Jimmy in the middle of the night from Okinawa—4:00 A.M. California time—saying he was coming home.
    “[He] told me that he had messed up, that he went in and tore up the commanding officer’s headquarters—or the office—and they were going to kick him out. I think that’s what he was after at the time, but he wanted to come home and go to school . . . and try to become an attorney,” Jimmy recalled later.
    “Well, that’s not a problem,” Jimmy told Wayne. “You can live here. How about finances?”
    “Oh, I’ll have that all squared