Finding Hope: Inspiring Addiction Recovery Stories - Second Opinion Podcast with Dr. Paul Kolodzik

In this heartening episode, Dr. Kolodzik shares inspiring addiction recovery stories that demonstrate the power of hope and resilience. With personal accounts of triumph over adversity, this episode offers encouragement and insights into achieving lasting sobriety and health. Tune in to discover uplifting narratives that remind us all of the potential for change and renewal.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, it's the Second Opinion Podcast with Dr. Paul Kolodzik, where we talk about anything and everything medical. From a sore throat to the future of AI medicine. Dr. Paul is an ER doc and certified in addiction medicine and metabolic health, as well as a best-selling Amazon author. You can learn more about Dr. Paul at his website, dr Paul Kalodzik.com.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hey, Dr. Paul, welcome back. It's been a while since we've been here.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah, great to be here, Terry.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Well, you know, you uh took a little vacation and I took a little vacation, and then we came back right after the 4th of July. So today is like July 7th or something like that. Yeah. Um and you came out to see the drone show over the holiday weekend that I helped uh city put out.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

So for our listeners, Terry um as a producer is involved in some community activities here and was in charge of the Centerville, Ohio Entertainment for their July 4th festival, which draws what 80,000 people or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

It was a record number. It is the largest one-day festival in Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Wow. And the number is was at 80?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

It's over 80,000.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah.

unknown 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

And it's a large, but uh we this year we put on a drone show as well as fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

So so Terry gave me a heads up on this, so I took my family to see uh we we had a great time. Um and I told him, of course, it was the best drone show I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Okay. It's the first drone show he's ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

But but it was pretty neat, and the technology is neat. 200 drones, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

200 drones down. You gotta remember in China they do 2,000 drones.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

I can't imagine it. Does that mean the Chinese are ahead of us?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

They are in drones, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So uh so just very, very entertaining, you know, all kinds of uh, you know, pro USA symbolism and designs, you know, coordinated by the drones. It was it was very amazing. And then that was, of course, followed by a magnificent fireworks show. And then you were responsible for how many bands over the weekend at different locations?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Then we had six different stages with a total of about twelve to fifteen different acts going on different stages from certain and it was hot. Tell them how hot it was.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

It was like ninety-four, ninety-six, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:21

And and I think I had heat stroke.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

By the way, what what is heat stroke? I think you were dehydrated. I don't think you had heat stroke. What is the difference? Well, dehydration is mean that your total body fluids down. Heat stroke is when there's a significant increase in body temperature.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Oh, okay. Yeah, I think you're right. Because I was just really dizzy.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

And I I said, man, I don't know if I can walk back.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

And it really kind of goes dehydration, heat exhaustion, and then heat stroke. Heat stroke can be very serious, um, but but uh uh it's relatively rare. So it is it means there's a mental status change. Means people, you know, literally uh lose consciousness with a heat stroke. So the vast majority of these uh instances occur in the category of dehydration and heat exhaustion.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, well, I I was I was somewhere in that range. I don't know where on that spectrum I was, but I tell you, yeah. By the end of that day, it took me a day and a half to even get halfway normal again.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

And you are you are on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

I am definitely on the spectrum of some kind. Yeah. Uh so let's we're gonna spend a lot more time on this podcast dealing with things that you deal with on a regular basis in the ER because you've got some fascinating stories. We've talked about this offline that people don't get to hear, but I said, why don't we start sharing some of these stories with the folks listening in with us about things that maybe they don't realize that happened in the ER, some are some medical things that you've come across in your other practices as well. Right. So where'd you want to start this with?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Let me tell you, I'm gonna tell people about the young lady we talked about the other day. Yeah, that's a good story. Okay, so that is not in the emergency medicine practice, but in my addiction medicine practice. Um and um, you know, people talk, Terry. I mean, I've talked to colleagues and they say, oh, you know, I wouldn't want my kids, you know, other doctors that are my age, I wouldn't want my kids to go into medicine. It's become, you know, so complicated and so profit-driven and all that. And, you know, I I mean I just disagree. You know, I yeah, I just think it's still a great calling, you you know, on on from from a professional standpoint, you know. I mean, there are other ways to make more money, but you're always probably going to make a reasonable living being a physician. And I just think, you know, I still look forward to going to work and interacting with patients and going home at the end of the day. You know, part of this is maybe that, you know, my wife's an emergency physician and we get to sti share stories. Um, but I still find it very, very satisfying.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah, you know, that's that isn't that the key to life. As long as you come home, feel like you've done something better today to help somebody. That's kind of the key.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. And that now that's always intertwining now as I get into my mid to upper 60s about, oh, are you gonna slow down doing this? And I just, you know, that's gonna we we should talk about that sometime because I just, you know, I mean it's a good thing and a bad thing, but you got so much of your identity wrapped up in y, you know, your profession. I I would just at this point find it hard to step away from it.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Well, as long as you're still healthy and can do it, why not keep going? As long as you love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah. So, anyways, that brings up the uh the the case of this young lady I have have had in my addiction medicine practice for five years. And Terry and I talked about this the other day, and the reason this came up is because she is now starting her first nursing job um at one of the hospitals here in Dayton on a cardiac step-down unit. Yeah. But the backstory is that she originally came to us. She she's now in her late twenties, um, and she originally came to us um after getting hooked on pain pills that were prescribed to her. Um so she had an accident or something? Yeah, she she had an accident, and and I think there was you know, I think there was an emotional background there as well because she was abused as a child and then um and then had an accident, had some back pain. And that was back in the day when doctors were just passing out, you know, oxycontin and oxycodone right and left. And one of the theories behind that, I don't think we've talked about this, was the the the pharmaceutical companies. We have talked about Purdue pharmaceutical companies.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Oh, I've seen the I've seen several movies about them. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

But they they pushed this theory, which was not based in science at all. And the theory was that if you have real pain, then taking narcotics ri really just offsets that pain and you aren't gonna get addicted. So if your pain's real, you aren't gonna get addicted. That was the line that was sold for you know 15 years.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

So was that part of the happy face, sad face thing?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Absolutely, yeah. The the fifth vital sign. Yeah, you know, but you know, pain is the fifth vital sign, which, you know, uh is craziness because you know, I've had people in the emergency department you know, paying playing Tetris on their phone, looking up it and telling me that their pain's a 12 out of 10. So, yeah, so that that that was a big mistake. You gotta take pain seriously and you need to treat it appropriately, but um, but that was just part of the mechanism of you know the the opiate epidemic that we ended up because we we were told if there was you know a frowning face there, you have to treat that. And when I say we were told, I was saying medical leadership in in facilities, in healthcare facilities, hospitals said, You gotta take this seriously. You need to treat this pain. We can't be getting patient complaints because you didn't give them enough pain medicine. That's wild. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

And that ties back into that movie. That if you haven't seen that movie, watch the movie about what was the name of the family?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Oh man, you asked me too quick.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Yeah, they're they're the guys who pharmaceutical companies, pharma working right.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, the name of the the name of the company is Purdue, Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Yeah. Okay. So to go go back about this one. So, anyways, so um, so she came to us initially, uh, and this was a very typical story where she got hooked on on pills from the doctor, then there was a crackdown by the state medical board saying, you guys we're creating all this addiction problem, you guys can't do that anymore. So a lot of doctors just like, it's like one month you get your pills, the next month, nope, I can't do that anymore. And so people went out on the street searching for medicine. And of course, there was a shortage of narcotics on the street, and a lot of people turned to fentanyl pills, either pills or snorting fentanyl. Some people obviously did did recreational IV uh fentanyl and heroin. Um this young lady never did, but she couldn't be without medicine because she would go into withdrawal.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

And now, can you I think we talked about this in a way long time. Can you die from withdrawal from narcotics? You can't do that, but you can die from withdrawal from alcohol. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah, so the most dangerous withdrawals are alcohol and benzodiazepines, things like Valium, for example, or Atavan. Those are the two very dangerous ones. Um in opiates, you I mean, people don't die from opiate withdrawal, but it I mean the the kind of the the phrase that's used is, you know, you feel like you're dying. So where did this girl get the money for this stuff? She would beg, borrow, and steal. You know, she was living at home, she wouldn't sell, you know, family member stuff, yeah, you know, just anything.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

And what made her what made her basically reach out and say, I need help?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Well, so she so she got to the point where she realized, quite honestly, a lot of this is just her her own ethic and her own y you know, uh moral approach to life is that she said, I don't want to live my life this way for the rest of my life. So she reached out, and what is typical in this process is you transition people from opiates off the street to medication called Suboxone, which is medication I've prescribed in my clinics for years. We try and keep the doses low. Some clinics keep doses high to keep the patients coming back, but we've been successful at keeping the doses low. Um and and she stabilized herself. And in stabilizing herself, um, she got a job working 40 hours a week.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Well, let me let me ask you about stable how how long did it take her to go from fentanyl using subocanol?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, you you can do that transition pretty quick. You can transition people in within a couple weeks and stabilize them. Yeah. Now you usually have to start on a higher dose of Suboxone depending upon the amount of fentanyl used. Okay. But but then you can ratchet it down over a period of time.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

And how do you know how does somebody know that that's working? What is how do you know that, yeah, this is working for her?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Uh because she's not in withdrawal anymore.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

So withdrawal, what kind of what kind of symptoms would you see if you're in withdrawal?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Um so there is a scale that you can use. It's it's sweating, it's your hair standing up on the back of your neck and your arms, uh, it's palpitations, your heart beating fast, it's nausea, diarrhea, headaches, sleeplessness. So it's basic withdrawal cramping, body cramping.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

And how long does withdrawal last if you're if you did this without medicine, how long would withdrawal last?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah, generally, you know, it it it gets worse uh depending upon how high the use is within a period of hours. It can, you know, within six or eight hours you can begin withdrawal. Some people need to have medicine every, you know, need a fix every six to eight hours. Um but then the worst is generally over within three to four days. Um but yeah, you know, relapse is common.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Something pulls them back into the addiction. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Right. So we we treated her with suboxin, and we had done that for a number of years, titrating her dose down to just very a smidgen of suboxone.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

So she's she was on it for three to uh several years?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Okay, but she was acting at that point in time she was fairly very stable.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

So she went out, got a job in a nursing home as a nursing assistant, um, working the night shift, working forty hours a week on the night shift, and then decided she liked medicine and decided to go to nursing school.

unknown 12:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

And that started, you know, that that was like three years ago. And just so she continued to work 40 hours a week, night shift, and put herself through nursing school over the course of the last three years. And you know, I'm meeting with her every month, you know, initially uh some in person, but a lot of telemedicine. You know, she's going ahead and coming in for her drug screens, you know, making sure she's staying on track. Right. We're titrating down her dose of Suboxone.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Um does that does that ever end?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Uh so it the answer is yes for some patients. Some patients, though, just want to be on a low dose long term because they're so fearful. You can see I don't blame them. You can see it in their eyes. I don't blame them a bit. They're so fearful of going back to the place that they were at one point. Yeah. Um, that that they they they just feel like they need that as an insurance insurance. And it's, you know, other than other than maybe decreasing cravings a little bit and uh and keeping them out of withdrawal, it's not an issue. You know, for example, she went past her nursing boards, you know, a month ago. That's fantastic. You know, got registered by the state nursing board. Yeah. And you can do that on low doses of Suboxone, um, because it doesn't affect your performance um in your work. And, you know, last visit I had with her, she was just so proud that, you know, she's going through orientation at the cardiac step down unit at one of the big hospitals in Dayton. So just a true, true success story.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Well, you know what's what's what makes this even better for her that if somehow she ends up dealing with patients with similar situations, how sympathetic she'll be.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think she'll she'll understand a lot about patient care having been a patient for a long period of time.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

All right. Hey, well, that's a great story, and we're going to end this podcast right now. But I I gotta tell you, that's a great story.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, if you if you have somebody, if you know somebody that has been dependent, um there is this controversy about Suboxone. Um I mean the term that's thrown out there is, oh, you're just replacing one medicine for another or one dependency for another. Um I think it's a great medicine. I think it needs to be used prudently. Yeah, but I think if you know anybody that that uh you know would benefit from that because they're still doing pills or fentanyl, I would I would, you know, advise them in that direction. And the other thing is if you know somebody that is on you know a limited amount of Suboxone, don't don't view that as a negative or a disparaging thing. You know, someone I totally agree. Yeah, so some people still think it's you know got got a little um you know a nuance to it that that uh that person is a druggy or dependent. But you know, there's a lot of people on low doses of this medicine that have done real well. On the flip side, if you know somebody and they're going to a clinic that is keeping them on high doses indefinitely, just to have a patient indefinitely and they aren't titrating it down, that's a problem too. So really I think you know you it's good to make a transition to the medicine, but then over a period of months to years, you got to go ahead and and and wean that dose down.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

All right, so we're gonna do end this podcast, just uh again, your book is out there about CGMs and blood sugar.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Uh if somebody's asking, and a lot of sales recently we saw, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah, if we were just out there on the website, it is crazy. Um how does somebody f get a hold of this book or find out more about this book?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, again, it's the best-selling, we're switching gears here to another topic, but the best-selling book on Amazon um uh for uh continuous glucose monitoring for non-diabetics. If you just you know go to Amazon, put my name in and book, you'll find it.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

So, Dr. Paul, thanks again. We're gonna be kind of making our little podcast a little bit more focused and shorter. So thanks for joining us, and we'll be back again with another podcast with a second opinion and Dr. Opin Paul Kalazek.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Thanks, Terry.