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Health & Fitness

30 Nights with the Martinez/Pacheco Homeless Outreach — A Case of Hope

Follow the Martinez/Pacheco homeless outreach.

Day 8

7:45 p.m. — I went the Amtrak Station first tonight and there was a girl there I have been trying to get into a program for about a week now and to my surprise she hadn't had a drink all day and it showed. She was really hurting. So before I could put her in shelter I had to get her cleared medically and that took up almost my whole night. Sometimes when someone is showing signs of alcohol withdraw (DTs) it is better to start at the hospital rather than putting the person in shelter because the shelter will send the person to the hospital and you risk that person getting scared and changing their mind. So now I'm driving to Richmond to the shelter and she pukes in my car. It was a bummer but I can't get mad. I feel bad for alcoholics; they're sick if they do drink and they're sicker if they don't. I can understand how someone would be afraid to quit drinking — I would be. So I pull over and clean my van and we continue to the shelter.

I didn't get to see a lot of people tonight but what I'm hoping for is that this girl never drinks again. That would be good enough for me.

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