Rehab 2 (cont 7) Sauna Treatment

The process at Narco is pretty simple. The program consists of 8 books. After book 1 the student leaves the classroom and begins their sauna treatment. The sauna is really the cornerstone of the program. There is no preset time limit for the sauna treatment. The student is just supposed to know when they are done. I talked to students who were in the sauna for two weeks and others who's sauna treatment lasted over six weeks. I also talked to many who had major flashbacks in the sauna. They actually got high from all the toxins leaving their body. I heard a lot of stories about what happens in the sauna, who knows how many are true or not. After the sauna the student is back in the classroom to finish his or her program. If a student slipped up and got high or drunk after the sauna they would be what is called "out of ethics". In that case they would have to redo their sauna treatment and then they were on an "ethics cycle". An Ethics Cycle would basically be performing manual labor instead of going to class. The Ethics Cycle would start after the sauna was over. Usually when redoing the sauna it would only last two to three weeks at the most. Most of the time the Ethics Cycle would last twenty to forty days, depending on the violation and the students attitude and where they are in the program. If the student was on book 7 and they took off it would be a lot worse than a student on book 2.


While I was still in detox I wanted to be in the sauna so badly. They looked like they had a blast. I didn't really know what was going on at first. I just saw a small group of people that ran around in their swimming suits and were never in class. They all looked like they were really good friends and they were always running across the beach and diving into the ocean, no matter how cold it was. They were also allowed to eat first and after their day in the sauna they were allowed to just hang out and skip the night classes. A lot of the time they were the only others besides the detox gang to be hanging around in the early evenings. Narco gave the students in the sauna a very light schedule because sitting in a sauna for over six hours a day can really take a lot out of a person and they didn't want them to over do it and get sick.


As all of us in detox started book 1 it was kind of a race to get through book 1 and into the sauna. Before anyone is allowed to begin the sauna treatment they are required to go a doctor and get a complete physical. So one day towards the end of book 1 Joe the Narco driver came into the classroom and called out a bunch of names and said "meet me in 10 minutes in the alley, you are all going to the Dr. today". I was stoked, I really wanted to start the sauna and get out of the freaking classroom for a while, a long while.

The group that went to the Dr. that day was me, Jeff, Brian, Chris B., Roman, Joyce,Samantha, Lindsay,Danny from Vegas and Enrique. We drove quite a ways to get to the Dr. office. After my experience with the shitty hospital from my medical detox I was a little nervous about this Dr.'s visit. Surprisingly, the office was really nice and the Dr. seemed quite legit. He even spoke perfect English. The first thing the Doc asked was "Ok, now how many of you have Hepatitis from IV drug use?" I shit when I saw all the hands go up. I didn't know anything about that. I used the same toilet as all these people, the same shower and I was going to be sitting in the sauna with them. During my physical I asked him a lot of questions, he reassured me a little, but I was still freaking out. Especially when he told me that there is no cure for Hep C, once you get it you will always have it and it will probably be the reason you die when you die. I was still in the exam room resting from giving blood when Roman came into the room. The Dr. shit when Roman took his shirt off and he saw all the lumps on his body. Especially the one that was erupting with smelly puss and blood, it was huge, I can't even explain how big this thing was. Roman was positive for Hepatits. All of us passed the physical except for Roman and Samantha. They both had Hep C. and Samantha had some liver of kidney problems because of it. The Dr. needed to clear some of the obvious problems up on Roman before he could start the sauna. Of the 10 of us that went to the Dr.'s that day, 5 had Hepatits. In the back of the office I saw two students that I had seen at Narco but had not met. They were both getting some kind of blood treatment. The first was a guy named James Agro, everyone called him Agro. He was from Hollywood and was a big-time tweaker. He shot speed into his veins up to 5 times a day. He was young, maybe 25. Agro was tall, about 6'5", really skinny and his hair was long and it stuck straight up. He was kind of cool looking in a scarey kind of way. He was the type you would think of when you thought of young, Hollywood drug users. The other person was a young girl named Nicole. She was all over the East Coast and had been a run away for years. She used Horoine and was also a heavy IV user. She had short, jet black hair and wore a lot of black eye make-up. she dressed real crazy, lot's of camo and short skirts with combat boots and piercings all over. I found out that they were getting treatment for Hepatits and were trying to get clearance from the Dr. so they could start the sauna treatment. I thought "Great, those two are going to be in the sauna with me." I was very comfortable with the group I thought I was going to be in the sauna with, now I wasn't so sure. Those two were freaks and scared the shit out of me. I couldn't imagine the sauna with more than five people in it at a time. I wasn't sure how this was going to work but I was all consumed with worry about how my time in the sauna was going to end up and who I was going to be with. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Atleast Roman didn't pass his physical so he wouldn't be in with me. And perhaps Agro and Nicole wouldn't get healthy in time to be in the sauna with me either. I just couldn't stop worrying about it. The Hepatits thing was really freaking me out. I didn't want to leave here with a permanent disease.
I will finish later.
peace.