“This book is personally and philosophically transformative. Spooner’s definitions of the four cardinal virtues are among my favourites that I’ve ever read, even before we reach the poems that vividly and sometimes wrenchingly bring the virtues into lived experience. I was struck by the honest account of patients as teachers, whose wisdom goes beyond words. And it is vividly clear how this manuscript is itself an act of hope, so valuable in our time.”
Michael Griffin, D.Phil. (Oxford) Professor of Classics and Philosophy The University of British Columbia
About the Book
EXAMINING ROOM
within the walls of the opioid crisis
During 30 years in primary care and addiction medicine, the Vancouver-based Dr. Lorinda Spooner has found her examining room a place of suffering, of adversity, but also of hope. Yet, since 2016, when the opioid crisis was declared a public health emergency in British Columbia, more than 17,000 people have died from the toxic street supply of illicit fentanyl. Hope has been harder to find.
So, Dr. Spooner began to write, “to try to find meaning out of all this suffering,” and to give readers insight into the lives of those battling the disease of addiction. The result is this poetry collection – both raw and cathartic – one that looks unflinchingly at the pain the opioid epidemic has caused, and still marvels at the strength and resilience of those caught in its grasp.
Dr. Spooner writes, hauntingly, “I am not my sorrow. ” That is, surely, a declaration for us all.
“I was deeply touched by the stories you shared; they resonated with my own experiences. Some brought tears to my eyes as they reminded me of my patients. Through your writing you not only found healing for yourself, but also conveyed in a deeply compassionate manner, the suffering experienced by people with substance use disorders and their loved ones.”
Sonia Habibian MD, DDCF (AM), FASAM, Dip-ABAM Faculty of Medicine University of British Columbia Addiction Medicine Consultant Royal Columbian Hospital
“This collection is such a deep dive into the inner workings of the addiction world. It’s a heartfelt message to all of us that this crisis deeply impacts our entire community and even if we are not directly involved with someone struggling with stigmatized addictions we can all espouse the final mantra. It does give me hope and shows that we can all adopt Stoicism in some form in the face of this crisis. Highly recommended !”
Christine Desjardins Data Administrator
About the Author
Dr. Lorinda Spooner
Lorinda Spooner is a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. She started her healthcare career as a nurse working on Baffin Island in Canada’s Arctic. There, she carried out house calls by snow mobile and medivacs by Twin Otter airplanes. As a medical student she was blessed to meet Mother Teresa, while volunteering at one of the homes for the destitute and dying in the rough streets of Calcutta – a place that now has haunting echoes in the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
As a doctor, Lorinda specialized in rural family practice, which allowed her to work in under serviced areas on the British Columbia coast – Bella Coola and Haida Gwaii –and to return to Baffin Island numerous times. She was drawn to the beauty of the land and to the elders who were so open and so eager to show their traditional way of life.
For the past 15 years, Lorinda has focused on addiction medicine, and has witnessed the drastic, catastrophic rise of addiction and death in the context of the opioid crisis. Her work experience includes: lead physician at the Vancouver Drug Court, the Downtown Eastside Mobile Medical Unit, the Vancouver Jail, outpatient primary care and addiction clinics, the Vancouver General Hospital Complex Pain and Addiction Service, and Corrections Health Care.
Lorinda lives on Vancouver’s North Shore with her family, loving the ocean and local mountains.