Written By: Lauren Howard
My dad was an intensely credentialed psychiatrist.
He was one of the first doctors in Florida to get an X number to prescribe Suboxone.
He started treating patients diagnosed as (then-called) manic depressive with Lithium before drug companies would make the pills. It’s just a mineral from the ground, and there was almost no way to make money with it, so they had to make the pills themselves.
He was absolutely brilliant on the witness stand as an expert, could verbally spar with any criminal defense attorney, literally wrote the book on forensic addiction medicine, and loved to work at hospitals for incarcerated people with serious mental illness.
Anytime he set up a new office, he had 57 certificates and plaques that had to go on the walls. The number is 57 because, at some point, we stopped framing them. It would easily be in the hundreds. Ain't nobody got time for that.
He also always, always had food on his shirt.
He could never find his glasses, and he was literally legally blind without them. Mr. Magoo was basically created in his likeness, and the depiction was . . . accurate.
There was a giant stapling device in the breakroom of one of the hospitals he worked at, and it had a big square top that chomped down on the stacks of paper. He went back to his office and made eyes to tape on the sides so it would be a proper hippopotamus.
He had ornate, empty glass bottles behind his desk that said “Up Doc” and “Expert Opinions.” He LIVED to have a patient look at them and say, “What’s Up Doc?”
I have the Expert Opinions bottle in my office. It’s still empty.
He was brilliant but messy. He was soft but sharp. He was a sucker for snacks who also begged his patients to take care of their bodies while ignoring all of his own advice.
He exemplified what we are building at LBee Health, and it’s why it’s named after him. Also because we literally would not be here without him. We are scrappy but strong. We’re all a little messy, but we make every move for the right reasons. We want you to come as you are, without pretense or masks, and ask for what you need because you know we will do our best to give it to you.
We also want to make sure that you have snacks.
We’re rough around the edges, but the jagged parts are where we sparkle.
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