Arrested..need advice

You may want to post this in the "Nurses/Recovery" section.

Congratulations on 130 days!

I'm a LPN in Jacksonville florida .I was arrested for the very first time and I have 5 felony charges.None are drug related.They are forgery , defrauding a financial institution , criminal use of personal identification , and 2 more forgery charges.I did 4 nights in jail.My boss said Im not terminated but I cant come back to work until I file for exemption.I know nothing about this .How long does it take ? What can I expect ? Are there any other LPNs that have been through this ? Heroin is evil...Im currently a methadone patient and Im clean..I also smoke weed..but I had trusted what I thought were friends and cashed some checks not knowing they were stolen.Stupid decisions when I was.addicted to Heroin are coming back to bite me in the ***.Please no rude comments or judgemental people...ONLY GOD WILL JUDGE ME...PLEASE GIVE ADVICE OR PRAYERS.I NEVER THOUGHT A DENTIST APPOINTMENT WOULD TURN ME INTO AN ADDICT..I BECAME ADDICTED TO OPIATES AFTER DENTAL WORK.IM A MOM..IM A DAMN GOOD NURSE..I HAVE STOLEN FROM FACILITIES TO FEED MY ADDICTION .. GAVE MY ELDERLY PATIENTS WEAKER PAIN MEDS AND I WOULD POCKET THE NARCOTIC..SO MANY BAD THINGS...ADDICTION IS A DISEASE.I WAS SICK AND I AM RECOVERING NOW..PLEASE NO JUDGEMENTAL OR RUDE POSTS..BLESS YOU ALL !! IM ALSO A NEWBIE TO THE SITE...I HOPE TO MAKE FRIENDS..ARE THERE OTHER NURSES ON HERE THAT ARE METHADONE CLIENTS ? LPNS OR RNS I NEVER USED NEEDLES ..ONLY SNORTED..I KNOW ITS BAD NO MATTER WHAT WAY YOU USE IT.I JUST ALWAYS FEEL THE NEED TO ADD THAT BIT OF INFO IN

Wow. That is alot of baggage to carry around. At least you admit to what you've done. I would think you have a long difficult climb up out of that deep dark hole you've dug for yourself . I do pray for you that you can do it. Jesus can help you get out of that darkness. Many people have been instantly healed of drug addictions .

31 minutes ago, LPN Retired said:

Many people have been instantly healed of drug addictions .

I thought that recovery was a life-long process?

I don’t know anything about the exemption process but just wanted to offer words of encouragement. addiction is very hard to overcome so congratulations on getting yourself out of that cycle, finishing school, having a job that wants to keep you, and being a mom! ?I hope this works out

I'm sorry, this will be harsh.

You can blame whatever and whomever you want to, but the first step to any recovery is accepting the consequences of your own actions. You are the only person responsible for the choices you made. Not your friends, not your dentist, not your patients, not your child, not your employer. You. You are still making excuses. You can cry about god being the only one to judge you but, that's not true. Your fellow nurses will judge you. Employers will judge you. They will judge you more when you make excuses. "I didn't ask for this, it was the dentists fault, I didn't use IV I only snorted, addiction is a disease I'm sick, I'm clean now but I just smoke weed (new flash, that's not clean)". You're going to need to grow some thick skin. Acknowledge responsibility for your actions, for your addiction. Stop with the excuses. Stop trying to minimize the damage. Stop trying to rationalize how its not that bad or it's not your fault. You can't call yourself a good nurse when you're stealing from your employer and allowing your patients to suffer for your own addiction. You can't call yourself a good mom when you're an addict.

All that said. I have a lot of respect for people in recovery. Recovery is hard, and it is a lifetime process that you will never escape from. You will always be an addict, and you will always be in recovery. I wish you all the best and good fortune in your efforts and I hope you can maintain strength to uphold your recovery. But, you have to stop with the excuses.

First thing's first, you definitely need to ask your attorney these questions (and ideally, your attorney should be somebody who specializes in dealing with the BON). The stakes are way too high and this stuff is way too technical for you to just try to figure it out with the help of random internet strangers, and you risk getting yourself into even more legal trouble if you do it wrong. I know that consulting an attorney is expensive, but there's no way to get around it. I can assure you that the cost of not consulting an attorney (i.e. losing your job, potentially having restrictions on your license, getting into further legal trouble) will be far greater.

Second, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, but you need to be way more discreet about what you're putting out there online. Yes, this website exists for nurses to support and guide one another, but so much of what you've just said could be used against you in court or by the BON if they find it. Your username presumably includes your real first name, you've stated your job (in your profile) and your location, and you've admitted not only to the crimes that you're accused of, but also to several crimes that you haven't even been accused of yet (drug possession/use). You are setting yourself up to get into even more trouble than you're already in.

All of that to say: contact your attorney ASAP, stop posting the details of your situation on AN, and ask admin if you can change your username.