I am not a Doctor hater! As you read this blog, it may seem so. However, nothing could be further from the truth, at least BEFORE this debacle. My former step father is a Doctor of internal medicine in San Jose, Ca. I love him dearly as well as his new wife. My sister works for him in his office and I myself have worked in his office. We kept him after the divorce, although I would hate for my mom to find out that I am still friends with him!
The surgeon who performed the 4 open reductions on my femur when a horse kicked it clean in 2 back in 1986 is truly a wonderful man. His name is Dr. Paul David Levin, retired. I developed rotational instability twice which needed to be corrected. At no time did Dr. Levin doubt my words. His entire staff was kind and caring even though I was a difficult patient. (I tried to do too much after the surgeries, which may have contributed to the second rotational instability and I couldn't deal with casts.)
When I just couldn't face another general anesthetic both Dr. Levin and the anesthesiologist were more than happy to have me awake. In fact the anesthesiologist (that's right, a DOCTOR NOT A GLORIFIED NURSE) was relieved that I had broached the subject of being awake myself as he wasn't sure how I would take it... They had so much trouble with me under general anesthetic that nobody wanted to work on me and this particular Doctor was the only one who would do it. This was all before Versed became the drug of choice.
These kind Doctors went so far as to put up mirrors so that I could watch without craning around to see what was happening. No surgical drape. I need to know what happens to me. I heal better, faster etc. This is a proven fact and my Doctor marveled at how fast I healed up after the 3rd surgery when I was awake and aware. He called it astonishingly exuberant bone growth, which had been lacking after the previous 2 surgeries.
When I had to have an arthroscope procedure due to knee injury from this accident, they also had a screen up so I could watch the little drill thingy zip around taking out the stalactites or stalagmites under my knee cap. I had this done at the same time they took out all the pins, nails, screws and plates. Since medical people are now saying that the SOUNDS of an operating room are traumatic, let me say this; the sounds of the drill, the sounds of something like a clam opening, a wet popping noise etc. the sounds of the drill, were not alarming in the slightest bit. There is no need for Versed so that we don't HEAR the surgery.
Likewise I heard the entire surgeries on my femur, the drilling, the slide hammer, the wet noises, as well as the crunch of the nippers biting out a chunk of my iliac crest for a bone graft... The conversations were pleasant and I spent most of the time talking to my anesthesiologist about what was coming next, why they were doing it, how was the weather, what all my horse was doing, the anesthesiologist's airplane, just all kinds of interesting subjects. Nothing scary or traumatic about any of it. I could ask the anesthesiologist to give me more or less drugs depending on what level of pain was acceptable, and at the end I had him taper down the drugs, allowing more pain, so that I could get out of recovery faster. I was starving after 12 hours of surgery and couldn't wait to eat. The anesthesiologist explained that Domino's Pizza couldn't go through the autoclave...
What WAS upsetting to hear were the nasty comments made about me in the operating room when my so-called caregivers had knocked me on my keester with Versed in 2006. They imagined that I would have amnesia and were very candid about their opinion of truck drivers, my physicality etc. I was horrified and this probably contributed somewhat to my PTSD. I have never heard such snide comments in my life. They were all laughing at my expense. Since I had no idea that I was supposed to have amnesia this was quite a shock. I couldn't BELIEVE what I was hearing! I couldn't speak coherently or defend myself in any way, I was unable to leave etc. completely helpless. These were the people that were going to knock me out against my will and perform surgery and they had ZERO RESPECT for me as a person and were callous and uncaring, careless, NASTY, evil... Their conversation about me was the noise that traumatized me, the noise of the surgery itself would have had no impact on me at all.
Here is a link which puts forth the argument that the SOUNDS of surgery are traumatizing. What a crock. Is there no end to the excuses for the use of Versed? Anesthesiology - Medical Specialists - Health/Fitness - AllExperts.com Thanks again Paula.
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