No Midazolam

The Versed Song!

2012-02-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Somebody hated this drug Versed so much that she wrote a song about it and performed it for youtube distribution!!!!

Bad Doctors or Bad Drugs - YouTube

Fair and Balanced!

2012-02-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

Gee I hope that phrase isn't copyrighted! In the interest of fairness and balance, I am presenting a well thought out opposing view! This comment is from my discussion here;

Jules has left a new comment on your post "Textbook FAIL! First paragraph.":

"Different doctors have different training. They also have different equipment and resources available to them. Doctor number one has most likely not been trained on the DiVinci system. It is not widely available in many areas. Because he performs the surgery differently than doctor number two does not make him evil, money-grubbing, or even incompetent. (I do admit, however, that there are doctors who think the know all and are not to be questioned. That is a reflection on them as people, not on the healthcare community as a whole.)

As for your ideas on informed consent, all I can say is that you sound paranoid. Perhaps this is understandable given your past experiences. I have to tell you, though, that in this EXTREMELY litigious society, doctors can and will do whatever is necessary to cover their butts. No surgeon is going to rationalize doing anything experimental or unnecessarry simply because you signed a consent form. The clause that you are referring to is there for a couple of reasons: 1) If your surgeon is inside of you and spots something that (s)he deems to me life-threatening, (s)he has your permission to remove it. It has to be an immediate threat. If you cross out the phrase, should (s)he ignore the threat? 2) Suppose that during an orthopedic procedure to remove a bone spur that has been causing you pain, the surgeon spots a small cyst that could be contributing to the problem. Should (s)he finish up the consented procedure, close you up, wait until the drugs wear off and THEN mention what was seen? At this point you could sign another consent and have a second procedure, I suppose. Twice the pain, twice the bill, twice the anesthesia? Seems kind of silly doesn't it? If you choose to cross anything off the Informed Consent, please make sure you ask questions and think about the consequences. If you were the patient in one of the above situations, would you be okay with the surgeon following your wishes and NOT doing what should have been done? Or would you awake from anesthesia, find out what happened and become angry and indignant? Things that make you go hmmmmm...

I fully agree that one should seek out second (or even third) opinions. Discuss and weigh your options. But please know that healthcare workers chose their field to help, not to hurt, their patients. Are there doctors out there who are in it for the money? I'm sure there are. But between the lawyers, the student loans, the government and the insurance companies who don't like to pay, I can assure you that most doctors don't take home as much as you might imagine."

Of course I have a rebuttal to this which can be seen below his remarks in situ. Jules makes valid arguments. However, my experience, whether it made me "paranoid" or not, forces me to take the stance that I have. IF my health care workers had given me just half the respect this commenter has, and if they had a thought process like his, this would all be a moot point. I hold Jules up as a reasonable, rational person, that I probably would trust to remove my heel spur. As long as he agreed to a nerve block and pain meds ONLY! Sedation is not an option. G/A is totally unnecessary in extremity surgery if you have competent help. The beauty of doing things MY way, is that I would be able to give additional consent from the OR if things went south. Jules was worried about that. Now he doesn't have to.

Dragged From My Archives

2012-02-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

I dragged this post up so that people can see the lies, untruths, and the big question, WHO THE HELL PERFORMED MY SURGERY!!!??? Here's the link; No Midazolam: Pleasant woman in No Distress

Here's a copy of the document;Intraoperative+report+013.jpg (image)

1) We start right out with a falsehood. I don't know how many times I have to repeat the same thing over and over before medical people understand... I-DID-NOT-FALL-OFF-A-HORSE-WITH-MY-ARM-OUTSTRETCHED!!! It never happened. How many hundreds of times do I need to be ejected from the saddle to know that we DON'T extend our arms? I got KNOCKED DOWN, as in near the horse, not on it! I got spun through the air with my arms pulled into my chest so as not to break them. When I rolled across the ground (with force) over my arm, it was caught with the palm outward and the back of the hand against the chest. This is what broke my arm. I HEARD IT SNAP! Try this yourself and see how this could happen. Nobody LISTENED to me!

Moving down to the part where it says 'general condition:' See where it says "no distress?" This is true, I wasn't in any distress. I was calm. I was relaxed. I was glad to be having my arm fixed. (little did *I* know what was going to happen) I trusted these people... How could I possible know that my nasty little crna was going to write elsewhere that I had "anxiety" and do every single thing I had instructed him not to? Amazing isn't it? Each medical person writes whatever they want on these documents to make themselves look good, or to justify their actions.

Now look farther down the page to where it says 'extremities:' "Edema, ecchy, a circled L, and then a total LIE! Nowhere else on any document anywhere is my arm described as it is here; sig. deformity!(?) Every other document I have says the opposite. NO deformity. There was no deformity other than swelling and even that is described elsewhere as "moderate swelling." Apparently the PA has been instructed to put this crap down as justification. I am even suspicious of the "ecchy" (ecchymosis; bruising that generally occurs with aging skin when bumped or pulled) designation. There was no discoloration or bruising, so I'm wondering where this came from? Is this just what everybody puts down for a broken arm? Was this guy looking at another patient?

Here's the million dollar question in light of the terrible job somebody did on my arm; Whose signature is on the line at the bottom? That's right, it's the PA whom I suspect did the surgery. My surgeons illegible initials are on that line as well... Why? The PA time stamped this document, but the initials are not timed. So what time did my surgeon get there? Never?

Final thing about just this one single sheet of paper, look at the time! 10:00! My surgery was supposed to start well before this! So why did the writer of the report put the time at 10:00? I was drugged well before 10:00 and I talked to this person before I was drugged. What's up with the odd timing of this?

This is just the kind of sloppy record keeping that makes one angry and suspicious. Just one single document and so many errors.

Textbook FAIL; 2nd paragraph

2012-02-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

"What happened: when the anesthesiologist came to me pre-op mere minutes prior to surgery to wheel me to the OR (he never asked if I had questions, never explained anything - noda, nothing, zip, zilch). I specifically said I wanted to be awake as long as possible and be 'put out' only when absolutely necessary. He verbally agreed. I am thrilled! When my husband had surgery 2 years ago, I noticed on his anesthesia record that anesthesia starts loooooong before surgery and I wanted to avoid not only the additional expense, but I wanted to experience all I could. I get on the table, an additional IV is started, I am asking questions as I am super curious about what is happening. The next thing I know I comment on a 'sensation' in my arm and he replies that that is the medication (did not name). I remember saying, "It's too early" and then blackness. Mind you - I was not anxious, I was not nervous, the prep was not painful, and I have endured much more embarrassing incidents so there was no medically necessary reason for me to be out or sedated."
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This is standard operating procedure for medicine these days. (pun not intended) Mere minutes isn't enough time to talk to the patient and explain what the plan is. Is this intentional? I think so. With Versed, there's no point in explaining anything is there? The patient will have amnesia (they hope) about everything anyway.

Verbally agreeing is their way of not having any more conversation with you as a patient than is humanly possible and still perform their job. They don't give a damn WHAT you say or WHAT you want. Who are you anyway? Once a document is signed, then they can go ahead with whatever the hell they want. Prove you said NO! Prove that all this isn't medically necessary, just like they claim!

Why wouldn't the "anesthesia" start loooong before the surgery? It serves several purposes. I think #1 is that the medical people want to "get rid of you" as quickly as possible. Annoying patients and their endless questions are to be avoided at all cost. Which brings me to reason #2 which is that the sooner they can drug you with Versed, the sooner the level of care cost can be adjusted upward. Same nurse, same patient, but now the nursing care "charges" skyrocket and they can add in the crna charges. See how that works? Versed is for medical workers, not patients, comfort and ease. Reason #3 would be the "truth serum" part of Versed, in which the patient divulges all their deep dark secrets for the amusement of staff. How fun! Last but not least is the completely obedient and docile patient afforded by Versed. No matter how adamant you are about refusing certain things, this drug will render you totally compliant. The medical workers surely take advantage of this! They took advantage of *me* that way. Claiming I "didn't object" to things after a hefty dose of Versed. Oh yeah, my crna left out the Versed part...

I'm sorry, but my friend still has/had some pre-conceived notions about health care being about the patient. It doesn't matter that SHE wanted to stay awake as long as possible. It doesn't matter that SHE wasn't interested in getting Versed and clearly said NO! It doesn't matter what her mental state was. Versed isn't used for calming frightened, worried or anxious patients... I know that's what medical workers SAY, but it's not true. See above paragraph for the TRUE reasons Versed is used. It's all about the medical workers wishes, not the patients desires. She's on top of it now!

Textbook FAIL! First paragraph.

2012-02-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

As I said before, this letter has too much going on to comment fully in just one post. Here's the first paragraph;
"Hi!

I've written to you in the past never imagining I would need your advice. I had surgery in August. (BTW IF you ever need abdominal type surgery run, don't walk, to the surgeon who uses the DaVinci robotic method. Fabulous! One surgeon (who fired me for asking too many questions!) was going to cut me from navel to pubis, I was to be in the hospital for 3-5 days, on pain meds for who knows how long, with six weeks' recovery time. My surgery? (same as the doctor who fired me with a little added extra fixing - a total hysterectomy and bladder fix). I was in the hospital only overnight, no pain meds necessary past day one post op, and felt as if I could go back to work the second day post op!"

Here we have our patient clearly outlining the need for second opinions. She wrote that she saw 3 doctors total, but one passed a way. She was searching for a doctor with at least 15 years of experience. The difference between what the first doctor desired and what the second doctor supplied is stark. I imagine that the COST is also a factor between the two. Kinda makes you wonder if doctor 1 had a financial interest in the treatment center doesn't it? The patient also gave her permission to do the extras. Beware of the fact that many (all?) informed consent documents have verbiage about "doctor has permission to do anything else that they deem necessary during the procedure." Cross that out. This patient was LUCKY that they actually went over the additional parts of the surgery, that MIGHT become extant. If you give them permission through vague statements on the consent form, you may end up with WAAAAY more than you ever anticipated or expected.

In my never humble opinion, allowing the doctors to do other things that they might deem "necessary" while you are unconscious or amnestic defeats the ENTIRE PURPOSE of the "informed" consent. It opens the door to abuse. It also could cause the doctor to have something in mind about what they want to do, but they don't want to even TRY to get your consent for it. So, with the vagueness of the consent, they can get you to agree to one thing specifically, knowing full well that they are going to go far beyond what was stated on the consent. You can't be too careful with medical care.

Another Nurse "Gets It"

2012-02-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

This is from hospital soup again... Here's a nurse who actually understands that Versed is a bad drug for patients. (It's obviously a very GOOD drug for most medical practitioners) She goes on to give us tips on not receiving Versed again, including having an "allergy" medical bracelet. The only problem with a medical bracelet is, as I've stated before, the medical workers will assume that the bracelet is a "diabetic" warning. This has happened to me more than once, and it has happened to others that I know.
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June says:
July 5, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Hello Polly,
I really do understand where you’re coming from regarding not wanting to list the Versed as an allergy and wanting to know why you may be hearing options as to why it may be best to do so…. I’m a registered nurse and think that patients should definitely not be put in these positions. However, let me just share with you the following perspective. There are numerous opportunities for errors within the healthcare environment…multiple departments interacting with one another, and medication administration is one very important component. Let’s say in a perfect world you did find a provider who listened to you and who was willing not to administer Versed— but you may be admitted somewhere in the future and the unit or facility is very busy. In busy, chaotic environments health care decisions are made quickly and since Versed is the “go to drug” of choice for many providers— you could be given Versed either intentionally or unintentionally if someone on the health care team either didn’t check your preferences or decided in a moment of rushing to provide care to you, that it wasn’t an issue in that situation.
Contrast this scenario with you having an “Allergy” to a specific medication. It is documented in your medical record, your pharmacist, as well as ALL medical providers should have this “ALLERGY” listed in your chart. When and if you are admitted anywhere in the world for medical care one of the first questions you will be asked is, “Do you have any allergies to medications?”. If you are unable to speak for yourself this info can be, part of your medical record so that it travels with you everywhere. And there are other things you can do to properly document this “Allergy”.
You would also as a matter of standard protocol get a brightly colored arm bracelet, denoting that you had an allergy so that all healthcare professionals interacting with you during the entire time of your admission would know NOT to EVER administer Versed or whatever drug you are allergic to.
So, although in a perfect world yes, it would be great to have a world in which choices like this were not necessary, BUT I know what my choice would be if I wanted to have the odds on my side of not getting a particular medication that I knew was not in my best interest.
As a healthcare professional and as a nurse, my job is always to put the patient’s needs first, and I wish that you would never have received Versed, as it is my personal opinion that it is a very poor medication choice with regards to the needs of the patient. I don’t ever want to have it and won’t permit my family members to have it either. (emphasis mine) I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with Versed, and my hope for you is that in the future you have dedicated, caring and professional individuals who provide you with full disclosure about your choices regarding medical care and that your experience in the future should you need healthcare, your experience will be much better."

More From Glenn; Versed-a recollection

2012-02-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

I want to warn my sensitive friends that this tale is really horrifying on the order of "Johnny Got His Gun" bad. (Obscure reference to an old book, which by the way everybody should read in light of the Versed problem) That being said, this is just the kind of story that the medical/dental people do NOT want you to know when they talk about the "happy clouds" of sedation. The following is an absolutely unretouched narrative by Glenn.
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"I remember this - having one upper and two lower wisdom teeth (the lower teeth impacted) drilled out. It's finally come back to me, as a PTSD-type recall following a routine filling done at the dentist earlier this week. Why was I so scared? I'd never been bothered by the dentist before, but his approaching me with the drill (working on the tooth next to where the wisdom tooth had been) filled me with an absolute dread. This was the first actual treatment I'd had by a dentist since the wisdom teeth were removed (apart from check-ups, cleaning and so on).

This is what I remember about my treatment under Versed a decade ago:

The first memory is about having the lower left drilled. I pleaded with the surgeon to stop. He told me, in an off-hand manner, to keep my mouth open and stop talking, and then gave some instruction to an assistant. It faded. I could see the operation in progress from the reflection on the dentist's headgear. There was what appeared to be a little trench being drilled along my jawline, with blood being sucked out by the assistant. I could see bone, blood, and felt astonishingly harsh pain as he reached in with a drilling device again and again. At that point, I think I blacked out from the pain. I always did remember that, even right afterwards.

Next memory was trying to lift myself up and away from the drill, that was now operating on the upper right. I recall thinking, "Sweet Jesus - They drill them out? Don't they pull them?" Surely what they did in Marathon Man cannot be any worse than this?" They were torturing that guy for information, but they're not questioning me - this has to be for my own good… then a little while later concluding that this could not possibly be for my benefit, they surely were doing it just to torture me. I had no idea why - I've done nothing wrong!. "Nobody's asking me anything that will make this stop! I'm ready to do anything they want now, they've made their point!" Those were my thoughts. I remember it very clearly. I begged them to stop, they were completely disinterested. It was as if I were an animal being dissected live and my squealing was totally inconsequential.

My next recall (perhaps coming around from the first blackout) was where I tried to rise above the drill, to get away from it, but was unable. I do recall pushing the surgeon's hand down, and pleading to him to stop, I'd do whatever he wanted, just - please - stop this! I was told - firmly - to hold still and open my mouth wide, and I complied. The next memory fragment is wondering how long this could possibly last, and fearing that the left lower side would be returned to, because that too was hurting very badly. It was at this point that I could stand no more, and felt beaten - the pain was too much. Whatever had caused me to be in this situation had passed any point I could bear. An instruction to a nurse. The drill went on up, seemingly with the intention of going right through into my brain. Another blackout.

Before they started on the lower right, I'd reached a point of dark despair and confusion - I recall feeling utterly defeated at that stage, this was a torture I just not could feel able to put up with, and this was my universe at that time. I was eager to opt for death rather than this miserable existence, which by that point had lasted as long as I could remember. I now had no memory of who I was, nor any life prior to this. I was simply a man somewhere being tortured, mutilated. My entire existence had started there, being tortured. I asked them to kill me.

They ignored me. I asked again - earnestly, begging - for them to please kill me, I'd had enough. They'd taken a pause for some reason (possibly upping the Versed dosage), during which I thought they were considering whether to continue the torture - hope flashed before me - they may have decided they had sufficient information (or proved to themselves that I had none), and were not going to continue. To my horror. they settled down for another session.

The drill sounded much lower, and more dull, lower pitched than for the first tooth. I'd be willing to bet any money at all, that they'd done my lower left, my upper right, finally my lower right, in that precise order. And they'd been upping the dosage of Versed all the way through. My spirit was totally broken, I could not take this horror any longer. The dentist told me this was the last one, it would be over soon - he did not seem unkind, which puzzled me. By 'over', I presumed he meant dead. That was fine with me, and the sooner the better. I couldn't understand why they were continuing this mutilation since they were going to kill me anyway before long.

Although this last memory is more dark and grainy, it is nevertheless real. The work on the first tooth was - is - absolutely an unimpaired memory, bright and clear. I felt it, saw it, and can recall it right now in detail - even the faces of the individuals involved. I've told people about it in the years since - this isn't just something made up this week. But that is just a fraction of the memories that eventually came flooding back at once. This is not a story on which I've been working for ages, convincing myself of further details.

Memory started mostly functioning again while getting off the surgery chair and asking the dental assistant for my teeth. At that point, I was unaware of most of what had just happened. She seemed kind of weepy and dismissed the idea, referring me to another woman who said I shouldn't be concerned about them, they were "just bits" - she turned her back on me quickly - in retrospect, she seemed traumatised herself. Is there any record of these assistants talking about what they witnessed? The thing I remember most, though, is the surgeon himself - he was a confident, experienced, educated man, with whom I'd enjoyed some verbal jousting beforehand. He'd always had plenty of time for me, before the procedure and during follow-up. But at that moment he looked ashamed.

Refusing their urging to get a taxi (on account of wasted money - I only lived a couple of miles away) - I walked home. It was a strange journey, of which I recall only fragments. I spat a lot of blood into the gutter on the way.

*

The only reason I'd agreed to the IV was upon the insistence of the entire staff. My first wisdom tooth extraction a couple of weeks earlier wasn't pleasant but - against their advice - I'd refused the IV for that one (upper right) because it would cost more money. $250 to save an hour's discomfort? No way! I'll tough it out with a local. It wasn't nice - by any stretch - but I have no complaint about that. It seems that I complied with my own torture when having the other three out under Versed, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. The only respites in the entire session were those periods where I blacked out from the agony.

This is just my guess, but my experience may be typical - the difference being that I recall a lot of it. Versed doesn't dull the pain, it just makes one compliant and helpless, and most importantly amnesic."

Textbook FAIL of Medical Care!

2012-02-03T07:47:00.001-08:00

One of the people I've been "friends" with for years sent me this. I am going to use portions of this letter in many of my future posts. There is just so much going on here that I feel the need to point out a LOT of things. I'll start on this and take it paragraph by paragraph, discussing all the failings in this person's medical experience. Feel free to e-mail me about anything that catches your eye, and I can write about that too!
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Hi!

I've written to you in the past never imagining I would need your advice. I had surgery in August. (BTW IF you ever need abdominal type surgery run, don't walk, to the surgeon who uses the DaVinci robotic method. Fabulous! One surgeon (who fired me for asking too many questions!) was going to cut me from navel to pubis, I was to be in the hospital for 3-5 days, on pain meds for who knows how long, with six weeks' recovery time. My surgery? (same as the doctor who fired me with a little added extra fixing - a total hysterectomy and bladder fix). I was in the hospital only overnight, no pain meds necessary past day one post op, and felt as if I could go back to work the second day post op!

What happened: when the anesthesiologist came to me pre-op mere minutes prior to surgery to wheel me to the OR (he never asked if I had questions, never explained anything - noda, nothing, zip, zilch). I specifically said I wanted to be awake as long as possible and be 'put out' only when absolutely necessary. He verbally agreed. I am thrilled! When my husband had surgery 2 years ago, I noticed on his anesthesia record that anesthesia starts loooooong before surgery and I wanted to avoid not only the additional expense, but I wanted to experience all I could. I get on the table, an additional IV is started, I am asking questions as I am super curious about what is happening. The next thing I know I comment on a 'sensation' in my arm and he replies that that is the medication (did not name). I remember saying, "It's too early" and then blackness. Mind you - I was not anxious, I was not nervous, the prep was not painful, and I have endured much more embarrassing incidents so there was no medically necessary reason for me to be out or sedated.

Anyway, surgery went fine, BUT I believe I was given Versed against my wishes and in fact had it listed as an allergy on the advice of a pre-surgery nurse in order to ensure I would not get it. When I got my chart I noticed 'Midazolam' written and then crossed out. The jerk anesthesiologist didn't even bother to look at my chart or wristband for allergies before shooting me up! I have no proof that he gave it to me, however. Do you know if it is a 'controlled substance' for which a nurse or doctor has to sign for and records kept? How could I get access to the records for that day? Do I need a lawyer for that?

I got my complete hospital records. I took nurses training and was licensed for a time several years ago so I do have some medical knowledge. On the record of anesthesia page the anesthesiologist recorded that anesthesia was started a mere 5 minutes after I arrived in the OR - Propofol and an inhalant agent - which coincides with my recollection. I was soooo angry. Propofol was used and I do know it is called 'milk of amnesia' and can cause retrograde amnesia (how long a period of time does the amnesia go back, do you know?), but I was NOT told of amnesia (except for during the surgery itself), I was NOT told I would be awake for the prep only to be the entertainer of the hour. Plus the record states anesthesia started 5 minutes after my arrival - with the Propofol and an inhalant. I should have been out, right? Straight Propofol in lower dose is used for conscious sedation, tho, isn't it?

So....my case is the opposite of yours. I consented to general anesthesia and presumably got conscious sedation first, then GA. I did NOT consent to conscious sedation. I did NOT consent to amnesia. In fact, that word was NOT uttered or written anywhere by anyone.

At my post op appointment with my surgeon I commented on the fact that I REALLY wanted to be awake for all the prep and was SO angry, disappointed, absolutely livid that I was not. She replied, "Oh, you were awake. In fact, you were quite entertaining"!!! WHAT?! I believe she immediately realized she had let the proverbial cat out of the bag and quickly made an excuse to leave the room thinking that was the end of it. It took months to get another appointment to ask questions. During which time, I am sure, the legal department was consulted. Nobody in her office will even talk with me without there being two of them - even to tell me an appointment was cancelled!!

At my most recent appointment - to talk -just last week, I reminded her of what she'd said and asked point blank what it was I had done and/or said 'under the influence' that was so entertaining. I understand that Propofol is much like truth serum and that it releases inhibitions allowing one to say and do things they would not normally do. I am so upset to know I was out of control with no memory of what I did/said. She claims she can't remember. So, trying to jog her memory or get her to say what I did do because what I suggested was so far off the mark, I asked: Did I try to seduce the anesthesiologist? Did I try to seduce her? Did I entertain everyone with singing and striptease? Did I threaten to sue? What??? She said No. No. No. No. She did say she remembers talking with me as the ekg leads were being placed, she remembers the circulating nurse changing out and forgetting to hit the start button for my video (GRRRRRR), she remembers specifics about the following day, BUT she expects me to believe she cannot remember what I did that was so entertaining?! Information she volunteered! So I should believe what she said in January, but not believe her off the cuff remark in October?!

I did meet briefly with the anesthesiologist (I was shocked he would see me!) and told him how upset I was. His response? "Well you were awake when you went into the operating room, weren't you?! As if that consitutes 'until absolutely necessary'! I followed up with a letter detailing how angry I am, asking for an explanation and asking for answers to questions on what was used, why it was used, my reaction to same, etc. Not surprisingly I have not received an answer.

In the letter I also asked him to write a letter to his billing department as well as that of the hospital as I did not need nor want and in fact asked not to have the 43 minutes of anesthesia prior to surgery and that I was not going to pay for it. I have not received further billing from him which tells me he knows he did me wrong and, I believe, they are fearful of a lawsuit and are hoping this tiny concession will sidetrack me. NOT.

I have talked with and written to the 'patient advocate' - what a joke! When this is all done, I will most definitely write to not only the 'patient advocate', but her supervisors and/or superiors to tell them exactly what I think. Patient = person who was or is being treated. Advocate = supporter, defender; to speak, plead, or argue in favor of. The only person or entity they advocate for is the hospital, clinic, staff, and/or doctor! They do NOT call, they do NOT answer simple questions, they deflect, obfuscate, delay, tell half truths, out right lie. I was made to feel it was all my fault, that I was the only one who complained, they were shocked I had complained about so and so as they were one of their best, I was 'whacked' for even asking the questions I asked (many were not accusatory), I simply wanted to know what specific things were that were on the bill. When I ask questions I get attitude from everyone from the receptionist to the 'patient advocate' to the nurse to the doctor. Granted I am so upset I'm sure my tone of voice is less than pleasant, but I do try. I have concluded that the job of the patient advocate is to listen, make sympathetic sounds and then write a letter saying how sorry they all are for the perception of a problem, but that, of course, they find no fault whatsoever in anything that was done in their facility or by any of their exemplary employees.

The patient advocate did write back to say the anesthesiologist DID show me all the equipment in the operating room and DID answer all my questions and DID warn me he was putting me out, which if accurate, further reinforces what my surgeon said about me being awake. I consider that to be even worse behavior on their part - to act and talk with me as though everything is normal and I will remember, all the while knowing I am under the influence of an amnesia-inducing drug. Unconscionable!!! It must be quite entertaining.

It absolutely astounds me the callous cavalier dismissive way we patients are treated. I honestly thought I had asked all the pertinent questions and made all the right requests to ensure a good mental/emotional outcome for my surgery. Boy, was I ever wrong! In the letter I sent my surgeon after my last appointment I said, 'We are expected to endure all manner of procedures in the office that are embarrassing, uncomfortable and downright painful (the excuse for sedation prior to surgery) without benefit of medication, but once they have that IV in you in the hospital anything goes. Do they think we are all such wusses we cannot handle seeing the big bad operating room? Do they honestly believe none of us are curious about the goings on in the operating room? Why do they not at the very least ASK us to what extent we want to be awake and aware? We are NOT all the same. One size does NOT fit all. If 'most' are happy with this treatment (as they so eagerly point out), doesn't that mean there are some who are not? I do understand there are many who do not care and do not want to know anything, but for those of us who do........ I cannot for the life of me understand why we are not consulted. Actually, I do - it is just so much easier and more profitable to do as they please. AND if they were upfront and honest about the amnesia and being out of control how many would consent??!! It definitely is all about the staff rather than the patient - the paying customer.

My surgeon actually told me that in all her 20 years as a surgeon I was the first that had a problem with how I was treated and who wanted to know more than the mere crumbs they throw at you and complained when I was totally ignored. I replied that I sincerely doubt I was the only one to feel the way I do - I was just the only one to let her know! I'm sure many share my husband's opinion - that being "Why bother? It's over and done with and me saying something now won't change a thing." To his credit he is amazingly supportive of me tho he does not share my thoughts and concerns.

IF there ever is a next time I will NOT allow an IV to be started until and unless I talk to the anesthesiologist who will be administering my anesthesia and (s)he details what drugs will be used, when they will be used, for what purpose, and what my reaction will be. I know they cannot say with certainty what will be used as situations can arise necessitating other drugs, but I will, at that time, get in writing and have it signed by all involved what will not be allowed. PLUS what I do and do not expect to happen in the operating room.

Any advice on how to proceed? I'm sure I have no grounds for a lawsuit, but am going to continue to follow up with them all. I really wish I could get things changed, but being labeled a crazy disgruntled patient I am sure not to be taken seriously.

Thanks for letting me vent. I know you understand.

Glenn's Experience Part 2

2012-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

Versed - some memories - Part 2

Thank you for replying and, yes please - feel free to put this on your blog. Lived in SF back in the 90's, I'm now back living in the UK. My memory is somewhat photographic - kind of necessary when dealing with program suites that consist of around 100K lines of densely packed code, or thousands of separate systems known only by a machine-generated name (eg m2964ezgx7) - how they are set up, interact with others and so on. Not trying to brag here, mind - just trying to convey they way my memory works, and why my recollections may be more accurate than those of many people.

I remember a lot more about it now. Those memories were there all along, it took a near panic attack / PTSD experience in the local dentist to bring it back in bits and pieces, but now entire chunks have returned. That was my first dental procedure since (other than check-ups). Thoughts taking place at the time are also now recalled, besides just the event itself. It's very troubling indeed, but I don't believe any of these are imagined or false "recovered" memories.

There's the thoughts of utter misery and confusion, not being aware of my previous life while on the drug - the world and my existence simply consisted of being in that chair, being tortured for no reason that I could think of. All I wanted was for the torture to stop, and trying to think of anything to end it, pleading with them. Finally, I was begging them to kill me.

It's not a pleasant task, reliving this experience. It's hard to think of much else, in fact. The memories have returned, and I recall what I was thinking at the time. Please stand by for a more full account of what I know to be the genuine experiences, forgotten temporarily as a result of this Versed. It is with some trepidation that I wonder what would be recalled next. Perhaps putting on that old CD played during the torture session will jog more memories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am so glad that Glenn contacted me. I am looking forward to putting up lots of his thoughts on his experience. For all you anesthesia types, does Glenn's experience sound like a fun trip? He was begging them to kill him! This is not OK in any way, shape or form, regardless of whether he could remember it or not. I am still able to be shocked at the depraved indifference to suffering that is exhibited by people who use Versed, even in a dental setting!

E-mail From Glenn Part one

2012-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hello - I found your blog very interesting indeed. Just read your entry about "smart people beware" and, not wishing to blow my own trumpet, but I'm extremely technically minded (software engineer of some distinction, writing a rather complex bespoke database from scratch for example), and I'm a Unix admin for some very high profile clients (involving massive throughput,extremely high availability etc.) as the final line of support, and deploying same after designing the architecture.

You referenced the ability to think rapidly too - particularly while on the road. As the rider of a 2011 edition superbike, I'd have to say that quick thinking and reacting are necessary qualifications to ride one of them!

*

Anyway - I'm piecing together what happened to me followinga routine visit to the dentist yesterday, during which I experienced

something very akin to how I've heard PTSD being described. A simple filling replacement gave me a ludicrously fearful experience. The dentist was competent, kind, there was no pain at all - and I've never been afraid of the dentist before, or anything even approaching fear on this level, about anything! Yet as he prepared to get to work with the drill, I was in a state of near terror. It was all I could do to hold it together - the dentist probably thought it was a phobia.

My memory is excellent, there's hardly an experience I've forgotten since very early childhood. However, after receiving IV for having wisdom teeth removed (two impacted) in San Fran back in 1998, I recall fleeting moments of terrible pain and suffering. These moments are rather detailed too - they are not some vague, dream- like imagined moments, they were incredibly intense.

Three wisdom teeth, the bottom two impacted, were extracted. I recall pieces of the procedure, and looking into my own mouth at the operation taking place - this was actually the reflection from the dentists' head-gear. I was in a great deal of pain and fear but could not resist. Fragments of memories trouble me - these involved having my jaw drilled deeply in various places accompanied by horrendous pain.

They recommended playing a CD during the procedure. I don't remember hearing it at the time, but now it makes me uneasy to even hear the name of the band - it used to be a favourite.

I don't know what went on in any great detail, but I certainly know there was insufficient local anesthetic (if any) for the procedure. It seemed back then that I must have partially woken up, but that's not what happened. The truth is that I remember just a little of what was a very, very bad experience.

Thank you for your work on this - I aim to do a lot more research too. Only put this whole thing together and realised what was
going on since yesterday afternoon.

Best wishes,

Glenn.

New Post in Comments

2012-02-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

I decided to write about this post as it seems very well written, AND misses the point entirely. My daughter is in Policy Debate right now, and *I* am a judge, so I feel I am qualified to point out the flaws in this essay. Sorry to the poster for making an example of your good comment, but we need to clarify some things here.

Here is the comment. BloggerT has left a new comment on your post "Shocking Versed Facts You Won't Hear From Anesthes...":

"Ummm... Pretty sure none of the side effects you listed are 'secret'. You can find them anywhere information is listed about the drug. Ever picked up a drug book? These are all typical side effects of almost every anesthesia drug. This is why EVERY patient who is administered Versed is hooked up to machines that monitor blood pressure, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, rate of respirations, the works.... Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention the doctors and nurses at the bedside who are continually monitoring your vital signs and who also have drugs on hand to reverse the effects of versed if anything goes awry? Side effects are never pleasant, but the alternative of having procedures done without anesthesia would be even more so."

Beginning at the beginning; "Ummm..." is a really snotty way of denigrating our experience. This person is saying that we lack understanding. I know because I use this myself. "Pretty sure none of the side effects you listed are 'secret'." 'Secret' from whom is the question. These side effects aren't a secret from medical workers, but I have yet to see a true informed consent which even begins to address ANY of these allegedly non-secret side effects.

The poster tries to face this problem in their statement; "YOU (emphasis mine) can find them anywhere information is listed about the drug." This assumes that the truth is told to the patient about what drugs are GOING to be used in the FUTURE! This information is NOT forthcoming from medical workers. They almost universally tell the patient that they will simply be given a sedative, IF they tell them anything at all prior to appearing in the medical setting. They are certainly NOT going to mention Versed because they don't WANT us to research it. We would refuse the damn stuff! Can't have that!

My own experience was that since I refused any sedation and general anesthetic *I* was told that "Vitamin V" was just a muscle relaxant. Look up "Vitamin V" and see what this drug is... IF you can find "Vitamin V" in any "book" about drugs, can you please tell me what it says? There is no way to do the research required if the drug is called by a euphemism. Also it is a little difficult to research an unnamed drug whilst practically naked, hooked up to machines in a treatment center setting. Just sayin' Oh and by the way, it isn't the patients job to do research on drugs which may or may not be used on them by secretive medical people, now is it?

"Ever picked up a drug book?" I have NOW! I am still angry that *I* am expected to buy and/or read drug books so that I know as much as the people hired to do my anesthesia! " Are you kidding me? So any time I hire an expert in a particular field I must go out and educate myself as to THEIR JOB! This is madness. I hire people and expect them to know their job, AND tell me what needs to be done, including the cost thereof, plus the things that might go wrong. In a medical setting there is a little thing called an INFORMED consent, which means that medical workers must describe IN DETAIL exactly what they are going to do, both to your body and your mind. Including, dear medical worker, anything that YOU may know that is pertinent to MY care. It's not up to me to know any of this, by researching it or buying books on drugs, it's your job to tell me. By LAW!

"These are all typical side effects of almost every anesthesia drugs." Yes, but WHOSE JOB IS IT TO DEFINE THESE "TYPICAL SIDE EFFECTS?" Don't even try this one with me. Amnesia, being awake and aware, screaming in pain, begging for the procedure to stop, babbling about your sex life, none of these would be a "typical side effect" of an anesthesia drug. Where are these side effects listed? These side effects are particular to Versed/Midazolam, but I just can't find them listed anywhere and I don't see you addressing this problem. You medical people can't even seem to get to that list of "typical side effects" with us, let alone the singular side effects of Versed. Why aren't you telling us?

Here's the really self serving part... "This is why EVERY patient who is administered Versed is hooked up to machines that monitor blood pressure, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, rate of respirations, the works... Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention the doctors and nurses at the bedside who are continually monitoring your vital signs and a who also have drugs on hand to reverse the effects of versed if anything goes awry?" Oh really, I didn't know that... (mocking tone) That's why you were hired isn't it? I wouldn't go in for surgery unless these allegedly "trained" people were in attendance. Sheesh! My experience is that these people simply give more Versed in case of emergency, because Versed is the only drug on the planet which has zero side effects... At least that's the party line with medical people.

The last part of this comment goes like this. "Side effects are never pleasant, but the alternative of having procedures done without anesthesia would be even more so." This is completely and entirely off topic. We are not asking not to have anesthesia. We are asking that VERSED the brain poison isn't a part of it. I expect and would demand anesthesia. Just because I don't want Versed doesn't mean I want to go without anesthesia entirely! No sane person would suggest this, and regardless of the opinion of the commenter, those of us who object to Versed are not insane. We ARE ASKING to have our pain minimized. That's what anesthesia is about! If we need to be unconscious, then that's what we need to do. Versed has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THESE DESIRES! Nothing. "Asleep" or "unconscious" is a different animal altogether.

I love this commenter's post! It is well written and perfect in its obfuscation! This is an excellent example of how our concerns about Versed are turned back on "us." We are blamed for not knowing what the "experts" know. The water is further muddied by the claims that if we don't like Versed then maybe we will be getting no anesthesia at all. This is sooo NOT what we patients are saying. Nice try, but your whole post is off topic. You sent it off topic by trying to equate "typical" anesthesia drugs and their side effects with the nasty little brain damage drug Versed. Versed has nothing to do with anesthesia other than it can be used in conjunction with anesthesia. It's an AMNESIA AND PATIENT CONTROL DRUG! That's all. It's unnecessary for anesthesia AND it has myriad reported side effects (for those of us who are FORCED to become the equivilant of a crna in drug related matters) AND side effects which are kept secret. Why should we patients have to take risks with ourselves which are NOT warranted and are only in the best interest of medical workers? Medical care is risky (and costly) enough without adding Versed to it!

Some Mid Level Providers "Get It!"

2012-01-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

It's not always bad news in the "War On Drugs." (specifically Versed) From time to time I run across one of those "mid level providers" whom I generally bash, that actually gets it! Here is a post from the Hospital Soup people's comments;

Mary says:

June 2, 2010 at 7:06 am

"It’s tragic that some gastor docs “insist” on the dangerous and mind-numbing conscious sedation for a simple colonoscopy………….this exam is easily done without amnesia drugs by a caring practitioner…………sign a consent for “TITRATED” VERSED AND YOU WILL HAVE A CHEMICAL LOBOTOMY…….sorry, I’m an advance practice nurse (NP) and can’t stand hearing from patients who were abused by “conscious sedation”. If you need sedation, get propofol from an anesthesiologist, not a CRNA ( a nurse with less than 2 years additional training)………………………I’m sorry that I have referred patients for colonoscopy; it should be done carefully and unsedated; it’s not, its a rush and to heck with the patient……..sorry, I have to tell the truth………."

Thanks Mary!

Dr. "Discussions"

2012-01-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

I snapped up the post I'm discussing from the comments in here somewhere. Colonoscopy Sedation Medications

Here it is.

Jean says:

August 16, 2010 at 11:21 am

"Rosemarie,
I’m sorry but I think the necessity of screening colonoscopies for the general public is overblown. (emphasis mine) I understand Katie Couric’s concern but her husband died of colon cancer when he was still in his 40s, so more than likely he was at a higher than normal risk for developing the disease. They recommend EVERYONE get this test at age 50. I still think it would make more sense and probably save people a lot of anxiety if they took a more conservative approach. I read just the other day about a new DNA stool test that is highly accurate at predicting pre cancerous lesions (even smaller than most polyps) and that test if approved would cost only $300.00. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use something like that to identify only those truly needing the more expensive colonoscopy. Sometimes, sorry to say, I feel like it is all a big money making industry. I will be interested to see if the gastro industry embraces this new test or if they continue to recommend colonoscopy since, in their words, it is the “gold standard” in testing. Also, as evidenced here, so many people have negative experiences with it all. There just seems to be such a disparate way these exams are done from one doctor and facility to the next. You just never know what you are going to get unless you ask a million questions. And why, as patients/consumers should we have to ask? It all makes me a little angry, especially in my case when my doctor’s records show that she had a thorough discussion of the procedure and options with me during my office visit. I know I would have remembered that! It just didn’t happen. Only some vague statements as to the safety and importance of the exam; nothing specific. Not even a mention of what meds I would be given for sedation. (emphasis mine)I still get upset thinking about it and blame myself a little for not going in more informed, but it is a lesson hard learned. Never again! They will probably want to kick me out of the next doctor’s office for asking too many questions. Jean"

So here we have "Jean" who feels the same way I do about the necessity of getting a colonoscopy. If you are having problems, sure, but in the absence of a clinical diagnosis, this test is surely too dangerous (1 in 2000 will have an exam related problem) to just get for no apparent reason.

"Jean" also was subjected to the lying doctor claiming that there was a "thorough discussion of the procedure and options" during an office visit! Deja Vu! My doctor also claimed that we had "significant discussion" about my surgery! There was no real "discussion" of any kind about it, let alone anything that could even remotely be construed as "significant." Not only did my surgeon not respond to my demands for a nerve block and pain medication ONLY, he didn't even bother to tell me where the incision would be, what the TRUE rate of complication was, the common problem of needing yet more surgery, how much nerve damage I was likely to have, the months of rehab, etc. Nothing. He made the whole thing sound like there was nothing to it!

He also never told me that he would pawn me off on his PA, whom I assume did the surgery! Had I known that a PA was going to play doctor with me for real, I would NEVER have allowed it. What's the point of having a surgeon, if his PA is going to be my new doctor? I didn't choose to have a PA do my surgery. What kind of sick joke is it when your surgeon substitutes somebody without a doctor degree of any kind to do your surgery? I guess they just depend on Versed so that they can do this sort of thing without detection. Then they lie and say that you had all of this "discussion" about it. Amazing, especially in light of the fact that I hadn't had any Versed during this "significant discussion" in his office. I'll bet that Jean wasn't given Versed at HER doctors office either... So why can't either of us remember all this "discussion?" hint; Because it never happened.

What's the point of paying a surgeon, when he can't speak precisely about the ramifications of embarking on his own choice of remedy? My choice was NOT TO HAVE SEDATION AND G/A. If I had been told the true nature of the surgery, including the alternatives, and with a true recounting of the severe side effects, I wouldn't have had it! That's the real reason we aren't given anything like what the laws require for "informed" consent! So the doctor just PRETENDS that we had this all inclusive conversation, so that they can do the procedure and YOU won't say no!

I'll bet that Jean also paid this doctor for the (non existent) discussion at the "consultation" rate! This is also a rip off and a lie. "Consultation" my a$$! It's a quick office visit so that the doctor can con you into something...

E-mail From A Versed Sufferer

2012-01-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

"Happy New Year, Jackie:

I would not be late is we celebrated the Lunar New Year.

Cannot tell you how pleased I am to see your recent posts. People really don't know what a menace this drug poses for some of us in the hands of the self styled "professionals" that call themselves crna's.

My general attitude toward health care continues to decline. It is over a year since my versed horror experience, and I cannot go any where near the health center where they did this to me without my knowledge or consent. I am still so angry, and still having nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. At least I do not cry and get uncontrollably freaked out as often. I have worked my ass off to try to heal from this awful experience. I'll share some thought later about that, if you can bear to be bored with them.

Sorry to be so brief (not like me!), but I am rooting for you! Hope all is well," (identifiers removed)

PS I am NEVER, EVER bored with my friends' stories. Obsession over Versed is probably the most common side effect of this drug. If you have ever been violently assaulted and felt the helplessness associated with such an attack, and relived it endlessly, wondering if there was something you could have done differently to avoid the situation, then you can get an inkling about what this drug Versed does to certain people.

Smart People; BEWARE VERSED/MIDAZOLAM

2012-01-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

I have drawn my own conclusions by observation of those of us that have had a bad experience with Versed. My conclusion is that the main indicator of severe Versed side effects is intelligence. I don't mean this as an insult to people with lower IQ's by any means! I am positive that there are other factors involved, it's just that the main one as *I* see it is intelligence. As a subset of bright people, those of us who have a mathematical bent have the most chance of bad "trip" with Versed and subsequent problems.

If you look through the sheer numbers of patients who have Versed induced problems all over the internet, pay close attention to those who are mathematical engineers of some type. That number is statistically impossible. Then add in those who have extremely analytical minds. Processing data mentally is a mark of intelligence... Pilots, upper management, even musicians who compose their own music are using math and analysis. These people have a high degree of Versed complications. Abnormally high.

As a truck driver, my subconscious brain constantly analyzes my speed, road conditions, the speed and spacing of all traffic surrounding me, the weight of my vehicle, (up to 120,000 lbs) my stopping distance, and where to go if the unthinkable happens around me. My brain tracks this stuff all the time and notes abnormalities in specific vehicles' driving patterns and road conditions. I KNOW where each vehicle should be at any given time because my brain has computed their speed, direction of travel, and consistency. I don't have to "think" about it as the computations are going on all the time without my conscious mind having to deal with it. If a vehicle suddenly appears where my subconscious says it should not be, I pay attention. I NEVER panic. This is an analytical mind at its best... Not to seem conceited! lol This is what Versed targeted.

*I* AM just a lowly truck driver, however my IQ has never been tested as in the normal range. It has always been MENSA high. My daughter's IQ is also abnormally high. IQ has been shown to be hereditary. As you can see that while IQ seems to have a correlation with engineers, not all people with high IQ are going to be engineers, so that a person's JOB is not the only way to perceive IQ or lack of it. It's just part of the criteria. Maybe the medical personnel should be asking about IQ and job choices. They should also pay attention to their perceptions about the patient. Even IF the person is a truck driver, it doesn't follow that this patient is STUPID! My crna should have been able to identify me as an intelligent person simply by talking to me... His lack of perception is a personality flaw, in my opinion, as shown by many others in his field as well.

If you have read some of the letters I've received and published on this blog from Versed sufferers, there is one thread which runs through them all. These are NOT STUPID PEOPLE! These are bright, articulate people who have had their brains damaged by Versed. They are also bright enough to perceive the damage, sort of like your computers' anti viral program. We have the ability to ponder our own brain, and to assess damage.

I watched a show about really good police investigators a while back. Apparently the best of them can recall information to an alarming degree. In my case it is almost like a computer screen in my head. Just like the best investigators say they have in THEIR head! I get the stored information in a format like a film reel. That's how the best detectives get it too! Not everybody can do this, according to the show. I had never considered this before watching the program, as it seems normal to me and I thought everybody had this ability. They don't. I've been asking people about this ability, especially those of my friends who have no problems with Versed. They don't do this with their memory. This is part of what Versed attempts to destroy.

It has taken me 6 years to get my film reels back in some sort of order after Versed wrecked my mind. I have ANXIETY over my inability to get my perfect recall back in its entirety. I never understood panic before, and now I have panic attacks over anything that MIGHT involve Versed. It's part of my new reality, an unwelcome part...

If you are reading this and you have a bright, analytical, mathematical brain, and/or are not prone to panic, do not allow ANYBODY, especially some arrogant little minion in a medical setting to give you this drug Versed. It will insult your brain and cause untold damage. Then when you correctly identify the poison that caused the damage, you will be further insulted by some little creep who can't hold a candle to your own brainpower. Hell, it seems that many (most?) of these medical people can't even learn from their own mistakes, because their little minds aren't CAPABLE of self examination. (This is also a conclusion *I* personally have come to by interacting with lots and lots of mid level medical providers. To an alarming degree, they have zero ability to second guess their own preconceived notions, especially about Versed!)

DISCLAIMER; THESE ARE MY OWN THOUGHTS ON THE PROBLEM WITH VERSED. I AM NOT A SCIENTIST, I'M JUST USING MY OWN POWERS OF OBSERVATION AND DRAWING SOME OBVIOUS (TO ME) CONCLUSIONS! IT'S A BUYER BEWARE SITUATION WITH MEDICINE THESE DAYS AND I WANT EVERYBODY TO USE THEIR OWN FANTASTIC BRAINS TO ASSESS THE SITUATION AND MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION FOR THEMSELVES. DO NOT BLINDLY BELIEVE ANYBODY IN THE MEDICAL FIELD. IF YOU LIKE YOUR BRAIN AND DO NOT WANT IT TAMPERED WITH BY PEOPLE WHO DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT IT, THINK! THINK BEFORE YOU ALLOW VERSED!

Brasscheck

2012-01-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

I got this video and article in my inbox... Health and Medical Pentagon to play mind games with soldiers These people just can't resist screwing with our minds!

Be On A Show?

2012-01-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

Got this from a friend of mine;

Don't know if you've either watched the show The Doctors, but there are some upcoming shows titled "Are You Afraid to go to the Doctor? and "Do You Avoid the Doctor Out of Fear?

Click on "Be on the Show" and see other topics also. Not sure if they'd be interested in our traumatizing sedation experiences since they probably wouldn't want to scare anyone, but what about suggesting a segment on Informed Consent, and how the LACK of it can negatively effect a patient ? (Any other ideas ? )

They give very little time to most subjects, and sugarcoat everything, so although it may seem futile to even email them, if we direct them to websites such as Nomidazolam & VersedBusters, maybe their eyes will be open ?

(I like to think that some doctors out there who are simply ignorant about bad drugs)

Couldn't copy&paste for some reason : www.thedoctorstv.com

Complain About Versed

2012-01-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

PLEASE call and add your name and complaint about this drug! Here is the contact information: Headquarters for: Member Services, Health Research Group, Litigation Group and Communications Office 1600 20th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 E-mail for the Ligation Department is litigation@citizen.org

Procedural Pain

2012-01-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

I got this link; The Accidental Amazon » “This Might Hurt A Little” — Procedural Pain from a friend of mine.

Here is what my friend wrote to me in an e-mail...

"Also the writer of the article was surprised that the medical team ignored his pain, and showed no compassion towards him. Is this how they treat us when they think we won't remember it ? Scary.

I wonder how they would treat us if every procedure with conscious sedation was videotaped, and the patient was allowed to see the tape after it was over..."

What my friend is referring to is this statement, taken from the above link.

"...I woke up during an outpatient diagnostic procedure, began to feel stabbing abdominal pain, made the surgeon and clinical staff aware of this, and nothing was done about it. I was in a haze induced by the conscious-sedation cocktail I’d been given — Versed, Fentanyl, and, interestingly, Benadryl — so perhaps I was unable to articulate my symptoms as clearly as I might have. But still, I think saying, “That hurts!” and grimacing should have provided enough clues."

First of all, patients are almost ALWAYS awake while under the Versed, Fentanyl conscious sedation cocktail. You are CONSCIOUS as in conscious sedation. Not asleep or "out." Amnesia being what it is, it only SEEMS to you that you are out. Not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination. This explanation is so you understand what the writer of the above blog link was really experiencing. Their MEMORY began working again and they became aware of the torture. The staff was aware the whole time that the patient was experiencing pain... And chose to do nothing.

This patient WAS able to articulate their pain symptoms and probably had been making the medical team aware of this the entire time. THEY DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT PATIENT PAIN! THAT'S the TRUTH about why this patient didn't get any treatment for pain. "Nothing was done" is the medical staff's PLAN when giving patients Versed. With Versed they can totally ignore patient pain because, according to staff, "the patient won't remember it anyway." The exception being those patients whose minds manage to struggle out of the drug induced amnesia. It is a matter of extreme indifference to medical workers and in fact, these people seem to be so inured to patient suffering, they don't even give a @#$% if you DO remember it. That's covered in their self righteous and sanctimonious "drugs work different on everybody."

This completely ignores the fact that if these drugs truly do work differently on everybody (which they do) then they themselves (medical workers) should be more diligent to PREVENT PAIN, knowing that their patient might be able to remember their torture. After all, complete amnesia is only their GOAL and they have no clue as to whether or not the patient will experience dense amnesia to hide the sadistic actions of the medical team.

Here's my e-mail response to my fellow Versed sufferer...

(Salutation removed for privacy), that IS how they treat you when you have amnesia. I didn't get amnesia, but I had no pain. I HEARD all the nasty things they said about me. I couldn't BELIEVE what I was hearing!!! I wondered what kind of house of horrors I was in where medical people talked like that RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PATIENT!!! I didn't know I was supposed to have amnesia. I wasn't even supposed to have sedation, so I was already pissed because OBVIOUSLY I had been drugged against my will. I just had no idea the depths of depravity my medical team had sunk to by using Versed.

Read Before You Decide

2012-01-16T10:48:00.000-08:00

I don't like crna's. So you need to take whatever *I* say with a grain of salt. However, I invite you to read this site for yourself with an open mind. See if you don't join me in my dislike of these nurses as a group after you see how they act and what they think. It's astonishing to me that they would actually say the things they say and have this extreme attitude. Sorry but places like this reinforce my intense objection to these people. I think this kind of information can also cause prejudice in most of the public as well. See for yourself.

Pay attention to the posts from "Stanley." It's enlightening and frightening. Only 574 posts or so, so have fun.

CRNA vs MDA - Topix

Admissions At Last!

2012-01-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I found this post here; CRNA vs MDA - Topix

Aug 15, 2011
newtoeastcoast wrote: "Just transferred to the east coast and saw this thread. One simple way to end this problem is to include the credentials/status (or lack thereof) of the actual person/persons who will be performing the actual anesthesia right on the anesthesia consnet. 1. Your case will be done my a physician anesthesiologist. or 2. Your case will be done by an unsupervised nurse (crna). or 3. Your case will be done by a combo of the above, spelled out. Let the patient decide. Some people want a physician; others are o.k. with a nurse.

One simple way is to read the consent, pa's and first assists perform large parts of surgery this covered by the consent as" others that may be designated" or similar language." (emphasis mine)

If you have read this blog, you know that I retain deep suspicion that my surgeon did NOT perform my ORIF distal Radius surgery. (see below) One reason is that I never saw my surgeon prior to surgery. Where was he? His name appears variously as the assistant and sometimes as the surgeon. Another is the poorly performed surgery. My surgery started over an hour late, maybe the PA decided not to wait any longer? Is this why I was given Versed and g/a, so that I wouldn't know that an unidentified PA would do my surgery? The PA was listed as my attending surgeon in many places on the forms. (The hospital was cited for these irregularities!)

Here is an x-ray of the unprofessional installation of the implants in my arm. It's just the tip of the iceberg.

The post above seems to be proof that PA's and the like, with their 2 whole years of college are allowed to perform intricate surgery on hapless patients. I did NOT give permission for this PA person to perform any part of my surgery, however, just like the above poster says, there is clearly ambiguous language in my alleged "informed" consent. You can see the un-retouched alleged "informed consent" below. The hospital was cited for numerous violations in this uninformed informed consent as well. Anybody who thinks that this is fine needs a psych eval.

Here's the copy of my so-called informed consent. This is ALL of it. As in no additional info or pages to it. This is completely ILLEGAL! (look at the doctor's signature. It's not time stamped. Was he EVER there before or during surgery? Or does he just sign these after the fact? He wasn't anywhere that I saw at the time I signed this phony document. Yet there is his signature purporting to be present and able to answer all my questions...

PS, just so there is no confusion, see the little circle at number 3? That's as far as the nurse got. SHE made the marking. I asked her when the surgeon would get there to answer the rest of my concerns, which she brushed off, acting like he really would show up... See the little star she wrote where she had me sign? Like an idiot I trusted her, only to find out later that she had me sign knowing FULL WELL, that none of the rest of the required information was given... She also knew full well that the minute I signed this, I would be given Versed and the rest is history. DO NOT TRUST ANYBODY IN THE HEALTH CARE FIELD!

Health Care Costs (doctor blogging)

2012-01-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here's the link;Our healthcare system is unfair and unbalanced I have talked about the extreme cost of healthcare AND the predatory pricing practices by medical treatment centers. Everybody already knows how I feel about doubling and tripling the cost of a simple procedure via Versed use.

If you read the blogger link I provided above, this doctor understands what we are up against.

My most recent visit to my new gp went like this... Cost of Dr. visit. $75 Very reasonable and picked up by my insurance. I pay $25 of it. Then I need a second visit to do a pap and see if my bp meds were working. Another $75. So far, so good. Another office visit to go over results and check bp again. $75 Here comes the expensive part. A blood screen = $781! Wow! He recommended a colonoscopy for who knows how much? My insurance lapsed so I can't do this even without Versed! He wants a pulmonary test for $? Who knows how much? He wants another pap. How much? My entire adult life I have had to have 2 separate paps each time because of "abnormal" cells which have never been anything but abnormal cells. Lots of wasted money here. He wants a mammogram, which I am not interested in doing prophylactically. Too many false readings and surgery for "suspicious" stuff. But how much does it cost? Then we have a nerve test to see just how much damage was done by my ill-fated ORIF Distal Radius surgeries... How much will that cost? Oh yeah and I need to redo parts of my blood screen to see if anything has changed. You can double this as my husband is going through the same thing minus the female stuff!

So one tiny little visit to the doctor for bp meds has turned into many thousands of dollars of testing alone. So what if they find something? Or at least pretend to find something...

Thought Experiment

2012-01-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting post from here; “Versed” « Feminist Philosophers

Versed” October 5, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — anonfemphil @ 5:35 pm

There is “versed” in “She is well versed in Roman history.”

And then there’s “Versed,” which a medical friend told me yesterday, is known as the anesthesiologist’s friend. E.g., suppose someone wakes up during their abdominal surgery. Not a nice thing. However, a quick shot of Versed removes the memory, along with sending them back to sleep.

I knew of the possibility of Versed through philosophical thought experiments, but I experienced the use of it recently, as reported here .

The thought experiment: How do you know you weren’t awake for the whole awful operation but just paralyzed and then given a drug which removed the memory of it? It turns out this is technically possible.

Does She Sound Like A Pansy?

2012-01-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

Once again we have a blog post about Versed, from a generally happy person. She didn't like the Versed! What a huge surprise! (facetious) Her description of how she felt about her Versed trip and the AFTERMATH is pretty much standard, regardless of how medical minions want to deny it. Here is an excerpt from this blog page; Lost morning rockin' the bourgeoisie

"At first, we thought it was kind of funny. But as I learned more about what went on, it isn’t so ha-ha anymore. In fact, I’ve been drowning in alternating feelings of anger, embarrassment, and betrayal.

I’m talking about having my memory stolen."

Sound familiar? Here's another one...

"Now I’ve had a total of 13 different surgeries in my life. I am no stranger to the effects of anesthesia, and I’ve had all kinds of knock-out drugs. But I knew something about this was totally different. It wasn’t Valium or Demerol, and it obviously wasn’t Propofol (the drug on which Michael Jackson overdosed) because there was no anesthesiologist present. So what went on?

When the Thriller told me all the things I did, and got to the part about me putting a date in my Droid, I didn’t believe him. He said, “Get out your phone and look.” The horror I experienced when I saw that I had indeed done it is difficult to describe."

The whole post is interesting, and I encourage everybody who has had Versed and been told that 1) Versed has zero side effects 2) Everybody else just loves this med 3) There is something wrong with YOU if you don't like Versed 4) Nobody, but NOBODY ever objects to this drug and you are a liar and also subhuman! Go read how yet another bright articulate person has a horror of Versed and why.

Another Victim

2012-01-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

I get e-mails from fellow Versed victims. I know that the crna types who read this blog can't believe this! They invariably claim that *I* am the only person to ever have a bad reaction to Versed! Or they try to claim that *I* am too stupid to correctly identify which drug it was that I objected to... Wrong again! They try to claim that *I* must have been insane to start with.

I want to connect the dots for all those people who populate medical and dental buildings. Versed is a bad drug. It was bad for me, it's bad for others, I am not crazy, and I have identified which poison it is that has caused my bad reactions. All of them.

As proof, I submit yet another blog in which the author ALSO correctly identifies Versed as the source of unhappy side effects. As another problem with Versed, this person also was not properly consented for Versed. As you read the comments at the bottom where others opine that there was consent for Versed, I'm telling you there probably wasn't. All you medical types know perfectly well that most people would object to amnesia. You medical workers also know that most people are not going to be interested in amnesia instead of pain relief. Amnesia is the operative word and *I* have NEVER seen this word used, nor have I ever heard of a medical worker saying this word. This is a common thread throughout the Versed complaints. You can see my own "informed consent" back in my 2009 posts. I copied it and put it up on my blog in its original and untouched state. Go look at it and see if there is ANYTHING AT ALL about Versed, sedation, amnesia or anything like it. Nothing. Just a generic and illegal paper with absolutely nothing on it to make a patient think its an informed consent. Especially not for something like Versed. Anyway, enough about me, here is the link; Esprit de Carp - Now where was I?

Here it is reproduced for your reading pleasure.;

Esprit de Carp

Previous Entry Next Entry

Now where was I?

Dec. 9th, 2011 at 3:57 PM

Years ago I read about a drug that was used by obstetricians back in the benighted, paternalistic 1950s (and probably earlier). The purpose of this drug was to make women forget the ordeal of giving birth, so that they would happily repeat the hellish experience. I assumed that in our more enlightened era such sinister drugs were no longer in use.

Wrong! Yesterday I underwent a common, but potentially painful, procedure. No one asked me if I wanted the intravenous cocktail of fentanyl and midazolam, but I offered no objection. I figured it was in everyone's best interest for me to be docile and floaty. But I don't think I fully understood what the midazolam (brand name Versed) would do. In fact it's one of those amnesia-inducing drugs. For a period of about 30 minutes I could have been singing, telling jokes, screaming, snoring, or any number of activities that I will never remember.

As the Versed wore off, I remember talking with the doctor calmly and sensibly while he finished the procedure. So it could be that I was calm and sensible the whole time. If so, I would love to know what I heard and saw in my twilight stupor. If instead I was babbling incoherently for half an hour, I'd like to know about that, too. It bothers me that these so-called helping professionals routinely rob people of their memories without asking permission. I wonder how many of them take advantage of the opportunity to insult and mock patients who will never remember the humiliation.

Understandably, doctors would rather probe someone who's sedated, for the same reason that veterinarians prefer to clean the teeth of unconscious cats: It's safer for all concerned. But isn't it possible to dull the pain and ease the anxiety without messing with one's memory? Next time I'll insist on my right to remember how unpleasant the procedure was.

Actually this isn't the first time I've been tricked in this way ("Fool me once..."). When I had my wisdom teeth out, more than 40 years ago, I was given a mixture of Valium and Demerol, and no one told me that the Valium would induce anterograde amnesia. Maybe one insidious effect of these drugs is that you forget to make sure you don't get them again.

I do find it fascinating that memory formation can be chemically inhibited. Maybe if I'd gotten such a drug all my life, I'd be a happier person now (though I might be covered with tattoos and sticky notes).

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jonathanpool wrote:

Dec. 10th, 2011 02:33 am (UTC)

Drugs

Could you cite enough from the consent form to show that you were not informed of, and asked to consent to, a memory-suppressing drug? If you weren't, I'm surprised.

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friendless1 wrote:

Dec. 10th, 2011 02:38 am (UTC)

Re: Drugs

I don't remember what I consented to. The facility's Web site doesn't have the form but does say this: "To be certain you are comfortable and relaxed, you will be sedated through an I.V. In fact, most patients are asleep during the entire process and remember little to nothing about it."

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spuuky wrote:

Dec. 10th, 2011 02:38 am (UTC)

When I had my wisdom teeth out, I had a memory-eraser of some kind. I remember going to bed the night before, and waking up the day after. And nothing in between.

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spontanette wrote:

Dec. 10th, 2011 06:04 am (UTC)

I crave those sorts of drugs every day.

Link Reply Thread

(Anonymous) wrote:

Dec. 11th, 2011 12:30 am (UTC)

At least you remember talking with the doctor. No one told me either that I would have amnesia , or that it would last almost ten times longer than the procedure did. My consent form (which I have a copy of) merely said I would receive conscious sedation. I woke up in mid-sentence, arguing with a nurse. I didn't just feel tricked, I felt deceived. Patients should be informed and given the right to refuse an amnestic.

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friendless1 wrote:

Dec. 11th, 2011 12:41 am (UTC)

I can't say that no one told me. I knew I was getting such a drug. I was just too much of a wimp to refuse it, and at the time I didn't fully realize the creepiness of it. Maybe if I hadn't come to my senses for the last few minutes, I wouldn't be so incensed about it.

Edited at 2011-12-11 12:43 am (UTC)

Drug Shortage; Good and Bad

2012-01-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Some friends of mine found this news! 2011 medication shortages set new record at 267 - NewsChannel 9 WSYR One of the drugs in short supply is VERSED!!! That's the good news. I recieved a missive a while back (up somewhere on this blog) that said that Versed use would phase out when the profits from exclusive patents on it ran out. In this article it mentions contamination and difficulty processing some of the drugs in short supply. My hope is that medical people start figuring out how to do their job without basing medical care on "sedation" and "amnesia" for all.

One of the other drugs allegedly in short supply is Fentanyl, a drug which is very useful for me and others like me who prefer a simple pain medication instead of Versed and general anesthesia. It's much safer for patients as well, not to have their brain destroyed with full on Versed and g/a for frivolous reasons. Fortunately there is another older and probably cheaper drug called Morphine which works just as well. It would seem that Morphine would be a safer choice anyway because it isn't as potent as Fentanyl. Less risk of overdose. Maybe cheaper too! Our little crna types can just learn get through their Versed-less days with Morphine used as a lightly sedating pain med. and they won't have to worry their pretty little heads about overdosing their patients.

I wish the whole supply of Versed would dry up to a trickle. Then our medical workers would actually have to do their job! They could earn their outlandish salary instead of being paid to simply destroy the patients mind and do whatever the Hell they want to us. They would have to explain things like the law says they have to instead of just giving us amnesia! Wouldn't that be nice? We would also be able to decline things and/or stop the procedure at any time, as required by law, if they didn't have Versed being used like water. If Versed was in limited supply then our medical workers would have to justify its use! (Real justification, not the lies and completely made up reasons they currently are addicted to!) They would have to save their Versed supply and reserve it for only those patients, if any, who actually need sedation and don't mind premature Alzheimer's and other mental problems as a result.

Despite the breathless reporting in this piece, there is a huge upside to this alleged drug shortage. In my NEVER humble opinion.

A Special Hole In Hell!

2012-01-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to where I grabbed the title! I'm worried about getting a colonoscopy? - Yahoo! Answers I wish I could say I was surprised that a person who seems to be in the medical field would write something like this, but I'm not. Here is their quote.

"Tink" says; "...The twisted individual above me obviously has no understanding of how anesthesia works.....and really needs to see a psychotherapist about being sexually traumatized earlier in life long before they ever learned about anesthesia - - because now all they do is scare the daylights out of people with lies. (Seriously, get some help. It's disgusting to see how you post that about every - every - single post relating to cancer prevention or sedation. How many ill people do you prevent from seeking treatment? There is a special hole in hell for people like that."

Isn't that post special? Prior to bestowing upon us mere mortals their infinite wisdom in the above quote, this person "Tink" tried to dazzle the reader with their medical terminology. It's my belief that "Tink" is probably some mid level medical worker such as a crna, who wishes to show unto us their supreme and God-like knowledge! Where else would they come up with an absolutely ABSURD paragraph such as the one above? Yes we do know how anesthesia works. We know just as much about it as you do and then some. Tell me the exact reason that Versed works the way it does. You don't freakin know, any more than I do.

Maybe "Tink" in their special magnificence can tell us why is it that this poison creates amnesia in some and not others? I want them to dazzle us with their brilliant medical knowledge. So far I'm only impressed with Tink's overweening sense of omnipotence and his/her deranged belief in his/her psychic abilities involved in making medical diagnosis and divining the cause of a patient's dislike of an amnesia drug. Tink is the "twisted individual." Why in the world would Tink immediately jump to a sexual abuse conclusion? With such snide contempt as well. Why would this person ASSUME that just because we don't want an amnesia and patient control drug that causes severe side effects, including death, that we need "psychotherapy" and are all liars? That's nuts.

Anybody who is this hostile over a stupid AMNESIA drug needs a psychological evaluation. Tink needs help, not only with their dangerous lack of empathy and over the top sense of self importance, but also anger management classes would be in order. "Seriously..." I don't know where Tink thinks he/she will be after death, but if there is a Hell, I'm sure that the "special hole" mentioned is already reserved for them.

Good News For Colonoscopy Patients

2011-12-30T12:58:00.001-08:00

As everybody knows, Versed is the drug of choice for a common and allegedly life saving procedure known as a colonoscopy. Yes I've read all the horror stories all over the web about being unable to choose an unsedated colonoscopy. I have been terrified of this procedure for that reason alone. Of course it will be undignified! Of course it may be briefly painful! To my mind this does not justify the risk of sedation related complication OR the risk of perforation due to the Versed use. I have never heard of a single perforated colon related to a lack of "sedation."

Unbelievably, I just got off the phone with an outfit in my town who specializes in digestive disease. I asked the perky girl who answered the phone if they had a problem doing unsedated colonoscopies. I was expecting the runaround, obfuscation, shock, dismay or platitudes. What I got was "of course we do unsedated colonoscopies." She went on "lots of doctors (did you get that?) have unsedated colonoscopies. I could never do it (unsedated) but we have plenty of people who get their colonoscopy without any sedation. Just tell us when we schedule that you are going with the option of no sedation and we will schedule you with our doctor who does them that way."

There is hope! We don't have to accept Midazolam or die of cancer! Isn't that great? Now to figure out the risks of the bowel cleansing and see if there might be one that won't throw my electrolites out of whack. I'd rather eat vegetable shortening for a week. I wonder if that would work? LOL As you can tell I'm delighted to find that unsedated colonoscopies are perfectly acceptable in my city. Thanks also to my excellent primary care physician who also believes that if I want unsedated, then that's what I'll get.

If anybody wishes to know what city is offering these unsedated colonoscopies, e-mail me at nomidazolam@aol.com and I'll tell you. I don't want them mad at me for putting their name up on an edgy blog like this, even though it's favorable. For my many friends from this blog (you know who you are) you can fly in, I'll pick you up at the airport, take you to the medical center, stay with you if you want and then you can stay at my house until your flight out. It's all within about a 10 mile radius.

P.S. Unsedated means no Propofol either. Just so we are perfectly clear about what NO SEDATION means! I might want a tiny bit of Fentanyl, or not. My choice.

Dr. Kevin's Blog Again!

2011-12-29T20:08:00.001-08:00

Once again an anonymous blogger has an excellent article printed in Dr. Kevin's blog. We are finally getting some traction in regards to the persistent view of medical workers that Versed is useful and good. Course it IS useful and good from their standpoint, but from the patients' standpoint, maybe not. Here is the link to the article in situ. Reduce sedation in critically ill patients

I have reproduced the article from Dr. Kevin's blog here as well. There are some pertinant statements that I want to point out, so I am going to put those in bold! Any comments I might make as I read through this will be in purple and (parenthesis.) We are starting to be heard by the medical community! Happy reading!
______________________________________________________________

Reduce sedation in critically ill patients

I sit here today, in this small, windowless call room with its low twin bed that is covered in untouched hospital blankets and sheets. Tonight is one of my last nights on a 30-hour call shift in the medical intensive care unit. Yet another mile-marker on this long journey of residency. My day began at the break of dawn, when I and another resident passed each other in the parking lot at 7am – the only souls trudging to our cars at such an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning. But this is the life we chose.

The day passed as many days have passed in the intensive care unit – extubating one patient, intubating another, placing one or two central lines, and being present with families in a time of crisis and even in the face of death. It is a charged atmosphere. At one point, our hospital raised the Donate Life flag in honor of a young gentleman who had died and donated his organs to patients in need across the country. At another point, we gathered round in a patient’s room with family and chaplain to offer the only piece of caring we still could offer her – empathy, compassion, and prayers.

The families and patients in this unit have reminded me, over the past few weeks, of the primary reason I chose to become a doctor: to care for my patients. Patients roll into this unit on stretchers, many with breathing tubes in place, many so confused or sedated that their memories of this visit will merely be a vague sense – blurred brush strokes across canvas, lacking definition or purpose. But perhaps it is better that they do not remember – it serves as a survival mechanism, if they ever make it out of here.

(Here is where the medical people take a detour. It is NOT better to have amnesia. Patient after patient is telling the workers this. Why are we having so much trouble convincing these medical people that WE KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR OURSELVES and it isn't Versed? Medical workers can't help but be aware that their precious Versed is causing sever problems and even death in people. Why would they smugly claim that it's for the patients' when it really is all about the ease of staff? It's not like there is any shortage of medical personnel in these places! They are NOT being worked to death, so why the sedation?)

All too soon, however, reality will hit. Some of these patients will be paralyzed for the rest of their lives. Others will never be able to eat or lie flat again, because they are at such a high risk for aspiration . Still others may never speak again because of malignant masses occluding their vocal cords. Hard to imagine, really, but it happens here every day.

Even with these tragedies, though, some patients will make it out of the ICU in good health, at least in a medical sense. But even they must struggle to overcome the effects of their prolonged hospital stay – weakness, anxiety, fear. Many of them will need rehabilitation, both mental and physical, for extended periods of time.

In an attempt to prevent this, there is a new movement in critical care units to sedate patients less, to exercise them more, and to allow them to return functioning, mobilizing human beings as quickly as possible and even in the setting of the grave illnesses which brought them here. An article in the New York Times published in 2009, Get Patients Up, introduces some of the new and relatively radical approaches that physicians are using at Johns Hopkins, including mobilizing patients on ventilators. The idea is to allow patients to maintain their strength, to minimize muscle wasting, and to prevent long-term neuromuscular weakness that ultimately requires patients to participate in months of physical therapy to return to their baseline.

An article from Vanderbilt University in Chest describes an “ABCDE bundle” which is a strategy to minimize delirium and weakness in critically ill patients. It includes awakening patients daily, allowing them to breathe on their own without ventilator assistance for brief periods every day, coordinating their breathing and awakening, closely monitoring their delirium using consistent guidelines, mobilizing them early, and initiating physical and cognitive therapy. The goal of this bundle approach is to reduce the devastating effects of delirium and weakness which patients commonly struggle with after their ICU stays.

Although these ideas push the bounds of conventional ICU medicine, which include deep sedation and bed rest, they mark the beginning of a new and perhaps even more humane approach to care for the critically ill. Even more interestingly, these new techniques recall the age-old wisdom of Hippocrates. Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.By sedating patients with high doses of medications to treat their pain and agitation, by paralyzing patients to minimize the use of their respiratory muscles, and by restraining them to strict bed rest, we are in some cases harming them more than we are helping them. So let us take a fresh look at critical care medicine and remind ourselves that, at least for some of our patients, less is more.

(I can't tell you how happy I am that the grave disservice of "sedating" patients with drugs which cause delirium and a host of other complaints is hopefully going to be phased out. I have opined that trying to give people amnesia, preventing them from having their needs met by drugging them into immobility is cruel and unusual punishment. Thank about it! A person is trapped inside that body and they may or may not have amnesia. They are living through every single minute of the pain and torture. Whether they remember later or not is still not an excuse to subject us to this kind of treatment. Destroying people's brains and causing possible life long mental problems for the sake of staff convenience is not only an affront to human dignity, it's against the law! The sheer boredom of being forced to lie in a bed with only the sounds of the room for hour after hour is enough to make anybody crazy to start with. With Versed you are CONSCIOUS of all of this the whole time! How nasty is that? No wonder we have people with POCD and PTSD after hospital interventions! Thank God that the medical profession is starting to take notice of this... Less IS more! The anonymous author of this piece is absolutely correct!)

This anonymous medical resident blogs at A Medical Resident’s Journey.

Submit a guest post and be heard on social media’s leading physician voice.

Inadequate Pain Control? You Bet!

2011-12-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

Here is an expose on this very thing. How long have we patients complained that medical personnel are using an immobilization and amnesia "sedative" called Versed/Midazolam instead of giving patients adequate pain medications? Years? Decades? One of my readers sent me this article... I have included the entire e-mail she sent me, excluding her salutation to me personally. At the bottom of this post is the letter she sent to the Seattle Times.

Seattle Times Exposé on Inadequate Pain Care
Action Requested

Submit your comments to the Seattle Times applauding reporters’ efforts to expose the deplorable pain care in Washington state and tell your own state representatives that policies like this are unacceptable!

Dear American Pain Foundation member,

American Pain Foundation (APF) would like to share with you a series of articles published in the Seattle Times that expose deplorable and inadequate pain care for Washington state residents. Legislators and regulators in other states are closely following pain care legislation in Washington state which could, unfortunately, result in other states modeling their pain policies after these substandard policies.

Seattle Times staff writers Mike Berens and Kevin Armstrong reported on how new Washington state policies create unjust barriers and prevent people with pain from receiving appropriate pain care. These barriers include:

Policies that result in health care providers refusing to treat people with pain;
Policies that require a one-size-fits-all guideline for pain care; thereby encouraging providers to disregard specific needs of people with pain;
Regulations that cause people with pain to be treated differently than any other person with a disease or health condition (e.g., mandating use of signed treatment agreements and infringing on a person’s medical and personal privacy); and
Restricting access to pain care for Medicaid recipients and the uninsured (70 % of Washington state community health clinics no longer treat pain).

APF has been working diligently to improve pain care and challenge policies that impede access to pain care in Washington state and the rest of the U.S. It is important to applaud media reports that provide accurate accounts of pain management issues and expose barriers that hinder access to care.

Take Action! Join APF and applaud the writers for a job well done. Tell the Seattle Times how important it is to you that articles such as these continue to be published so that pain, its management and the barriers people with pain face are brought to the forefront in communities all across the country.

Here’s how:

Read “State Pushes Drug that Saves Money, Costs Lives.” Then, follow the instructions on the page to submit your online comment.
Read “New Law Leaves Patients in Pain.” Then, follow the instructions on the page to submit your online comment.

After submitting your online comments, we ask you to take one more step. Please email your state representative letting him/her know that the pain policies in Washington state are deplorable and should NOT be introduced in your state. Let’s make sure your voice is heard loud and clear that you will NOT support representatives who favor policies that hinder access to pain care, infringe on our privacy and contribute to further stigmatization. People with pain have a right to timely, appropriate and effective pain care!

Thank you for your continued support,

American Pain Foundation

To Connect and Support our Efforts:

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To: mberens@seattletimes.com

Mr. Berens,

Would you be interested in doing an article about the drug MIDAZOLAM? It is being used in surgery without our knowledge and causes long term brain damage in many people. {politely called "POCD" by doctors} I am one of them.

This drug is used ONLY to cause "Compliant Hypnosis and Amnesia", according to the drug manufacturers websites {so the doctors and hospitals can use less pain medications because "you won't remember it anyway"}. The problem is, this drug also causes Alzheimer's disease and long term intermittent amnesia, PTSD, rage disorder, etc..

According to government studies, one use of this drug can cause 20% to 40% permanent cognitive loss {this is one colonoscopy, a cataract surgery, one surgery of any kind, or even a minor procedure done in any hospital}. Yet, it is being used on us without our knowledge!! It is also used on preemies and sick babies. No one can explain this to me! Babies will NOT comply with an order nor do they need amnesia for any reason. Since it can cause permanent brain damage in adults, what is it doing to babies? Perhaps causing autism??

This is also the drug of choice for all "in house" Alzheimer patients---I do NOT understand this since the patients already have amnesia due to the disease process.

You can check out many different people's MIDAZOLAM story by going to: http://www.askapatient.com/ and click on "V" for VERSED and that will show over 800 posts from people who have been negatively affected. Under the actual name, MIDAZOLAM, there are an additional 18 posts that are all worth reading. Some of these people had actually told doctors and hospital staff NOT to use midazolam on them but were ignored and injected with it anyway. I also am in touch with other people who have permanent brain damage and ongoing amnesia from this drug who would love to tell their story. About 6 weeks ago a 14 year old girl died when she got versed in the dentists office to have a tooth removed. America is the ONLY country where Midazolam is used outside of a hospital setting.

There is group of us who are hoping to do a public protest sometime early summer 2012 {in Spokane, WA} to bring public attention to this drug and the damage it causes and the SNEAKY use of it . Many of us believe that perhaps the military or Homeland Security is behind the abuse of patients using this drug.

On this website http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/srchcont_rxlist.asp?src=midazolam&cat=rx-desc you can read of the 135 other medications that contain MIDAZOLAM and wonder, like the rest of us, WHY they have added an amnesiac & hypnotic drug to such things as asthma meds, cialis, birth control pills among the list.

I need another hip replacement but due to my experience with this drug and my ongoing amnesia I have chosen to live in a wheelchair when my other hip finally gives out altogether. I had my hip replaced so I could have my independence back, instead, it has been stolen from me forever, I can't drive, too much of a risk, I don't know if "automatic pilot" would take over and keep other people on the road safe from me {I am not the only one to be forced to give up driving due to this drug}, I can't go for a walk far from home in case I went into the amnesia state and got lost, etc.. I am not the only one, the difference is, I researched amnesia on the internet to find out what happened to me and discovered the midazolam, {an allergy to other drugs in this class was listed on my surgery forms} how many people have been damaged from this drug and don't know what happened to them?

Please help us to educate the public before any more people are permanently damaged with the blessings of the FDA and big "Pharma".

Sincerely,

Virginia

Comment Gleaned From Versedbusters

2011-12-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the newest comment from the premier Versed site http://www.versedbusters.blogspot.com/
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anonymous has left a new comment on the post "Introduction":

I spent the last hour or so reading the posts starting from the very beginning. I stopped half-way through 2007 when I realized that I could not finish the whole thing in one sitting. But the little that I did read has reinforced what I believe to be true. I want to briefly report my wife's experience. She had a colonoscopy two weeks ago and was given 7 mg of Versed and 125 ug of fentanyl. Prior to the surgery, she was an active, intelligent, independent, strong-willed, and outgoing mother and wife. You name any positive human attribute and I know that it could be applied to my wife. However, in the two weeks since the surgery, she has been an absolute basketcase. She is prone to daily panic attacks, mood swings, and cannot perform simple day-to-day tasks. Never has she behaved like this, and I have know her for 28 years. I am a medical professional and have read a good deal of the scientific and anecdotal literature on Versed. I understand the neurochemisty of the drug at the molecular level and how it can alter brain functioning. Indeed, it is this basic scientific understanding that helps me to cope with my wife and provide her the emotional support she needs. I also understand that Versed only impacts a small proportion of the population who use it. However, for those whom it does impact, the effects can be terrifying. My wife and I are getting through this one day a time. We have resources such as family and friends who will get us through this. However, I did want to post my thoughts to relieve some of my own anxiety and also to reassure others who have similar symptoms that they are not "crazy" and are certainly are not alone. Thank you.
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This is not a crazy person! This person correctly identifies Versed as the culprit in the decimation of his wife's mental health. It is absolutely unbelievable that a drug like this is used so indiscriminately in the medical field. It galls me that medical "professionals" continue to deny that this poison has side effects and in particular, these side effects as described by the above poster! This attitude amongst those who have knowledge of the myriad side effects of a whole host of drugs causes them to deride us because we report that Versed is unsafe.

Anybody who watches the minimum of television will see all kinds of drugs advertised. Each of these drugs has a list of side effects which almost always include mental problems occurring as a result of using the drug. Do medical people find it amusing that drugs touted as alleviating depression and such are also implicated in WORSE mental disorders than the problem they are meant to treat? Doesn't it follow that an "anti anxiety" drug such as Versed could CAUSE the very thing that it is allegedly used to "treat?" Any drug like Versed with such SEVERE AND PROFOUND EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN can absolutely cause problems. To deny this can happen from Versed injections, is a mental disorder of the highest magnitude. Only a mentally compromised moron would deny the horrible side effects of Versed!

Having some anxiety about medical people and their job of cutting you open or some other intrusive and painful procedure is NORMAL! Why are these same highly educated medical people deciding that normal and justifiable anxiety is a mental disorder that must be "medicated" with a monstrous drug such as Versed is beyond me.

I'll make a bet with you! If you go in for surgery and DO NOT exhibit any anxiety at all, I bet that your medical employees will write something in your chart about your "affect." If they don't remark on your lack of affect, then they will still ROUTINELY WRITE "ANXIETY" ON YOUR CHART! If you are not anxious, you are "crazy" and if you are anxious, (perfectly normal) then you need Versed intervention. You can't win with these people. They could care less about people such as the above poster's wife who react badly to their drug of choice. Medical people are wrapped in a cocoon with others of their ilk and will not or cannot relate to anything or anybody other than themselves. (Nor will they tolerate ANY criticism whatsoever! Not for themselves and not for their precious Versed.)

Dr. Appointment

2011-12-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

I had to go to the Dr. today to get my slightly high blood pressure checked. It's all fine, BUT (big but) he of course suggested a colonoscopy, mammogram, pap smear and a bone density check. Any of you who "know" me know what I will allow... That's right; the bone density test which does not feature sedation. But Jackie, you exclaim, a mammogram and a pap smear don't involve sedation either! Maybe. Here is my reasoning...

Suppose that I irradiate my perfectly normal breasts for a screening procedure, even though I have no problems and nobody on either side of my family has ever had breast cancer. Does this sound like a plan? The very performance of this test could cause problems/changes in delicate breast tissue can't it? There is no use telling me that the amount of radiation is negligible. I have read all the studies. There is a lack of due diligence being used to ensure that the machine doing the irradiating is within boundaries isn't there? My feeling is that I should not be taking risks with my health for no apparent reason.

The next problem, and this goes for both the mammogram and the pap smear, is what then shall I do if there is some minor problem detected? It would be minor as I am asymptomatic. Nobody in my family on either side has experienced any kind of cancer... Won't the medical workers want to continue with more intrusive tests? Biopsies and exploratory surgery etc. (keep in mind that nearly EVERYTHING is "pre-cancerous") Won't that involve a (heated) debate about that brain poison Versed? You bet it will. You can't have a biopsy or surgery without an IV. Once the IV line is established, who can GUARANTEE that I won't be injected with "Vitamin V" again? Nobody can. Given the vitriol from health care workers that I have experienced by suggesting that Versed can be a very bad drug for lots of people, why would anybody in the medical field listen to me? Hell they might want to deliberately shoot me up with it to show me who is boss. It happened before, it can happen again. It happened to my sister too.

On to colonoscopy. It may surprise some people that Versed itself is causing major problems in re colonoscopy. I personally speak to many, MANY people who have been sedated for colonoscopy who are experiencing severe and long lasting mental problems subsequent to the Versed injection. The problem starts with devious medical people, intent on doing as little patient care as is humanly possible, who either LIE about the effects of Versed as in "something to RELAX you" or they simply don't mention this nasty little drug at all. (Screw patient rights law!) Too late once they get it into your veins. There's horror story after horror story pertaining to this all over the web. I have collected a lot of them here on this very blog. People are being tortured all over this country by having Versed slammed into their brain and the ASSUMPTION by medical people that a) it's fine to subject patients to torture, and b) it doesn't matter because they fried your synapses with Versed. What's left out is the 10% that don't get amnesia. What about them? The prevailing attitude from our sympathetic (cough) health care workers is "Too damn bad for you!" Not to mention the perforation issue which is ameliorated by omitting the "sedation" for colonoscopies.

There's also another issue with colonoscopy that nobody seems to talk about and that's the prep itself. You are subjecting your body to extreme stress and distress by using the bowel cleansing regimen. My body isn't giving me any trouble at all. Why would I deliberately set out to throw it all off balance with the "bowel cleansing?" So I have to risk sending my system off kilter, frying my brain again, perforations etc. for a test that isn't medically indicated? This can't be real.

So now I'm in a quandary. I truly do not want to defy my doctor! I really like him. I selected him with deliberation and am pleased with my choice. I don't want him to dismiss me as a patient, but I'm totally unwilling to risk my mental and physical health when there is no underlying reason to do these tests. (no lumps, bumps, blood, pain or family history, everything working as it should) Medical checkups shouldn't involve this kind of anxiety...

Medical Workers! Heed This Warning!

2011-10-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

I found this quote from a doctor. While I'm aware that medical people probably get superior care as opposed to the care we insignificant "other" patients get, you don't know how some young know-it-all upstart might treat EVEN A DOCTOR once you are in their clutches... The following quote is from "Doc99" in the comments section of the link provided.
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"- Here's a frightening thought - sooner or later, you will also be a patient. Be afraid. Be very afraid."

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Here's the link to the article which this comment follows;The art of practicing template medicine

I read this article because of the way *I* was treated at the hospital. 'EVERYBODY WHO WALKS THROUGH THE DOORS GETS VERSED!" (patient relations nurse) Or "99% OF MY PATIENTS GET VERSED." (crna) This is more of the "template" medicine. Medical staff likes the drug because it makes their lives ever so easy! They manufacture spurious reasons to use it which have nothing to do with the patients themselves, only green money and easy money. Just to be clear, green money in the form of excessive extra charges for sedation and easy money for knocking people in the head and then being able to ignore them, their pain, and their dignity are not patient benefits! These are benefits for the STAFF!

Response From A Reader!

2011-10-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Don't hate this person because they are in "health care!" They wrote me in response to an e-mail I sent to a bunch of people on my "list" about another place to complain to about the wholesale use of the destructive drug Versed. I won't be putting the organizations name up because IMMEDIATELY they would be deluged with outraged health care workers/drug pushers/charlatans and the rest of their ilk. We now have somebody to field our complaints WITHOUT people like jconnor rushing over there and "counter posting." So, here is my friends e-mail...

"Glad to see another place to register bad things about versed.

I also want to express my total agreement about the trust thing with health care workers. Too many of them are, in my mind, at about the same level as sleazy sales people that lie to get you to buy something that isn't what you wanted...and keep insisting it is what you want. Why is this supposed to help people trust them? Talk about crazy making....
But I digress. That little update on the clinical pathway for a supposedly comfortable transition to death in the UK: totally thrilled it is getting some attention. I read about this awful process a few months back, and it made me want to puke. Had I not known what midazolam did to me, I probably would have just figured it was another tranquilizer being used to calm agitated patients and been discouraged but not appalled. I have never like the idea of a "clinical pathway" being used as a cookie cutter guideline in end of life care. It is like saying there is a recipe for your death: here ya go, shoot these up, let set and you are done in a few hours. This is the stuff of nightmares. (OMG).

Remember, I've worked in health care for more than twenty years. Recipe medicine (aka: clinical pathways) comes off like a game being played to cover up incompetence. Evidence driven best practice. My a**.

Drugging patients to ensure compliance? WTF??? In what dimension would this be remotely ethical? How can anyone participate in care decisions under the influence of a hypnotic drug that induces amnesia? Does anyone track the adverse events, like respiratory arrest from versed? Probably not: the people that love this drug would blame something other than their precious elixir for free will suppression in the drugged patient. And it isn't like midazolam helps control physical pain in any way. And yet there is that constant refrain from the versed devotees about this drug being for the patient's benefit. What a complete lie,

I am there with you: I don't trust any of the charlatans. It gives me no pleasure to be reminded of the reasons why health care is seen as a pox on humanity. Stories like this make me feel we've made no progress since the days of pest houses where people were randomly abused just because they were in the wrong place and vulnerable."

Trust

2011-10-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

I have been taken to task on-line at Dr. Kevin's blog. The reason? I don't trust anybody in health care any more. The good Dr. feels that he can't treat people who don't "trust" him.

Trust is EARNED in my opinion! Why on earth would I trust a complete stranger, who is too rushed to care, with my life? Why would I trust that "they know what's best for me" when they have no clue who I am OR what's best for me as an individual? I refer back to my Versed debacle. I did trust them. They didn't listen to me or care. They didn't care what *I* wanted done with *my* body and mind. They didn't care about my prior experiences with anesthesia and sedation drugs. (paradoxical reactions) They didn't care about the expense. "Who cares? Tra la tra la!" All they cared about is what THEY wanted to do to make THEIR life easier. How do you regain trust in people who treat patients like that?

How do you trust people in the medical field when they made things much much worse for me? The surgery itself, despite being done EXACTLY as they wanted, complete with Versed and g/a, caused nerve damage, loss of grip and necessitated yet more surgery? How careless were they with me? Do you really expect me to trust people who are so dismissive of me and my health, future earnings, mental capacity etc. that they would so sloppily do my surgery?

How do I trust people who give me a hospital acquired infection that is so easily preventable? This cost me yet more money and it cost me some kidney function. How long before something WORSE happens because of that? These people could have KILLED me over a broken arm! Would you trust them again?

My medical team had zero respect or care for me as a person, yet they still wanted to be paid top dollar for this kind of sub standard and downright cruel treatment! They almost bankrupt me for a simple surgery that took 70 minutes. They all knew that my boss didn't supply health care! At $1200 a month for a policy, I would have had to live under a bridge in order to pay that. Did they help me by keeping the cost down? NO they did NOT, in fact, I truly believe that they surmised that they COULD charge the absolute MOST money from me and that I would have to pay it. (or lose everything) After all I had no insurance lawyers to back me up. Tell me I'm wrong! If you do research about this, you CAN find where hospitals knowingly charge the self payers MORE MONEY than they do the insurance companies. Patients have no recourse against this predatory pricing scheme. None. You can't pry any pricing out of them prior to the work being done and then it's to late. You want me to trust the hospital ever again?

Did you know that the president of the hospital I went to told me that he has NO FIDUCIARY DUTY TO THE PATIENTS? What that means is that the staff in the hospital is made up of "independent contractors." These "independent contractors" work within the walls of the hospital but have no oversight. They can do whatever they want without fear of reprisal or getting fired. The hospital ALLOWS these people to be there and do things to patients, but doesn't give a damn whether they break the law, abuse patients and misbehave in any way! No wonder my team felt that they could get away with treating me without my consent! Is this conducive to trust? The minions at the hospital were absolutely UNTRUSTWORTHY! How would I have known this ahead of time? I couldn't. I will never trust anybody in the health care field to have *MY* best interests at heart, ever again.

So now a doctor tells me that he wouldn't treat me because his profession has taught me mistrust! How special! You know what? I don't trust and wouldn't use a doctor who is so arrogant as to demand trust. "Trust me" is the worst phrase to use on people like myself. It INSTANTLY alarms me! No more blind trust. Healthy suspicion has replaced that. It's every (wo)man for themselves in today's medical arena!

From My Inbox

2011-10-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Tim from www.versedbusters.blogspot.com and I have recently been discussing unnecessary tests, especially those which create opportunities for the medical profession to do yet more intrusive "procedures" which (big coincidence right?) can be looked upon as job security for medical people. We have discussed how the tests themselves could be dangerous. He being a man and I being a woman, we have different "tests" which are pushed. Colonoscopy is the one most widely used which is pushed on all of us.

I have already gone into the colonoscopy risks, Versed being at the top of the list. Sedation is very risky! Then there are perforations, infection, false positives and false negatives. Tim sent me some of the articles I put up recently about the prostate tests. I got this one today about mammograms. Funny about this... The things I have been saying about the efficacy of random or routine screenings, the use of radiation on sensitive breast tissue, and the RISK of developing cancer as a result of irradiating breasts are borne out in this scientific study.

Even Computer Technology Can't Help Mammograms

I find it very odd that a layman such as myself can see the risk involved with "simple screening tests," when the medical community doesn't seem to notice! Is it because it's simply their job to demand these tests as a way of making sure that we remain in the system? Are medical people taught that they are Gods of the universe and that they MUST order these tests regardless, without reason and without thinking? Why don't THEY (medical community) think about risk v. benefit? Are they taught to ignore risk and focus only on the supposed benefits? Why is that? Are they taught that there ARE no risks? Are they told that the risks are subordinate to their desire to perform tests? Are they taught that the INDIVIDUAL risks are to be ignored in favor of GROUP risk? Who compiles the adverse events for these "tests?" The medical community, which has a vested interest in performing "tests" on everybody for anything, even without a medical reason for it? Does anybody care about the adverse events? Should we patients demand that courses on "unintended consequences" be taught to medical people?

Come on medical people THINK about what you are doing! Think about the possibility of harm when you order tests. False positives, radiation poisoning, unnecessary surgery, unnecessary strain on patients minds and pocket books, the POCD, PTSD and other problems associated with the sedation and g/a drugs... FOR WHAT? That isn't a rhetorical question. I want to know what percentage of people are actually helped or saved by these procedures. (real ones, not inflated or subjective or projected benefits.) Balance that percentage against the possible harm of the "tests" themselves! How many people develop problems FROM the tests? How many are subjected to additional procedures to find that it was all a false alarm? Isn't that part of a medical oath or something "First Do No Harm?"

Another Inane Comment

2011-10-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

This comment, from yet another health care worker it appears, (crna) can also be viewed in situ on the article I wrote on how to avoid Versed. If this person had read further they would see that even THOSE instructions will not guarantee that the patient can avoid Versed. At least they didn't go on to defend Versed. Progress I guess. So let's see what this person wrote shall we?
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BKW has left a new comment on your post "Instructions for avoiding Versed/Midazolam":

"Is this a joke? you certainly have a lot of time on your hands sitting at home on the computer...alone. If you don't want versed, just tell them! Lol, they aren't evil people."

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Their first statement is a question... "Is this a joke?" Um, NO, it's not a joke. Why would you think it's a joke? Does it seem funny to you that we would have to go to such lengths to try and avoid being poisoned with Versed for the benefit of the staff?

Next sentence (capitalize the Y in you, beginning of sentence) "you (sic) certainly have a lot of time on your hands sitting at home on the computer...alone." This is another attempt to ridicule me right off the bat. This person is making some assumptions in this statement which are patently false.

Why would this genius assume that I 1) spend a lot of time 2) at home 3) on a computer and 4) alone? First of all what I do with MY free time is my business. If I choose to write a few things about Versed, or when I use an article written by others as the basis for my thoughts, this is MY prerogative! It doesn't take a whole lot of time. Mostly I think about things and when I sit down to write, the writing is mostly done already in my head. It doesn't take much time at all! Plus, I LIKE writing! It's therapeutic for me in this case! Lucky me. I'm sorry if the commenter finds this kind of thing difficult and time consuming...

I may or may not be at home. I could be on my laptop at a restaurant or a horse show. I am almost NEVER alone while I'm writing. My husband works nights, I work days and my kid is here when she isn't in school. (She's a 12 year old, straight A, prep school 9th grader! IQ is hereditary through the mother. She's also eligible for MENSA!) Is there a problem with writing when you are alone? Gee I didn't know that! LOL

I know what you are getting at honey. You are trying to say that I am a jobless, friendless, stupid kook that doesn't even have any family. That because I object to being treated like a sub human life form by the medical community and WRITE ABOUT IT, that I must really be that which I was treated like at the medical center, right? I'm must be just scum, correct?

I DID tell them I didn't want ANYTHING LIKE VERSED! How many times do I have to repeat the same refrain? I didn't want Versed, I didn't want any kind of sedation, I didn't want g/a, I said it over and over and over. It WASN'T NECESSARY for my simple surgery! My procedure has a better outcome if they DON'T use Versed and g/a. Do you understand me YET? So who else do I tell? My "team" couldn't understand the word NO! They thought they knew better than I what was best for me. They said so when I filed all the complaints. So tell me again smartaleck, to just say no and (extrapolating from your statement) I won't get Versed! So what do I do, make an appointment with risk management and tell THEM? Maybe I should have contacted the hospital president and told HIM not to give me Versed?

What do you mean by this statement? "If you don't want Versed, just tell them!" I noticed what you left out... That is, "just tell them" (and you won't get Versed). You very prettily SUGGEST that by telling the staff to omit the Versed that they won't in fact administer it, but you didn't come out and say it did you? I didn't want or need Versed and I told them so. My records reflect that I was a pleasant woman in no distress. I told them not to give me anything like this drug and they DID IT ANYWAY! That IS evil.

And this is a laughing matter to you. LOL Think about it sweet lips, IF the morons at the place where I went had simply done as I asked, which was perfectly reasonable and also required by law, I WOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE DOING THIS! Can you understand that? Evil, mentally compromised (can't grasp the meaning of the word NO? Or refuse to take NO for an answer, your choice!) medical workers deliberately and maliciously assaulted me with drugs and treatments against my wishes and in a manner which is against the law. For a non life threatening elective procedure. They are doing this all over this country. They are doing this knowing full well they are in violation of patient rights laws. FEDERAL LAWS prohibit shooting up unsuspecting patients with Versed without INFORMED consent, let alone when the patient objects to it. So when you violate federal law what does that make you?

What planet do YOU live on where patients wishes about Versed are followed? Is the sky blue where you are? Do they have "informed consent" laws where you are? Are they followed? What does the word NO mean to you? None of the patients *I* speak to have been informed about the true nature of this (cough) wonder drug. Not one. Nobody that *I* know has been able to refuse Versed, even when following my instructions...

BTW thanks for not going on about how wonderful Versed is! This is a bad drug, which appears to cause brain damage in the form of POCD, PTSD, premature Alzheimer's like symptoms, anxiety disorders etc. Nobody should allow the use of Versed. The exception to the rule being those condemned people facing euthanasia for their crimes. Who cares if their brain is destroyed, they are going to be executed anyway. Have a nice day BKW. Say hey to all your crna friends.

Another OMG What Are They THINKING?

2011-10-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally out. Medical workers are putting senior citizens on Versed/Midazolam to "help" them die. Isn't that great? To be cognizant, aware and unable to do anything about the nurses who are killing you. The amnesia only works backwards, if it works at all. Patients can't remember the past, (most of them anyway) but they can surely see what is happening to them in real time! This is cruelty like nothing we have seen so far with this drug. Here is the article;

Death row drug fed to dying Scottish pensioners - The Daily Record

Versed/Midazolam CAUSES a lot of the problems in the first place. Things like dementia and cognitive dysfunction. Then medical workers apparently use the excuse that their brain is already destroyed, so let's just keep going with the brain poison drugs. (read the article where an old man "recovered" after leaving his Versed and the hospital behind.) The old folks can't scream or object if we give them enough Versed. What a deal. To the family it looks like the grandy has lost their mind, talks gibberish and has lost touch with reality. They may look peaceful and may not recognise family members. This would lead the family to think that something OTHER THAN poison is at work. If the family knew that their precious mother, father etc was being deliberately given a drug which caused all this they would be furious wouldn't they? I know I would.

Versed needs to be banned. I don't really care that they give this drug to condemned prisoners because they probably murdered somebody in a particularly heinous way to get where they are, but I do care that Versed is being used as a date rape drug, a patient annihilation drug, in order to get compliance and to mask abuse, and now it is used to "help" the dying process, destroying the last time that the patient has on earth by using this brain disabling drug... Sickening! Thanks Gin for sending me this.

More Homework; Dr. Bremner

2011-10-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a tv program about a man who took that drug Accutane for 2 days. He had minor acne, but this drug seems to have destroyed his brain function enough in those 2 days that he became a homicidal maniac and murdered the dermatologist who innocently prescribed it. 5 YEARS LATER! I have already written about Accutane on my blog, and if you read that, you know that the very same foreign outfit that developed Accutane also developed Versed. The company is Roche and in both cases they IGNORED THE FACT that their drugs were having a detrimental effect on people's mental health. They manufactured or otherwise tainted their trials with both these drugs. They ignored all of the adverse reactions that their drugs caused. They were SUED over Accutane... a skin blemish drug. Let's see, would I rather have mild acne or even disfiguring acne or become depressed and unable to function, maybe kill myself and/or others? I'd rather NOT have the drug. Same with Versed. I'd rather NOT be relaxed like with Versed. I am relaxed WITHOUT sedation, obsequious obedience, and amnesia thank you very much! I also could have lived without the Versed induced PTSD and all the rest of the mental aberrations brought on by Versed injections.

In the course of my research I cam upon a DOCTOR who has published a book entitled "Before You Take That Pill" I bought the book over on Amazon! I will give my synopsis when I get it and finish reading it. The author, Dr. Bremner, is the one who apparently brought the Accutane problem to the forefront. I also purchased Dr. Bremner's book about Accutane, entitled "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg; Accutane..."

Here is Dr. Bremner's health blog. Before You Take That Pill » Book Review of Your Body's Red Light Warning Signs

More on DEMENTIA and SEDATION!!!!!

2011-10-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of posts on this blog SOMEWHERE about this issue. Too many patients are ending up with dementia from hospital visits. I have an opinion on what is causing this "dementia" in the hospital. I know that you are totally taken aback that a lowly truck driver such as myself would form an opinion, based on the facts as I know them. It's called extrapolation or critical thinking. This is a brain function which even patients who are truck drivers can possess. Here is an article from my inbox.

Treating Drug-Induced Diseases... Welcome to the Alliance for Natural Health - USA

Imagine my surprise when this article CORRECTLY IDENTIFIES THE CULPRIT IN THE HOSPITAL ACQUIRED MENTAL DISORDER KNOWN AS DEMENTIA! You will love this excerpt from the piece linked above...
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Treating Drug-Induced Diseases…

October 11, 2011

Print This Post

…With more—and worse—drugs?

Mainstream medicine too frequently relies on pharmaceuticals to solve problems that FDA-approved medicines caused in the first place. Take, for example, delirium—a kind of mental confusion that’s a common complication of hospital admission, especially among people over 65. It is one of the biggest drains on the healthcare system, costing between $38 and $152 billion per year in the US alone. Patients who become delirious are more likely to die while hospitalized and in the months after leaving, and many suffer permanent loss of their mental faculties.

Worst of all, say researchers from Vanderbilt University, in many hospitals three-quarters of delirium cases go undiagnosed because patients are often quiet and withdrawn rather than agitated and hallucinating. As you will see, the undiagnosed patients may actually be better off.

Next month, Vanderbilt researchers will begin a study to see if giving antipsychotic drugs in an intensive care unit (ICU) can reduce delirium and subsequent cognitive decline.

Shockingly, the truth is that delirium is often triggered by medication given in hospital. Drugs that boost activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine, or block the effects of acetylcholine, increase the risk of delirium. Sedatives that are widely prescribed in an ICU and to patients undergoing surgery seem to be particularly risky in this respect. (emphasis in red is mine)

Think about this: Even though one of the triggers of delirium is hospital-prescribed drugs (sedatives), the solution they’re considering is to prescribe even more dangerous and potentially damaging drugs (antipsychotics).

Side effects of the antipsychotic drugs which researchers hope will help with delirium include weight gain, type II diabetes, hyperlipidemia, inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis), sexual side effects, cataracts, and even more severe mental problems.

Why would trained researchers want to give delirium patients anti-psychotic medication? Are they delirious themselves? (I have wondered this same thing, are medical workers delirious?) Or is this just more crony capitalism involving the corrupting effect of drug company money? It certainly won’t be hard to find drug company funding for this trial.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you get that? SEDATIVES ARE TRIGGERING DELIRIUM! Wow, who would have thought that? Fascinating... Their solution is to add yet more dangerous drugs to the patients body instead of NOT USING VERSED! This is insane.

PROOF! AT LAST!

2011-10-10T06:43:00.001-07:00

On my blog, several times, I have expounded on my theory that a lot or most (almost said ALL, but I'm sure that would not be true) of the positive reviews of Versed that we see all over the web are written by medical workers. We all know how hot they are to use this drug on ALL of us for ANY specious reason. They vigorously defend this drug and cannot and WILL not allow anything negative to be said about it without throwing a hissy fit. At LAST I have proof of my hypothesis!

I got the following statement from a medical worker who purports to be a nurse practitioner from an pediatric ICU. I have done research and I believe I know who this person is and that he is really what he states he is... Several times I have stated that I won't post any more of his tripe, but jeez, I just can't resist it! 'M I bad? Good job John! You have me printing your inane statements again. At least this one!

Here it is folks, the proof positive that medical workers are running around (metaphorically) trying desperately to prevent the spread of information about just how bad their drug of choice is. Just like any addict, they claim that Versed is perfect, never has side effects, and anybody who objects is an uneducated crazy person. They ARE addicted to injecting Versed, and to this extent! Gotta love it!

"BTW, I counter posted! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" jconnor author

The above is John's entire response to a DNP's statement that Versed should be avoided at all costs. So JOHN goes right over there and posts a counter to it! ROFL! Also note the juvenile HAHAHA stuff! LOL Thank you very much sweety, you just proved me RIGHT AGAIN! These allegedly educated and divine medical peons are indeed posting to counter our claims that Versed is bad. In light of John's actions, I hope that my readers will be relieved to see that all (did it again! "MOST" not all) those glowing reviews about how wonderful Versed is are coming from the drug pushers themselves. John, can you EVER open your mouth (type a comment) without inserting your foot in it?

Sadly this IS what medical care has come to. This is the thought process of (some of, many of?) the personnel that populate treatment centers... Kinda makes you a little insecure about trusting them doesn't it? This is a grown man acting like this... For more just take a trip over to http://www.nurse-anesthesia.org/ sometime and see how childish they are as a GROUP! Even the student anesthesia nurses act like this. We need more grownups in medical care. I'm pretty much done with medical workers who act like over aged juvenile delinquents. That's right John, I consider what you did as an act of vandalism, graffiti if you will. Giggle!

Anesthesia and Learning Disabilities

2011-10-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Medical News: Repeat Anesthesia for Tots May Lead to Learning Disabilities - in Anesthesiology, Anesthesiology from MedPage Today

Yet another scientific study about the effects of anesthetic agents on the developing brain. This study specifically mentions Propofol as causing brain degeneration. I would like to see somebody look at the "other" drug that these medical workers are so hot to give to everybody and that is Versed. Along with the g/a aren't they all invariably given Versed? One crazy person who comes to my blog brags about the Versed "drips" that he sets up for his little charges.

What parent would allow a "study" to see how much BRAIN DAMAGE particular drugs cause? There is no way in Hell that I would allow this... So are they dispensing with "informed consent" so that they can evaluate the ruined brain of a child?

If you read my recent post about "Doing More Homework" you will see where the scientists state that the deeper areas of the brain are not really mappable and their activity doesn't show up on an EEG. So really, even scientists don't know very much about the brain at all do they? So why is it that the medical minions are so gung ho to alter that which they know NOTHING about? These medical people will catagorically state that THEIR favorite drug to inject YOU with can't possibly be harmful. How do they know this? Correct answer; They DON'T! They don't know JACK about any of it, but they still go right on the attack if you criticize Versed in ANY way.

Mid-Level Wages For Medical Personnel

2011-10-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

You want to see what PA's, CRNA'S, and NP's etc. are crying about? My heart bleeds for them, it truly does. (sounds of violins playing a plaintive melody) Oh the pain of it all! They go to college for a few years and LOOK AT WHAT THE PAYOFF IS!!! I don't think there is another industry that pays out like a slot machine... My advice to anybody is to use this time to become a medical worker, especially if your own employment sector is going down in flames. Then you too can become a whiny crybaby at the same time as having a secure job that pays these outlandish salaries. None of us can afford to go to the doctor/hospital any more, but that's not stopping health care workers from acting like jerks and raking in the dough.

Here is a chart for the MEDIAN INCOME that these little starlets make. (The entire study and charting can be found here; AMGA Mid-Level Compensation Figures)

Cert. Reg. Nurse Anes..........$157,724
Dentistry................................$167,389 (This one gets me too, it doesn't take long to be a dentist.)
Midwife (Nurse)................$94,181 (You'd think that this would be a high risk job, why so cheap?)
Nurse Practitioner................$86,841
Occupational Therapist........$64,784
Optometrist...........................$124,067 (This looks like a good job too!)
Physical Therapist................$69,397
Physician Asst. (Med.).........$90,151 (for 2 years of study?!)
Physician Asst. (Surg.).........$99,475 (for 2 years of study?!)
Podiatrist (Med.)...................$190,596
Podiatrist (Surg.)..................$232,121
Psychology (Ph.D only).........$102,904

Obama's Fiery Rhetoric Reinvented

2011-10-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

President Obama gave a speech to the members of the black caucus. I think I'd like it if Obama redirected his speech to all of the "mid-level" health care workers. You know, all of the advanced practice nurses who feel that they are on par with doctors. The ones who constantly whine about getting respect when they give none, that complain that 6 figures isn't enough money for people of their exalted status as advanced practice nurses. The ones who want to be called something other than what they are, like the physicians ASSISTANTS who want to be called ASSOCIATES! This speech is for YOU! (delivered in the strong reverberating tones of a TV evangelist!)

"Take off your bedroom slippers! Put on your marchin' shoes! Shake it off! Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'! Stop cryin'! We are going to press on! We have work to do!"

That's right, shut the Hell up! Stop your incessant "complainin'" about all the real or imagined "slights" that your profession gets. "Stop cryin'" that you don't get any respect! You aren't acting respectable, you are acting like spoiled children! "Shake it off!" While you are at home in your bedroom slippers the rest of us are hard at work trying to afford your services! "Stop grumblin'" that you don't make as much as doctors! YOU AREN'T A DOCTOR! If you want to be a doctor then 'PRESS ON!" You "have work to do" if you want that prestige! "Put on your marching shoes" and march right over to the admissions office at a medical college!

God, I'm so sick of all the preening, posturing, whining, complaining and the arrogant, narcissistic attitude that goes along with "mid-level" health care people wanting to be accorded the same respect, money and prestige as a doctor. Now they want name changes and such to further their pretense. This is, well, PRETENTIOUS! "Shake it off!"

The EBP Process

2011-10-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Tim from www.versedbusters.blogspot.com sent me this link today.

Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice

If you click on the link you will see some boxes. On the right is a RED box. I laughed an ironic laugh when I read what is in the RED box. The RED box is the most important part of health care and the Evidence Based Practice or EBP. Without us there is no medical "practice."

What I like best about this tutorial is that the PATIENT is the focal point, not what the health care workers want. Maybe if this was taught in our medical schools and drummed into the heads of the arrogant snobs who populate this area of expertise, we would get better treatment from our medical teams.

Both parts of my recent ill advised foray into the medical world were wrong. My team forgot the RED box part of my treatment. In their little minds the whole adventure was an unqualified success. The crna got to sedate me and knock me out against my will. I did wake up. So he feels that his services were a success story. The surgeon or janitor, RN, Pa, device rep or whoever got to do my surgery got to do it. My arm was marginally straighter. Success! The nursing students and probably a couple of Gyn students got to play with my crotch! I helped train them against my will, but they got their training! Success!

From MY point of view the operation was a disaster. I still haven't returned to normal brain function and I am still experiencing panic attacks and anxiety over my treatment from the crna, along with pain from his tourniquet. I have major problems with the site of the surgery, numbness, loss of grip etc. As far as I'm concerned the surgery was an unqualified disaster, necessitating YET MORE SURGERY or right now I would not have any function left in my hand. I got an infection from all those people who were sticking their dirty fingers into my vagina and threading contaminated catheters into my urethra. My kidney function has been compromised because of it. I don't consider that a success. The humiliation of being treated like a lab rat of no value will stay with me until I die. This is why my surgery is NOT a success story, regardless of what medical people think! That's why the RED box in the above linked article is so important.

Unnecessary Tests

2011-10-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

Recently I've written about the prevalence of unnecessary testing of patients, mainly for the monetary gain of medical workers. Here's an article from a friend of mine stating the same thing about THIS particular test.

Healthy men don’t need PSA testing for prostate cancer, panel says - The Washington Post

Whenever I hear about these "tests" I think about the childhood jingle featuring an old lady who swallowed a fly! Remember that? "I don't know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die." Then she had to swallow a spider to eat the fly and then a bird to eat the spider, and on and on like that. JUST LIKE MEDICAL CARE! How much does health care expect us to swallow?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want an article by another news source on this subject, here it is...

U.S. Panel Advises Against Routine Prostate Test - NYTimes.com

While I'm on The Subject of Torture

2011-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a web site that I think you should all read... Is Torture Ever Justified? - Science Forums

On the second page you will find this little jewel. Thanks Marat! I have put my thought in blue and parenthesis;

"I strongly suspect that torture is still commonly used today even though it is known not to be very effective at producing reliable information, and it is also well-established that other, more humane methods such as drugs and keeping people awake for long periods are more effective. The reason for continuing to use torture is pure sadism, both on the part of the governments using it and the people performing the torture, lighly covered by the cloak of its supposedly being necessary.

Since the Nazis preferred to use scopolamine over torture, and they were hardly true gentlemen in their methods, I think it must be clear by now that scopolamine is a superior device to making people talk. I have had extensive experience with versed, which usually causes patients to babble so incessantly about everything that comes to mind that it is impossible for physicians to concentrate on even the most simple surgeries. (So why use it? We have been told that sedation is necessary for the doctors convenience, now it seems that this has been yet another lie!) They also tell the most interestingly embarrassing things about themselves, their lives, their perceptions, and their desires, (OMG!) that it is difficult to look them straight in the face afterwards, (how HUMILIATING!) especially if their 'official' persona is that of a prude. So why wouldn't a harmless (harmless?) drug like versed, which leaves patients sufficiently conscious that they can respond to questions, be suitable for extracting information? It even seems better than torture since it causes patients to forget everything that has occurred while they were under its influence, so they would not know what they revealed or what their questioners knew." (Exactly what I have been saying for a long time.)

Here's another quote from the torture site. This will curl your hair. How DARE THEY do this to us?

"One of the things done in my place of work is that central line catheters are inserted into the sometimes complex vasculature of the patient. It is often necessary to obtain feedback from the patient while these catheters are being threaded in, but the procedure can be so disturbing to the patient that the patient must also be sedated. So the problem arises, how do you get reliable feedback from the patient while still sedating him?

The answer is Versed. This drug allows the patient to space out so that he isn't bothered by anything that is happening and he wakes up without remembering anything that happened. This drug often causes patients to babble away while the catheter is being inserted, since these people naturally become quite voluble. You can easily direct them to talk about one thing or the other, so you can get them to shift the topic of conversation from their first wife's bad breath to their sensation of the catheter just by asking, and they put up no resistance.

So from this, it seems that Versed is a perfect substitute for torture, though I am not aware that it has ever been tested or used for this purpose."

IF you value the privacy of your mind and thoughts and IF you feel that torture is never justified, especially the torture of an innocent patient, then you will decline the Versed. This is so horrifying I can hardly stand it. This is bad, Bad, BAD! You medical people have NO RIGHT to do this to us! Do you tell your patients ANYTHING LIKE what Marat is writing about in the informed consent portion of your job? Do you? Of course not because you LIKE it. This is sickening. This IS terrorism! All masked in a make nice package wrongly called "sedation." Shocking is too banal a word to use for this kind of behavior from our saintly medical providers! Medical personnel are terrorists, sadists and vicious interrogators. This drug Versed needs to be banned. "Versed is the perfect substitute for torture!" Except that the helpless, hapless patient is tortured as well as revealing their humiliating secrets for the entertainment of staff. All nice and legal and practiced by people who are supposed to be helping and who should know better. This is NOT acceptable at Gitmo OR in our medical centers.

Letter From Reader

2011-10-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Jackie: thanks for finding that Frida the blogger is okay! I have a strong affinity for the physically challenged and enjoyed her postings after your link. Her stuff was informative and insightful. (my favorite kind of blog)

Also, noticed you found the amygdala and hippocampus stuff and obviously are reading some of the same scary stuff I've run into with memory and emotions running amok because of "interference" and it isn't always PTSD. As with most versed damaged minds, it is chemical interference that my old therapist friend agrees is probably permanent but definitely can be improved somewhat. She had that bad go round herself as I had told you. But retraining the brain and attaching new ideas to a bad experience seems to help folks feel a little more in control of themselves. I am all for that after a week of nightmares and sweaty palms. The anniversary date of my diagnosis is approaching, so the memories of my damaging experience are getting more intense again. This happened in July when I went to the doctor's office for a follow up. Going there was only a problem when I thought about why and couldn't escape the flashbacks for awhile. Hell again, as you know.

She loves this emotional brain training stuff. Thinks the amygdala connection has been overlooked and basically neglected in brain physiology writings because it is so hard to map. I agree since I know my emotions are intact (painful, but intact) and my sequential memory isn't. This week on MedPage they have a good article on traumatic "events" and cognitive therapy. I did laugh when I read that just drugs, as in TRANQUILIZERS, don't help with stopping the development of PTSD. Regardless of that crap the medical community with the support of the army medics tried to put out that drug induced amnesia was supposed to be a help to combat veterans at risk for PTSD, it looks like that may have been a band aid on the festering aneurysm of anxiety overload if this newer study is correct. They haven't been pushing this much the last few years in the research at NIMH.

I have always known benzos are just bad for some brains, no way around it. There was never a question that amnesia is no friend to good mental health. Who do they think they are, these spin doctors on big pharma payrolls?

It just made no sense that every other therapy for trauma involved remembering the event and confronting the feelings to get them under control and reduce anxiety. But ^o^, the crna's and anesthesiologists think it is just fine to step out of their discipline and tell us what is good for us because they want to censor our memories. In fact, this concept of chemically censoring our brain function demonstrates the basic insult and fuels my continuing disdain and distrust for the numb-noggin jerks I encountered.

I just can't even think about them without becoming furious.

My yoga instructor tells me that focus and deep breathing are big helps for people after a brain injury, more and more research showing it in Europe. I think that chemically frying our brains could arguably be classified as an injury. It sure feels that way to me.

Here is hoping brain training (self brain washing is one sense) will improve my attitude. Chocolate does help sometimes. I admit. But it doesn't last anywhere but on my butt. So much for permanent improvement to date.

We Think You Are LIARS! (Today's rant)

2011-10-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

It used to be the medical practitioners were held in the highest esteem. As an older person I grew up idolizing Marcus Welby. Not to mention that hunk James Brolin! My own stepfather who is a Dr. solidified this perception of a doctor, with a wonderful support staff of caring nurses and office personnel. When my femur was kicked in two by a horse, the surgeon I went to wasn't perfect (I had 3 surgeries to deal with rotational instability) but he was caring and concerned as was everybody at his office. Ditto the staff at Dominican hospital. So what happened?

It isn't just the wholesale assault on our brains with Versed is it? Nope, it's the ATTITUDE of health care now. Seems to me that the whole damn thing (health care) has become an "every man for himself" free for all! We patients are lied to daily, are coaxed, coerced or otherwise harassed into having dubious "treatments," "screenings" or dangerous drugs at every turn. Nobody gives a damn about the patient do they?

Medical people routinely dismiss patient rights LAW, feeling that they are superior all-knowing Gods who can't be bothered with pedestrian things like the LAW! We have all kinds of rights, like the right to know the RISKS, BENEFITS, AND ALTERNATIVES to any kind of intervention and the RIGHT TO SAY NO to any part or all of it. How is it that we are never told of things like VERSED/MIDAZOLAM and its long term effects on memory and emotional stability? The most common procedure for getting Versed seems to be colonoscopies. Do we even really need a colonoscopy as a screening tool? For a normal asymptomatic person, the RISKS of the procedure far outweigh the benefits! In my opinion. Just read up on it yourself. We are being lied to by the medical community, using scare tactics to gain compliance.

Why can't we decline Versed without starting world war 3? Anybody who has followed this blog KNOWS how nasty medical workers can be. The juvenile name calling and filthy language. The sneering, jeering gang of bullying medical workers can make your life miserable, while claiming the moral high ground. What a laugh! Why would anybody trust gangsters like these people? They use a drug instead of a gun to rob us blind, but the end result can be the same. PTSD and an empty wallet.

There is nothing you can do because contrary to the LIE about malpractice hurting the medical community, malpractice awards are almost nonexistent in this country. Ask anybody you know if they personally know of one single person who has been killed or harmed BY MEDICINE that had a SUCCESSFUL malpractice suit prosecuted against the offender. Newspaper articles don't count. It's all just another scam dreamed up by medical people who wish to have ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY for their sometimes sub standard and sometimes UNLAWFUL care.

What about the ubiquitous flu vaccine? Every year we are treated to fear mongering about the new flavor of the month flu virus. THIS TIME it's the killer flu and we will all die, unless we subject ourselves to the RISK of yet another flu vaccine. It's costly and unnecessary as far as I can tell. People die all the time from stuff. If people die without having the flu vaccine those deaths are put into the "flu" column in order to skew the numbers and insure a steady flow of money into Merck or whatever pharmaceutical markets the drug. Prove me wrong! Look at the stats on all these "flu deaths" and you will see that they almost invariably had stage 4 cancer or some OTHER life threatening health problem as well! Most of them WEREN'T EVEN TESTED FOR THE FLU and yet their death was attributed to the killer flu. Flu shots are made in China no doubt, so who knows what's in them? Tainted drugs are in the news a lot these days.

What about the Thimerasol preservative in vaccines? I knew Thimerasol was bad news 35 years ago when I had a reaction to contact lens solution that contained Thimerasol! My optometrist knew exactly what the problem was all those decades ago! It's a huge shock to the medical community in the 21st century to find that Thimerasol is in the vaccines and could be causing reactions in people?????? Give me a break! This is either a big fat lie, OR it's a matter of supreme indifference, take your pick.

The HPV vaccine that a Republican governor/presidential candidate mandated has caused all kinds of misery. Not only are the potential reactions severe, the vaccine itself doesn't protect against all strains of the virus and is UNPROVEN to stop one single case of cancer. Not one. Read the studies and articles about this debacle! So they lied to us again. They said it was safe and effective. Neither claim is true as far as I can see.

One minute an egg will kill you and the next it's beneficial. Regular blood pressure is now HIGH blood pressure that must be medicated. Otherwise you will die of heart failure, kidney failure and all the rest. Fat is bad, some fat is good. Cholesterol will kill you or you need it for your body to function. You must irradiate your breasts every year or you are at risk of not finding breast cancer. Never mind that all that radiation could cause breast cancer itself. There is no end to the intrusive and dangerous "screenings" that medical people would like to subject you to. No end to the dangerous medications to which you will be subjected! "What side effects? We don't know about no side effects" the medical community shrilled. They lie.

All the while these people define their jobs in a narrower and narrower manner. My ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON is incapable of reading an x-ray! That must be done by a separate person in the hospital. The nurses job is to stare at you and laugh at you. The crna's job is to drug you and laugh about you. There is a scrub nurse, a roving (circulating) nurse, another o.r. nurse, a person whose job it is to put a cast on, a person to type things into a computer, which may or may not be true. There's a charge nurse, head nurse, a person whose job it is to weigh you, several people to interview you, an insurance person, a medical transcriptionist, a person to take your blood pressure, an np, and a lot of other people. You can include a drug company rep and a medical device rep in there as well. Why are they there? You are kidding yourself if you think you need all these extraneous people! It's all part of the plan to make sure that the patient's money is extracted, ALL of it. I think its also a plan for "plausible deniability."

We've all heard how these medical teams insure that the patient is never abused. People that's the OPPOSITE of what really happens when there are untold numbers of people, all involved in one single person's care! What seems to happen is that when things go south, the can all blame each other and claim it wasn't their job! For instance; You tell these people that Versed is not acceptable, and that it is NOT to be used. You write it on your paperwork, which usually doesn't contain any reference to Versed or amnesia. You tell that to your nurse, usually just before she/he injects you with it anyway. Whose job is it to describe the effects of Versed? It's the LAW that the patient is informed as to the risks, benefits and side effects of Versed, but WHOSE JOB IS IT TO INFORM US? To whom do we say "DON'T GIVE ME VERSED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OR FOR ANY REASON? Which one of all these people? How do we know WHICH people? Or will they all ignore us? They don't read charts and they can't see a medic alert piece of jewelry! They can't hear us speak. Any of them. Then they have numerous people to back up their lies.

Whose job is it to explain in detail and get consent for surgical procedures? The surgeon? His/her physicians assistant? Is it the job of the nurse to get you to sign your life away, knowing full well that you are NOT informed? Is it the crna's job to decide unilaterally what the procedure will be? Does he/she have to tell you the truth about their plan or do they get to lie?Or is the real MDA's job as supervisor? When do these people see you and when do they decide what they are going to do to you? When and to whom does the patient get to say NO? As you can see, this is deliberate confusion. They can ALL say that it wasn't them, it was the other person's job to do whatever.

Whatever the patient said or didn't say is lost in the mix because it was NOBODIES job to take note of the patient! Now they can all lie and say they never spoke to you, they didn't understand what you said, you said it to the wrong person, or the very worst thing they can say; "It never happened." THIS LIE is easily backed up by nearly one hundred people that have surrounded the patient since the inception. This last is a direct result of working around too many people who have been treated to a preview of their life when they get early onset Alzheimer's as a result of all the Versed that has been pumped into them by lying medical people!

All of this is extra bad because medical people are put on a pedestal. None of us would ever have believed that these esteemed people would treat us like dirt. It's not like we can avoid medical care either! At some point we will have a heart attack, be in a bad car wreck, get a bad disease or something where there is no choice but to go to a medical person. How bad is it when we know that medicine is for medical people, not patients. Patients are merely an obnoxious vehicle to obtain a paycheck. They HAVE to deal with all of us in the "great unwashed" (non medical people) category so that they can live in the lap of luxury, where their only concern is that somebody else is making more money for doing less. Read all about it. PA's want to be associates without the associated education. Np's want to be considered on par with doctors as well. Crna's, my personal favorites, are ALWAYS crying about their perceived lack of income. How much do you want us patients to pay for you lying self centered snakes? And it's UNAVOIDABLE!

I honestly feel sorry for all the good guys out there in the medical field. Ever heard the saying "One bad apple spoils the whole bushel?" These "bad apples" in medical care are ruining the special relationship between medical personnel and the patient. We are being put into an adversarial position with our own caregivers. We patients have to research, second guess, and otherwise treat the people that we should be able to trust with our lives as con men/women. This is so unutterably sad... The trust is gone in the place where most of us can least afford it, medical care. Replaced with fear, loathing and suspicion.

SCREAMING!

2011-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

On www.askapatient.com there are 2 newer posts that reference SCREAMING! In both cases there are excuses as to why doctors et al are doing this to their patients. I contend that this is legalized TORTURE! If you don't want your helpless body tortured, I suggest you decline the amnesia drug Versed.

From a post on 9/29/11 is this statement; "Horrible experience that I didn't expect. Never felt calm, woke up in severe pain during the procedure, but then remember nothing for 2 hours afterwards.(Like most others, I was never informed of the amnesia !) I feel tricked (since I was led to believe the procedure would be a "breeze") and am horrified to learn that many doctors ignore a patient's screams because they are relying on the amnesia & want to finish the procedure so they get paid. Is this what health care has come to ?"

Is this really how you want to be treated? This woman opines that she learned "that many doctors ignore a patients screams because they are relying on the amnesia & want to finish the procedure so they get paid." Are we supposed to respect that reasoning by medical practitioners? Their paycheck... Just asking.

From a post on 9/28/11; "...Doctors will frequently continue the procedure with the patient screaming because it's generally a short procedure and it's easier to get it done with than to pull the scope out and try again with some other drug combination some other time, when the patient might not actually remember the pain when the procedure is over. "

Here we have a poster saying that doctors "frequently" just keep right on going with the patient "screaming" because its "EASIER" for them to keep going than to interrupt their program. Their excuse is that pesky AMNESIA where "the patient might not actually remember the pain..." Is this how YOU want to be treated? You really want your doctor to FREQUENTLY continue torturing you in the face of your screams of pain? Do you want to risk that you are one of us that don't get amnesia? Since when does amnesia give the green light to torture?

Wow, I can sure see the government trying this excuse with the Gitmo prisoners can't you? The prisoners of war "...might not actually remember the pain." I'm just kidding, there is no way in HELL that the type of behavior described by the 2 posters above would be tolerated at Gitmo. Civilized societies don't torture their prisoners. They DO, however, torture innocent patients, now don't they?

The Prescott Daily Courier

2011-10-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here's an article by Elizabeth Bewley;

THE GOOD PATIENT: Dealing with healthcare is scarier than being thrown by a wild horse - The Prescott Daily Courier - Prescott, Arizona

Reprinted here;

10/1/2011 9:56:00 PM
THE GOOD PATIENT: Dealing with healthcare is scarier than being thrown by a wild horse

Elizabeth Bewley
Courier Columnist

Terry has been working construction and driving trucks for more than 30 years. She has also ridden rogue horses as far back as she can remember, and once broke a thigh bone in four places when she was thrown. When she broke her wrist one weekend five years ago in another horse-riding accident, she didn't want to waste money by going to the emergency room. She wrapped her wrist and waited until Monday to go see a doctor.

He told her that she'd never work again - nor ride another wild horse - if he didn't operate on her wrist right away.

Scared by this prospect, she agreed to the surgery, but explained that she had what is known as a "paradoxical reaction" to any drug that interfered with her mental state. She had been given anesthesia on two prior occasions. In both cases, when she started to come out of it, she woke up swinging and shouting, ripping out IV lines and throwing things. She was very emphatic: no anesthesia. No mood-altering drugs. She asked for a nerve block, injections into her arm to prevent pain signals from reaching her brain. She explained clearly that she wanted to remain conscious and alert during the procedure.

The doctor stopped talking about anesthesia. Terry said, "I thought that was settled, but it turns out that I might as well have been talking to my bedroom wall."

The day of the surgery, she repeated that she did not want any drugs that would alter her mental state. "The nurse anesthetist said, 'I think I know what's best for you; you're just a truck driver.'" Before she realized what was happening, Terry was knocked out with two different drugs.

After the surgery, Terry recalled, "I woke up screaming and fighting in the recovery room. I was on my feet, in and out of consciousness, throwing things and hitting people. I just went berserk." Terry contrasts her calm state before surgery with her enraged state afterwards. Before the surgery, "It even said on my chart that I was a very pleasant woman in no distress."

For many years after being given drugs, which she had insisted she could not have because of her known bad reaction to mind-altering drugs, Terry experienced uncontrollable rage and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). "I was crazy, and I felt like I was crazy, and there was nothing I could do. It felt like somebody had short-circuited my head."

She said sadly, "My daughter tells me that her mother left home that day and it took years for me to come back. My daughter was 7 years old." In classic "blame the victim" style, Terry was told that she was responsible for the bad experience she had with the drugs: the anesthesiologist said, "You must have been insane to start with."

In addition to experiencing extreme emotional distress, Terry concluded that the operation itself was a disaster. Screws that the surgeon had put into her wrist hadn't been screwed in all the way, and were rubbing against tendons and nerves. Because of improper use of a tourniquet, her upper arm hurt so severely that she stayed in bed for nearly two weeks, felled by sudden slashing bursts of pain if she moved. Her whole hand became numb as a result of nerve damage. When she removed the bandage for the first time, she discovered that the incision cut clear through the tendons inside her wrist. Terry would never have agreed to the surgery if she had understood the risks and downsides.

The surgeon claimed that the operation had gone "perfectly." Shortly after that, he fired Terry as a patient. Even though she was in severe pain from the protruding screws, Terry was too scared to go to another doctor for a year and a half. Then she found a doctor who agreed to take the screws out without giving her the drugs that had hijacked her mind.

Five years after the original surgery, she has about 30 percent use of that arm. She notes, "I can work, but I can't climb ladders anymore. I can't hold wrenches. I've pretty much given up riding aggressive horses, because I just can't hold on." She reports, "PTSD is subsiding over time. I can sleep at night now. I still tend to be more irritable, quicker to anger. (But) it is getting better."

The extreme emotional distress she has endured has altered forever how Terry thinks about healthcare. She will not have a mammogram, a PAP smear or a colonoscopy, out of fear that one of them will reveal a problem and she will be sent to the hospital. "I don't think I can survive. I totally lost my mind. I just can't face it."

This experience has changed how she lives her life. "I used to love riding hunter/jumper horses. Not a chance now: I might injure myself and have to go to a doctor."

Terry fervently recommends that people carefully read "every single line" on informed consent forms. She advises, "Cross out things. They could refuse to treat you. They said, 'We just won't treat you if you don't allow us to do everything we have written on this sheet.' But that's not the law. You don't have to allow them to do any of this. Read it carefully and don't let them rush you. If you have questions, talk to your surgeon."

She concluded, "You need what they have to offer. But you have to figure out how to get what you want, as opposed to what they want to give you. It's your body."

Elizabeth L. Bewley is president & CEO of Pario Health Institute and the author of "Killer Cure: Why Health Care Is the Second-Leading Cause of Death in America and How To Ensure That It's Not Yours." To tell Elizabeth your story or to ask a question, write to thegood patient@pariohealth.net.

Doing More Homework

2011-10-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

I looked up "explosive irritability" as a symptom of Midazolam poisoning. Yikes! Here's what I found... This is the entire study; Comprehensive Neurobehavioral Systems (CNS): Newsletter

Here's a statement that I found really interesting... "Commonly, these rage behaviors are associated with temporal lobe disorders, because deep within the temporal lobe of the brain there are a group of structures (part of the limbic system) that are critical for emotional stability. This includes the amygdala (sometimes referred to as the rage center) and the hippocampus (which is also critical for memory). Unfortunately, these are deep structures and they do not show up on typical brain scans (e.g.; CT or MRI), nor do we see standard electrical disorders on the EEG."

Now what part of the brain is acted upon with Versed/Midazolam? Hmmm. Let's see. Why it's the temporal lobe, the amygdala etc.! So according to medical people, wrecking all of these areas with Versed couldn't possibly cause behavioral disorders linked to these same areas of the brain? Does this denial seem rational or reasonable to you?

Change Doctors?

2011-10-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here is an excellent piece again from Dr. Kevins blog; 10 reasons why you need to change doctors I have taken the liberty of reproducing a couple of paragraphs from the above which apply on this blog.

"4. You are rarely being seen by the doctor but are almost constantly being seen by a physicians assistant or nurse. Not that there is anything wrong with physicians assistants or nurses because they do play a very important role in health care, but if you are seeking the care of a specific healthcare provider and are rarely ever getting to see that individual (and you are not getting the care you believe you need as a result) this is a good sign that it may be time to make a switch."

My previous post this morning goes into this issue. Even after my surgery I was only allowed to speak to Travis. I was confused as to why the surgeon was unavailable to speak to me and I was continuously shunted off to his "assistant." Could it be that the "assistant" was actually the real surgeon? So he was the one I needed to talk to about any complications? What a bait and switch operation! The surgeon himself sees me and cons me into having a horrible surgery which most definitely WASN'T in my best interests and then fobs me off on his little assistant! (unknown to me) This same assistant who referred to me as "it" when looking for me in preop! This is BS in its purest form!

"5. The provider becomes defensive and angry when asked polite but challenging questions. No health care provider is always correct with diagnostic decision making or managing treatment. Patients should feel like they can have an open and honest discussion with the provider which includes asking questions about possible alternative diagnoses, treatments, or inquiring about information gathered from popular news sources. Provided that the questions are asked politely and without the intention of being antagonistic, there is no need for the provider to become upset. There is no need for a patient to feel scared to ask questions of their physician, nurse, psychologist, etc."

I got fired for this. (I must admit that the surgeon fired me at the same time as I decided that he was insufficient to continue my care. He "fired" me by writing a letter to the np that originally sent me to him. The np wasn't even working at the clinic any more, so the firing was merely symbolic, but what a symbol of medical care it was!) I had many issues with my care which I expected the physician to address. Numbness, pain, loss of grip, screws sticking out into the soft tissue and sawing at my tendons. He was not only uninterested and dismissive but he also fired me so that I could work on the problems which he or his physicians ASSISTANT (not ASSOCIATE) caused with somebody else. This wouldn't be so bad, but once again I had to pay for an absolutely uncalled for "consultation" which is anything but! My new surgeon hadn't seen the inside of my arm and warned me that since he didn't know where the nerves ran in MY arm, that there was an increased risk of yet more nerve damage. So you see it's not just getting another surgeon that is involved.

"6. Feeling rushed. Healthcare is best when the provider is able to take the time to listen and understand the patient’s problems. When the provider gives off signals (e.g., frequently checking the clock or a watch, sighing when questions are asked, walking towards the door, cutting off questions) that he/she cannot spend much time with you, it may be time to consider seeking the care of someone who can."

I didn't feel rushed at all when I went in for my "consultation." My stepfather is a doctor and I am well aware of time restraints. However, it was obvious to me later that my surgeon hadn't listened to a single word I said. He was always "too busy" to come to the phone before the surgery. "Too busy" to see me in the hospital prior to or after my surgery, and possibly "too busy" to perform the surgery himself. Just "too busy" once he had convinced me through lies, omissions and plain old scare tactics to have the surgery.

"7. When the provider makes decisions that turn out to be harmful. An example of this would be going to a pediatrician for a child with respiratory problems and constantly being told it is probably due to allergies despite the fact that the child has no known allergies and has not improved with allergy medications or a nebulizer. Due to the delay in taking the parental report seriously that the problem is likely more than allergies, the child develops pneumonia and is hospitalized. Situations like these are reasons switch providers. While no health care provider is free from making mistakes, this does not mean you have to stay under that provider’s care."

I should never have had the surgery I was conned into having. It caused more damage than it alleviated. Please see the x rays in my 2009 posts.

"8. The provider has decided upon your course of care before evaluating you. This one sounds hard to believe but it happens sometimes. I had a situation once when I went to a doctor, he saw my chief complaint, and filled out two medical scripts before talking to me or evaluating me. Medication and other treatments should be based on a discussion with the patient and an evaluation."

My surgeon had decided upon a course of action by reviewing my x rays prior to ever seeing me. My x rays revealed a fracture that he wanted to operate on. What this meant to me was completely irrelevant to my surgeon. He also had decided that I would receive general anesthetic instead of the nerve block that I stated would be acceptable to me. There was no discussion about it. He never told me about the risks of SEVERE side effects. There was no revelation about general anesthetic being used against my will because my surgeon (as revealed afterwards) only works on unconscious patients. My break went from "no visible or palpable deformity" to "severe deformity" unless surgically remedied. (See the x rays and physician notes.) What my surgeon referred to as "vast improvement" was a minuscule adjustment, barely visible IN THE X RAYS, to the angle of my wrist. (completely invisible by just looking at my arm) For this minuscule adjustment to the bone angle, I got permanent loss of grip, numbness, tendon damage, am at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome and have PTSD and a medical phobia. Not to mention the almost 20,000 dollar bill for the first surgery and more thousands of dollars for additional doctor visits, additional surgery, treatment for the hospital acquired infection and counseling for PTSD. What a deal.

Physician Associate or Physician Assistant

2011-10-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

I found this article on Dr. Kevin's blog; A physician assistant writes to the doctors of America

This is very typical of medical personnel these days. This physician assistant wants to be referred to as a physician associate. This term further muddies the water as far as just exactly who is treating the patient. I don't know about you, especially if you are in the health care world, but an ASSOCIATE is an MD who works with your doctor, as in a PEER. (Common usage of the term in my world.) An ASSISTANT is somebody who is capable of ASSISTING the doctor.

If you look at my patient charts you will see that the physician ASSISTANT has been upgraded to the position of my DOCTOR! I didn't know this person and I certainly didn't HIRE him to be my surgeon. Who authorizes this change? Certainly not ME and I'm the one paying the bill! I CONTRACTED with a real surgeon, whom I expected to have FULL medical training, spanning years and years, not an assistant whose training is only 2 years.

If you have read some of my statements regarding the quality of my surgery, I am more and more convinced that the surgeon I hired relegated his surgery to the PA. According to the article linked above, this is something that PA's feel that they should be doing... But I didn't hire a PA to do my surgery! Doesn't that matter, or am I so insignificant that I don't deserve to have the surgeon I chose (bad choice, but that's another story) do the surgery?

I waited and waited for my surgeon to come and explain exactly how the procedure would be done! Instead, apparently, a substitution was made, and my surgeon never appeared. The substitution was never revealed to me. I discovered this by examining my medical records where it listed Travis as my new and unknown to me, surgeon. Travis NEVER explained to me who he was, why he was in my room, or told me that he was my new surgeon, let alone that he was a physicians ASSISTANT in a position of authority and under the guise of somebody who was going to pretend that he was equal in every way to the surgeon. Imagine the confusion if this physicians assistant could claim that he was an associate of the surgeon. By which terminology I would have assumed that he was another MD! Would he have told me that he was an associate? Or would he still have decided to conceal his entire role in my care? I thought he was yet another nurse. This is all illegal, but where I went laws were not relevant to care.

It absolutely AMAZES me that medical people are so narcissistic as to need to write an article like the one above. They want to be called something that they are not in order to feed their own ego, the patient be damned. If PHYSICIAN'S ASSOCIATE is now going to be considered the preferred term, then it follows that the office personnel, janitors, nurses, significant others etc. can also be considered associates of the physician right? These are the people that the physician ASSOCIATES with! Words mean something in the real world that the rest of us outside of health care inhabit. Stop trying to obfuscate the issue!

Did my phony doctor actually perform my surgery? Where was the real doctor whose job includes a lot more than showing up hours late in the OR, after the patient is drugged? Why is any of this OK in the medical world? If somebody hires ME, I can't then substitute somebody unknown to my employer! I can't send in a person whose training includes driving a school bus, say, instead of a full tractor trailer rig, in my stead! (different licenses and scope of training) Why is this fine at the hospital? What ever happened to THE LAW on this subject being followed?

I've seen this insufferably arrogant attitude in crna's, np's and now physician assistants. Any wonder why we patients are getting riled up?

Frida Writes!

2011-09-30T19:31:00.002-07:00

Thanks for stopping by Frida! Glad you are OK! I have had a reader worried about you not blogging recently, as was I. I am reproducing your comment here, so that the people I'm in contact with can see that they are not the only ones with these problems. Tim over at http://www.versedbusters.com/ was an engineer before his Versed debacle.

FridaWrites has left a new comment on your post ""Why I Hate Anesthesia" by Frida":

Thanks for the link to and discussion of my post--though I haven't been blogging for a while, this is an issue I still feel very strongly about. For me, it's a temporary amnesiac rather than a permanent one--and I remember exactly what happens later.

However, I have long-term memory problems from anesthesia, which led to forgetting massive amounts of information I had learned for my job over several years before my surgeries and procedures. I remembered learning it, but nothing of the content. My memory was near photographic before. Also, word retrieval problems persist.

Frida I have a hypothesis that Versed affects bright minds the worst. *I* used to write humorous short stories, but I'm not so good at that any more 6 YEARS later. I've had general anesthetic 6 times prior to Versed and I NEVER had this kind of long term problems with it... Just with Versed.

My story is in these pages and it follows yours pretty much. I remembered everything right up until the general anesthetic, which I had forbidden along with any drugs like Versed. Then I was "awake and alert" afterwards for some time, which I have zero recall of. I have a snippet of the nurse asking me if I knew where I was, and I snapped at her "I'm in the hospital, LEAVE ME ALONE." Next time I came to in mid sentence on my feet in a murderous rage. Very odd. This drug has permanently altered the characteristics of my brain. It's bad stuff for smart people!

2011-09-30T19:31:00.001-07:00

Off topic, one of my short stories; "Mouse In Boot"

2011-09-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

A while ago I was curled up in my bedroom with a book and a blanket. The rain was lightly falling outside. Peace reigned. Enter my 12 year old daughter Crystal. She perched on the edge of the bed and began to regale me about what all her super-pony Mike had done that day, yesterday, last year AND what this perfection of a pony might do in the future. With a sigh I closed my book and turned my attention to her.

Behind Crystal was the open doorway into my room. I saw Crystal's cat saunter into view. The kitty plopped her bottom down exactly in the doorway and sat looking at me with the piercing stare that all cats get when they have a "prize." My own gaze sharpened when I noticed the "prize," in the form of a mouse, dangling limply from Kitty's mouth.

Teaching moment; In point of fact this "mouse" was a vole. There are some minor differences between a mouse and a vole, such as the vole has a shorter tail. I really don't care about all that, it looks like a mouse and for the sake of this story I will refer to the tiny rodent wrongly as a mouse. (See photo above.)

Anyhow Kitty suddenly relaxed her jaw and the mouse seized this opportunity to run for its life! It scampered across the floor and wriggled under the closet door with Kitty and Crystal in hot pursuit. With squeals, screams and some various meows from Kitty, the door to the closet was flung open and Crystal and the cat dove in.

I managed to snatch up the cat, which tried to free itself from my grasp with a series of eel-like writhing maneuvers. I squeezed the protesting cat harder. It emitted faint little mews of excitement. At this point my attention returned to the closet. Shoes, boots and assorted clutter was flying from the interior of the closet and had become a menace to my health and safety. Particularly the high heel pumps, which, if jettisoned from a closet at a high rate of speed could cause serious bodily harm!

So there I was, my peaceful pursuit of languishing in bed forgotten in the heat of passion. That is, the heat and passion of a 12 year old girl and a cat chasing a hapless mouse! I was ducking and dodging trying to escape injury, keeping a death grip on Kitty AND trying to gain some kind of control of the situation! Crystal would periodically corner the mouse, and the mouse would, quite understandably, jump high in the air, squeak and instantly insert itself into some other corner of the closet. When the mouse jumped and squeaked, Crystal jumped and squeaked and the cat renewed its efforts to escape.

Picture me in my robe, avoiding missiles lobbed from my closet, while clutching a struggling cat to my bosom! Kitty would first try to back out of my grasp by pressing its back paws against my arm, spinning its tail in circles and trying with all its might to pop its head backwards through the crook of my arm. Then it would suddenly try to dart out forwards, placing its itty front paws along my arm and straining, it's back legs struggling to gain a purchase against my back. Did you know that a cat's body can turn almost 360 degrees at any point along its spine? All the while its cat face remained turned toward the exact spot where the mouse was, its ears tuned in to the tiny scratching noises mousey made in its valiant efforts to survive the encounter. Kitty was still making plaintive noises, albeit with a slightly breathless and muffled tone... My closet was being emptied at an alarming rate.

At length the mouse took refuge in one of my darling high heeled ankle boots and it was caught! Trapped like a rat! Keeping the cat firmly under my arm, I tried to take possession of my chi chi boot from Crystal. No dice. Crystal had no intention of relinquishing the mouse (nor the boot) to me. The mouse had run up into the tippy toe of the boot and BRACED itself in. No amount of Crystal's tapping could dislodge it.

At this point we are going to have another teaching moment; Never, ever stick your hand up inside a boot to grab a rodent, mouse, vole or otherwise that is wedged in there... They BITE! They have GERMS along with sharp teeth! Of course this is exactly what my daughter tried to do. As she shoved her hand into the boot, I screamed "STOP" at Crystal and startled her so badly that she immediately dropped the fancy footwear.

My reflexes are pretty fast, so, still tightly gripping the cat under my right arm, I seized the boot before the mouse even knew what was happening. Impacting violently with the floor didn't budge it! The mouse was still firmly ensconced in the toe of my boot. I transferred possession of the still squirming cat to my daughter with an admonition that there was a death penalty involved with letting the cat loose.

I beat the heel of the boot on the table long enough to dislodge the mouse from the toe and take the above photo. Then I took the boot containing the mouse out into the lovely pasture and set the mouse free, where it belonged. It seemed a little addled, which would be expected after this kind of treatment, but the last I saw of the little vermin, it was high tailing it (literally) into some brush.

Two pairs of reproachful eyes greeted me at the door when I got back from my errand of mercy. My daughter had wanted to keep the mouse as a pet... A wild, exotic-germ infested OUTDOOR mouse... Oh yes, that will happen in MY house! The cat was angry that I had rudely appropriated its toy. Not to mention the whole detainment thing that I had subjected it to, thereby destroying all of its cat fun with the mouse! You just can't win in these situations and I don't even try. "I'm the mom, what I say goes." Problem resolved.

Crystal, still in a snit over the release of the mouse back into the wild from whence it came, didn't want to talk about the pony any more with the likes of ME! Brat. The cat was sulking too! I swear it pooched its cat lips out at me, pouting. After one more baleful backward glance, as if to say "I've got your number pal," kitty flounced out, as only cats (and teenagers) can do, outrage exuding from every inch of its body.

I returned to my bedroom alone, to my blanket and my book. Peace reigned once again in my house. Oh yeah, and it took an hour to pick up the debris from the closet emptying exercise. Guess who got to do that? If you guessed Crystal, you are wrong. If you have ever had to deal with a twelve year old girl in a state of high dudgeon, then you know that some things are better just left alone...

PS Now Crystal wants a HAMSTER! It never ends!

"Why I Hate Anesthesia" by Frida

2011-09-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 7, 2008

Why I Hate Anesthesia

1. During anesthesia, wake up. Each and every time, especially on Versed, otherwise known as truth serum.
2. While awake, reveal your deepest secrets, ones you had not even thought were secrets because the Conscious and Unconscious never conferred and said, "hey, maybe you don't want to say that." Realize with horror what you say at the time, but there's a disconnect between lips and brain. The lips are in control. The brain looks on but is unable to act to save itself. There are things that only two people should know about, and the other person is not someone in the surgery room. Make other confessions about issues you haven't even clarified with yourself and are not even sure are entirely true.
3. Eventually, have a reaction to the anesthesia because you are recovering from a respiratory infection that's lasted weeks and you didn't want to keep postponing. Uncontrollable coughing where you cannot take in any air. Wake up as doctor pats you on the back and says that you need to stop coughing. Try to stop coughing, but keep coughing. Tell nurse to remove socks because you're too hot, and you know being hot makes you cough more. Get drowsy again. Think you're at home. Ask someone to rub your back, thinking it's your husband. Wake up again when people laugh. Say something about sex and backrubs and husband. People stop laughing. Realize you've said something really wrong.
4. Conclude from surgery prep and someone messing with your very low back that sexual assault by some random stranger is about to happen. And that you're unable to act. Give doctor an earful and chewing out. Later, remember not being still. For a spinal procedure. Pass out again.
5. Wake up a minute later shrieking in 12-level pain on a scale of 10. Shake all over, uncontrollably, from pain. Hear doctor say, "good grief." Pray aloud for Gabriel and Michael to intercede on your behalf, because God seems to have taken a step back. Pass out again. Seconds later, yell at husband to turn music in the surgery room off and let the dog out. Apologize, saying you thought you were at home again (as if you shriek at people at home). Pass out again.
(If during wisdom tooth extraction, freak out about huge metal thing being put in your mouth and what's happening to your teeth. Realize this won't last forever. Pray you'll pass out again. Pass out again.
If during colonoscopy, freak out nurse and GI doctor (oh yes, very long time since you've seen her) by suddenly saying, "cool," and asking about the pictures on the screen.)
6. Wake up again. Say something about how this is a lot like time travel. Pass out again. Hear random comments of anesthesiologist, and respond to them with your own opinion. Everyone stops talking.
7. Wake up again when they're transferring you. The anesthesiologist tells you they almost had to stop the procedure completely, that they gave you Versed, the truth serum, after waking you up from the other drug and letting it wear off a little. Recognizing "Versed" and you don't mix, ask over and over, "I didn't say anything did I? Did I?"
8. Doctor comes in to talk to you and husband. He looks concerned but won't look your husband in the eye.
9. Get dressed. Realizing your socks are not on, recognize that those distant memories of discussing them with the nurse and the other memories did not happen ten years ago and weren't some weird dream but happened within the last half hour.
10. Remember later there's always a follow-up appointment scheduled--which you've been known to "forget." Can't forget with this doctor, follow-up too important.
11. Go to restroom. Look in mirror as you wash your hands. Look in horror at burst blood vessels around your eyes from coughing so much and not getting enough air.
12. Resolve not to go under again.
13. Later, when doctor recommends going under again, say that you don't think that's a good idea. Be glad he's so nice as to say, "oh...but you were sick then." Stupidly agree to go under again.
14. Hope that this time you won't talk on Versed.

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Here's the link so you can read the comments; Frida Writes: Why I Hate Anesthesia

This old post was sent to me by a reader who HAS NOT gotten over her encounter with health care and their drug of choice Versed. All you people who think that Versed is wonderful need to wake up! Realize that there are other people that have had a severe and UNENDING reaction to this poison! Years after a single incident! What other drug can do this?

It's amazing how similar this story is to others who have recall. I remember the helpless feeling of being so drugged that I couldn't resist. Also note the"unable to stay still." This is the EXCUSE that my crna made, in writing, to oversight boards. This must be a common problem with Versed. Why wouldn't it be? Removing self control from patients and hoping that they will instead simply obey MEDICAL WORKERS orders apparently doesn't work too well. Versed isn't supposed to be an immobilization drug anyway. According to MEDICAL SADISTS themselves, Versed is just to make you calm and relaxed. Being immobilized and trapped in a body that won't obey you doesn't qualify. Dense amnesia isn't my idea of being relaxed. Obviously Frida doesn't find it so either and spent a lot of her time worrying (obsessing) over Versed as well.

Doesn't the medical field care about how much harm they are doing with this drug? The shock of having your self control wrested from you with a chemical, the humiliation, the pain (untreated due to amnesia hopes on the part of the sadists) and the whole conversations ridiculing the patient when the patient allegedly has amnesia is the perfect environment for PTSD! That's all just fine as long as the nurses jobs are easier? Really?

"Laughing!" I remember my (ahem) sweet, caring team laughing and sneering at me as well. Do you think people like to be laughed at when they are in this altered state? Short answer; NO! THIS BEHAVIOR IS NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, ACCEPTABLE.

I don't know how we got to the point that any of what Frida writes about is acceptable or even normal behavior for health care workers, but we need to step back from this. More and more people are declining to get routine health needs met out of fear of Versed. Health care itself should not generate this high level of anxiety. Isn't it enough that being sick, injured or even just "possibly" having a medical problem enough to worry about? We shouldn't have to fear the personnel as well. We shouldn't have such severe anxiety over getting shot up with Versed, a dehumanizing, control stealing drug! Especially by a group of sadistic bullies calling themselves health care workers.

Vaccines, Medical Denial and Other Problems

2011-09-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

As everybody knows who reads this blog, I was shot up with an "anti anxiety" drug, against my will and for which there was no clinical reason. I was not anxious. I was firm though about not getting any incapacitating drugs, remaining awake and alert and I refused general anesthetic. Instead of following my wishes the crna simply injected me with a patient control drug that he euphemistically called "Vitamin V." In that instant the crna destroyed ALL trust in medicine.

The crna also claimed that I was "very relaxed" after the injection. No honey I wasn't. The crna has no clue as to what I was really feeling. The blood pressure and heart rate acceleration should have told him the opposite was true. I was "very relaxed" before the injection and not after. Then he falsely claimed that I was "screaming in pain and would not hold still." That lie would have worked if I had gotten the amnesia which HE desired and *I* did not. Anyway, since then the medical community has attacked me personally. demanded empirical evidence, you know the kind of evidence that they are desperately trying to prevent! Versed isn't the only problem in the medical community and their refusal to face the truth.

I read this article over on http://www.drkevinmd.com/ When people decide not to vaccinate their children, I take it personally

Yet another Dr. takes personal choice PERSONALLY! If you don't accede to their demands in re vaccinations, they get upset. Then come all the denials that vaccinations EVER cause harm. The denial that the people responsible for the drug being on the market are the very ones who do the studies. Just because a drug company has a HUGE financial stake in selling these drugs and/or vaccines doesn't make any difference right? Everybody knows that drug companies are the most altruistic companies around and have no desire to make money...

Let me say this. If the medical community LIES and refuses to believe that there is any risk with a drug, they lose credibility. There are risks with vaccines. Look at the boondoggle with the HPV vaccine. Look at the deliberate scare mongering which goes on every single year with the flu vaccines. The side effects are minimized, but by how much? We can't trust anybody to tell us the truth, because it would interfere with attempts to scare us into using their product.

Does anybody know how much it costs for all these childhood vaccines? My insurance company balked at paying for my daughters vaccines about 10 years ago. IT WAS OVER 600 DOLLARS FOR THE NURSE TO GIVE HER A COUPLE OF SHOTS!!! The insurance company only had to pay $100. What a ripoff! This kind of crap makes us suspect that this is only a money making proposition. All of the medical people are talking about how tort reform can save us all kinds of money... Oh REALLY! Vaccine reactions are not prosecutable now are they? If you or your kid get any kind of severe reaction, you are on your own pal! Nobody has any accountability at all for bad reactions to vaccines. HAS IT MADE THEM CHEAPER? Not so I could tell.

Anyway, the above article explains the visceral hatred of medical workers toward all of us who criticise their precious drug Versed and their unholy zeal to inject us ALL with it. IT'S PERSONAL! LOL Amazing!

As an aside for the fear mongering doctor above who is personally affronted by parents choice, why don't we stop importing people with communicable diseases? HMMM? If it's so important to have a vaccination to prevent all these illnesses, doesn't it follow that maybe prevention IS the best way to go? So why put us all at risk for diseases, especially those which we have eradicated in the past and are now coming back from other countries? Maybe its deliberate so that they can sell more vaccinations? Why would you feel animosity towards parents who quite rightly are skeptical of all the "epidemics," "pandemics," and "global threats" when we deliberately import those same diseases? I can't take all this alleged "concern" for disease seriously under these circumstances.

"Emergence Delirium in Children"

2011-09-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

That's the title of the post I am putting up here;

Emergence Delirium in Children: Many Questions, Few Answers

This is a very interesting study which shows a correlation between Sevoflurane and emergence delirium. This is a study of children, but apparently it also applies to people like me and others.

Here is a quote from the article;

"On the other hand, there are studies in which midazolam premedication did not show any benefit on the quality of recovery from anesthesia (70–72). This finding may possibly be the result of applying a nonspecific measuring tool or a provision of inadequate pain control (70,72). The combination of midazolam and a small dose of diazepam may extend the beneficial effects of premedication until the recovery phase, which decreases the incidence of EA/ED (73). Paradoxically, Cole et al. (16) reported an almost ninefold higher risk of the development of EA in children who were premedicated with midazolam over those who were not premedicated before outpatient surgery under either isoflurane or halothane anesthesia. Benzodiazepines themselves are associated with paradoxical reactions and agitation that are reversed with flumazenil (13,74). Furthermore, the antianalgesic effects of midazolam might worsen pain and increase the incidence of nonspecific agitation that resembles ED (75). However, the results of this study may be disputed because of a lack of randomization in the selection process.

Premedication with melatonin has proven to be a good alternative to midazolam in reducing postoperative excitement (76)."

Pretty good stuff. Some of it is unfortunately pro Versed, but at least they have stated that the opposite can be true in the above statements.

DNP Suggests "Avoiding this drug..." (Versed)

2011-09-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

I was looking around the internet and look what I found here; VERSED (MIDAZOLAM HYDROCHLORIDE) ANESTHETICS GENERAL Drug Reviews And Ratings Online Pharmacies Reviews & Ratings & Scam Reports

Short but sweet quote;

"Versed)midazolam is horrible by DNP on September 3, 2011"

"I have a degree in nursing (DNP) and I would suggest avoiding this drug at all costs."

This person has a DOCTORATE in nursing and they say "Versed/midazolam is horrible" and "suggest avoiding this drug at all costs." My sentiments exactly.

Well Written article

2011-09-10T12:52:00.001-07:00

This article is about general anesthetic, but as we all know, Versed is almost always used. I wish they would break it down that way for us. Be that as it may, this is still a wake up call for all of us who value our brains. Here's the link to view the article in situ; Anesthesiology News - More Biomarker Data Add to Insights On Postanesthesia Cognition

I want people to read this, so I have reproduced the entire article here as well;

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Ad Lib

ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2011 VOLUME: 37:9

printer friendly email this article 0 Comment(s)

More Biomarker Data Add to Insights On Postanesthesia Cognition

by Alison McCook

General anesthesia and surgery in some cases may hasten cognitive decline—or even the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. These findings from a study in 11 patients were presented at the 2011 annual meeting of the International Anesthesia Research Society (abstract S-242), and showed that levels of key molecular markers of neuronal injury increased in the days after patients underwent endoscopic procedures.

“We don’t know if this change has clinical relevance or not,” said study co-author Roderic Eckenhoff, MD, professor of anesthesia at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. “But, at this point it’s an intriguing finding.”

Doctors have long known that a significant number of older adults experience cognitive changes in the weeks and months after undergoing general anesthesia and surgery. Immediately after procedures, up to 20% of people aged 65 years and older experience cognitive changes that last weeks, months or even longer, according to Dr. Eckenhoff. “This is a very, very common complaint from patients,” he said. “We don’t know what causes it. We know it happens.”

It also is not clear whether patients ever fully recover from that decline. Dr. Eckenhoff said the possibility that something about the surgical experience decreases cognition transiently, but also interacts with other brain pathways to cause problems that only emerge later. Results of in vitro and animal studies suggest that the combination of anesthesia and surgery can adversely affect the pathologic pathways underlying Alzheimer’s and other similar disease processes. Dr. Eckenhoff said that patients already vulnerable to neurodegeneration might be most at risk.

To better understand what happens in the human brain after general anesthesia and surgery, the investigators collected samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from eight women and three men (aged 53±6 years) undergoing surgery to correct idiopathic CSF leaks, for which lumbar catheters were placed. CSF samples were obtained before and immediately after surgery, and at six, 24 and 48 hours or until the catheter was removed. Approximately half of the patients received total IV anesthesia (TIVA); the remainder received inhaled anesthetics.

The investigators noted a significant increase in S100b and total tau—both markers of neuronal injury—after six hours. By 24 hours, tau had increased more than 200%. The proinflammatory biomarker interleukin-6 appeared to increase more in the inhalation group than in the TIVA group. “That would suggest that elements of our management—how we do general anesthesia—could in fact affect the progression of inflammatory cascades in the brain,” Dr. Eckenhoff told Anesthesiology News.

He cautioned that none of the data generated so far call for a change in practice. But there is enough evidence pointing to a problem to warrant more investigation. “The way I characterize it, there’s a smoking gun but no victim yet,” he said.

Dr. Eckenhoff said that although the data are compelling enough that he administers more regional anesthesia in his older patients whenever possible, he would “hesitate to tell other practitioners to change their practice. The data are still pretty weak at this point.” In the meantime, his group is investigating ways in which anesthesia does not cause cognitive decline.

The cognitive impact of anesthesia is a controversial research topic that has generated varied findings, according to Zhongcong Xie, MD, PhD, associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and attending anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. “For a long time, people were thinking anesthesia is pretty safe,” he told Anesthesiology News. A patient who emerged from surgery with fully functioning heart and lungs would be assessed by many doctors as having no problems. But, he said, more and more doctors are beginning to accept that “maybe this is something we should be looking at—the brain.”

Dr. Xie, who was not involved with the current study, described it as a “good start.” What researchers really need, he said, are more human studies that measure the clinical impact of anesthetics. “If you want to have a final answer you should do a functional study, follow patients for 10 or more years and see if they develop Alzheimer’s disease. But, adequately powered prospective human studies would take many years to conduct and analyze.”

Looking at biomarkers is a good first step, Dr. Xie said. These biomarkers are present in high concentrations in CSF, but in order to sample a large, diverse group of patients, researchers have to find ways to measure their blood levels. Relevant animal studies also must be conducted that will complement human studies by establishing a mechanistic hypothesis and help formulate a strategy of prevention and treatment, he said.

Researchers should continue to investigate these patterns, including whether particular drugs or patient characteristics pose more of a risk, Dr. Xie said. “There are many patients with early stages of Alzheimer’s having surgery every year; we need to study if these drugs promote their disease.”

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Why would my surgeon and everybody else involved in my care prefer to give me brain damage over doing my surgery with ONLY regional anesthesia and a pain killer? Especially in light of the fact that I refused any sedation or general anesthetic? Here's an excellent statement; “For a long time, people were thinking anesthesia is pretty safe,” he told Anesthesiology News. A patient who emerged from surgery with fully functioning heart and lungs would be assessed by many doctors as having no problems. But, he said, more and more doctors are beginning to accept that “maybe this is something we should be looking at—the brain.”

Versed For Hair Transplants; I kid you not!

2011-09-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

No matter what kind of procedure you go in for, Versed is nearly ALWAYS a part of it! Here's an article about the use of Versed for hair transplants. Subject: David Seager's Comment Valium versus Versed Wouldn't you think that this minor cosmetic stuff could be done without amnesia? Why would people accept a chance of DEATH in order to have a better hair line? Seems to me like you could get the desired hairline AND not risk death (or any of the other myriad side effects caused by using a brain disabling drug like Versed) by simply refusing the sedation.

Some quotes from the article (linked above) "Hospital morbidity and mortality reports for the past decade find IV Versed responsible for death after death. It is a dangerous drug, and in case no one knows, one of the top causes of outpatient surgical death is over-medication with IV drugs. The problem is obviously not seen in every patient, or every practice, but events that can happen one in a thousand cases can kill your patient and career. My opinion is that IV drugs just are not indicated in hair transplantation."

Well thank God this guy gets it almost right... He still thinks that IM (intramuscular) Versed is fine. He mentions the amnesia. Why does everybody need amnesia? Why can't we just have pain killer instead?

Post From Jenny's Mom

2011-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

I put this one up from my comments;

StopDU has left a new comment on your post "HEARTBREAKING!":

Thank you so very kindly for your note in response to my post about Jenny. I am so happy to hear your daughter made it through...

But I am very sad to read how Versed really messed you up. This is so tremendously tragic and UNnecessary... We need to raise awareness. I had no idea Jenny would be given something with these lethal effects. (name omitted)

Yes, we do all we can possibly do to try to protect our kids, get them (what we think is) the best care possible, and then... things go wrong with these drugs - things we were never even told could happen... And, adding insult to injury, when dental patients are deprived of Oxygen for so very long after they go south (fairly common in dental offices when these life-threatening emergencies occur)... the kids suffer severe, severe brain damage, often have seizures, go into comas, and eventually stop breathing. This, of course, shatters the survivors' world. Our children die because we were told they "must" have the wisdom teeth removed.

Now I'd rather have her live with crooked teeth. Few people die from having crooked teeth.

NP's and Big Pharma

2011-09-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

As everybody knows, crna's (certified, registered, nurse anesthetists) are allowed to pump us patients full of drugs. Apparently whether we want/need them or not. There seems to be NO oversight at all, even in the states that require oversight or "supervision." Did you know that nurse practitioners are also allowed prescribing rights? Here is an article from Dr. Kevin about the cozy relationship between NURSE PRACTITIONERS and pharmaceutical companies.

Nurse practitioners and their relationships with pharma

Here we are, patients fed up with being doped, drugged and abused, physically and mentally in the very places that we should be safe and every day it seems there are more and more people being allowed to do just that. I agree with Dr. Kevin, these nurses should have oversight, just like doctors. If they are slamming drugs into patients or pumping people full of pills, we do need to examine their relationships with big pharma. Look at the stats in the above article and see just how many of these nurses BELIEVE the pharma reps! I think it is direct reverse proportion to the number of nurses who believe the patient when told how bad a drug REALLY is.

Then these same medical workers pretend to be shocked that their patients are becoming violent. We are tired of being treated like dirt! Here is the article about that!

Understanding patient violence against health care workers

In the above article Dr. Kevin has some opinions on the increase of violence in health care. I have some ideas too! (big surprize, right?) How about treating us like human beings instead of lab rats? It doesn't take a lot of time to be pleasant. Yes I can understand the mentally ill people and violent aggressive gang banger types can nudge health care workers into the "screw them all" attitude, but that's not right, any more than it would be right for me to ASSUME that all health care workers are mentally challenged just because a group of them that *I* ran into were. (and some more of them online, but that's another story)

Another hint; If health care workers treat us like animals, then they can't be all shocked and alarmed when we treat them the same. If we can't get your attention and can't get you to treat us like real people, then expect these attempts to escalate into violence with a growing number of patients and their families. If you give us drugs, designed to turn us into amoeba's and destroy our self control, expect that destruction to also have a negative impact on patient behavior. I was violent in the PACU due to Versed and the absolute disregard for me as a person. You can't slap us down like we are nothing, and then expect civility! It just doesn't work like that.

Define Better

2011-09-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a rap song I found talking about sedating children. They aren't specifically speaking of Versed, but they ARE speaking about drugging children with sedation drugs. Even the rap stars get it that being drugged into oblivion by pharmaceuticals isn't good. BTW if you hate rap and don't want to listen, the song is talking about fighting back, "making our voice heard!"

CCHR: Big Pharma—Define 'Better' - YouTube

New Term For General Anesthetic

2011-09-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

I just read a new term for general anesthetic G/A over on http://www.versedbusters.blogspot.com/! G/A is now called "unconscious sedation!" My God does everything under the sun have to be called "sedation?" I can hardly wait for the courts to take this up! "But your Honor, I merely SEDATED my wife by punching her in the face, I didn't knock her out!" Or how about this one "Your Honor, I didn't kill that man, I just permanently sedated him!"

Come on medical people, enough is enough. Amnesia is NOT sedation. Sedation is a seperate thing from amnesia and you know it! Being ASLEEP is NOT the same as having amnesia. This statement is among the more stupid things I have heard about amnesia. General anesthetic ISN'T "unconscious sedation!" You better know the difference between being out cold and being sedated. Although medical people can't seem to differentiate between the different states. Having AMNESIA doesn't qualify as pain free! (especially since you people are restraining struggling and screaming patients. You know better than that.) Awake and alert isn't being an amnestic zombie. Cooperation isn't mindless "purposeful" obedience to commands. Being DEAD doesn't qualify as having amnesia either. How ignorant. You guys need to start acting like normal people and stop trying to redefine plain English. It makes you look sneaky and uninformed.

Zombies!

2011-09-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is tongue in cheek from Bob Hope. No offense Democrats, I just like the whole shock about zombies. Now apparently it's no problem to turn people into zombies. LOL these old actors describe Versed effects perfectly... Bob Hope in "The Ghost Breakers" - YouTube

"Keep Versed Out Of Your Head!"

2011-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

A fellow Versed sufferer found this new blog post and sent it to me. I now share it with you.

Sweet Rocket: Versed (midazolam): Avoid This Drug!

The title of my post is a catchy slogan that "Susan" the writer of the above linked blog came up with. I love it. Very good Susan! Thanks for your "public service" in warning people about this drug. Medical people deny that any of the symptoms we ALL describe could POSSIBLY be the Versed... They need to wake up and smell the coffee.

More On Pediatric Sedation W/Versed

2011-08-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/medicine/bmj/nnf4/pdfs/midacomment.pdf

This is a really interesting read. This pilot study named "The NOPAIN Trial" decided to "exclude any further study of this drug (Verse/Midazolam) during the larger NEOPAIN study." Paraphrasing; They decided that the risks were too great to justify subjecting these infants to further Versed testing.

Here's another finding; " The widespread use of continuous Midazolam infusion remains one of a large number of neonatal treatment stratagies that have come into widespread use over the last 15 years without ever undergoing rigorous evaluation." (Medical people are so enamored of this drug, that they use it regardless of the bad reactions many of these babies and children experience. Siezures, adverse neurological events, to include death, intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia etc. are some of the problems with using Versed. Judging by the reaction *I* personally get, I don't think that medical people WANT any "rigorous evaluation" of the efficacy of Versed.)

I want to remind everybody, like the NOPAIN group did, that Versed/Midazolam is NOT A PAINKILLER! It's a drug to keep these babies quiet.

Maybe we should all request a prescription for Versed/Midazolam when we take our babies home. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to drug the baby so that we can get some sleep? (SARCASM!)

Neonates and Midazolam/Versed

2011-08-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

I googled "neonates Midazolam" this morning and found this study, right off the bat. Intravenous midazolam infusion for sedation of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

Here is the summary;
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Plain language summary

Intravenous midazolam infusion for sedation of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

There is no evidence to show the benefit of midazolam as a sedative for newborn babies in neonatal intensive care. Newborn babies undergoing uncomfortable procedures in intensive care units may need sedation to reduce stress and avoid complications. It is difficult to measure their pain so sedatives or pain killers are sometimes overlooked for newborn babies. Midazolam is a short acting sedative increasingly used in neonatal intensive care. The review of trials found no evidence to support the use of midazolam as a sedative for neonates undergoing intensive care. Babies receiving midazolam stayed in hospital longer and had more adverse effects. More research is needed to address the safety and effect of midazolam.

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"THERE IS NO EVIDENCE TO SHOW THE BENEFIT OF MIDAZOLAM AS A SEDATIVE FOR NEWBORN BABIES IN NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE." That's pretty plain language! "BABIES RECEIVING MIDAZOLAM STAYED IN THE HOSPITAL LONGER AND HAD MORE ADVERSE EFFECTS." I wonder if they have studied the effects on the babies BRAINS? There are other studies which say that pregnant or nursing WOMEN should NOT get Versed/Midazolam lest it adversely effect their babies, either through the bloodstream or through the breast milk.

Versed Sufferer; Contact Nader!

2011-08-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here's an e-mail I got from another Versed sufferer. She happens to have other life threatening physical problems and can't really avoid medical treatment... Here's what she writes.
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"I was also on the most recently recalled pills, ACTOS for diabetes but the attorney taking the cases was only taking the ones that ALREADY developed the bladder cancer and that usually requires 1 year of actos treatment, i have only been on it for about 5 or 6 months!

I have been posting on all alzheimers and autism boards for the families to get the medical records and check to see if their family members were treated with midazolam {MOST pre-term babies and sick babies {no matter the sickness} are automatically treated with midz during their ENTIRE hospital stay}

Why would you need compliance hypnosis or amnesia for a baby born at 7 months??? it affects the same part of the brain that causes alzheimers. Perhaps a way to control the future generations? I have been posting it on every site so pass this info along, they should all start calling Ralph Nader, it is the class action group that is doing the research on this drug as well as the first group I talked to was a drug litigation group for Nader.

So if this crap never leaves our system and months and years later some of us are still fighting the effects, after starting to get better I am regressing and freaking out again, not being able to think of words and not being able to read or write correctly can't spell, like halfway to aphasia I am scared shitless. I am on my way to a state or county nursing home where they feed you versed every day in a pill to make sure you go fast---you know, using up the resources and the mind rape and this planned euthanasia for our age group.

Please post Nader's # for folks and the website, his # for the groups is listed at the bottom of the page:

Public Citizen Home Page ,

Main office

Headquarters for: Member Services, Health Research Group, Litigation Group and Communications Office
1600 20th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000

we NEED to flood his office non stop to get this shit going, explain to me why a 7 month term baby needs amnesia and compliance hypnosis? What is the baby going to do to obey? Stop crying? turn over when told? Hold their arm out and be still to get their iv put in?

I am also thinking of starting a campaign to call the white house and demand that Obama do something about versed, it's other forms and the FDA immediately."

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I have already tried calling the WH. The gentleman there (volunteer) told me that he thinks that the reason they use Versed so much in a medical setting is that medical people are "only trying to avoid malpractice suits." So avoiding malpractice suits brought by people who object to mistreatment and/or torture is a perfectly acceptable reason to destroy peoples' brains. I feel really sorry for medical people, don't you?

For John Connor, NP, PICU

2011-08-26T04:49:00.001-07:00

John I'm not going to post any more of your ignorant rants. Your "stupid bitch" comments going back for over a year, and maybe longer are proof enough of your lack of intellect, your hatred of women and your mental disorder. Narcissists are unable to see any point of view which is not their own. That would account for the tedious (and unimaginative) name calling, and the ridiculous claims you make here. While it has been fun to tear you apart, I'm now bored with you. If you want a forum to prove your complete lack of empathy or understanding, and your narrow-minded, bigoted point of view, start your own blog! I'm sure you can attract others with your same mental health problems. Then you can smugly write back and forth among yourselves, assuring each other that you are indeed the superior beings which you try to convince US of!

1st PS; John if you would like, you can e-mail me and we can exchange insults, argue the merits of any drug you desire, and you can call me stupid bitch all you want! I can send you all the info that I have gleaned from scientific, empirical studies about Versed use, including all the studies about Versed use in the ICU. I can also send you all the links to Ketamine as well. You aren't READING those posts are you? I can compile them for you and send them on. E-mail me at nomidazolam at aol dot com.

What we will NOT be doing is using MY blog for your juvenile insults and your lunatic beliefs. Nobody wants to hear any more from you. I am going to be generous and keep talking to you. Think of me as your counselor. You really do need to vent and I'm here for you John! You are just NOT going to be allowed to ridicule, besmirch, anger, annoy, harass, irritate, shock, dismay or otherwise upset my readers, some of whom are very sensitive. I know you don't understand sensitivity because you don't personally possess that trait, but perhaps I can educate you.

2nd PS; John, I am not going to put up any more of your posts! Don't you understand what that means? If you want to have discussions with me, civil or otherwise you must e-mail me. Please, John, I'm begging you READ THE DAMN POSTS FIRST before you go off half cocked! A lot of the stuff you are so nasty and uninformed about are SCIENTIFIC STUDIES! Which means that *I* did not write them nor did I make them up. This isn't rocket science John... It's readin 101. Basic stuff. Try not to look like such a fool, can you? LOL

3rd ps; Hi John. My stepfather the Dr. isn't peds but he is internal medicine and has lots of experience with older folks with problems as you describe. I'll get back to you on what he says. I already know that he won't allow Versed to be used on himself...

My own thoughts, since you ask... First of all we would have to determine what the desired outcome is. For you as a nurse it is probably just to have these children appear quite. For me it would be to actually have them TRANQUIL, not amnestic. There are other drugs which are merely tranquilizers if you want the kids quiet. I don't think that amnesia is such a good thing. I think Versed disrupts the neuro pathways in a dangerous and sometimes permanent way. I would never allow this drug to be used to immobilize MY kid! I'm not a fan of Propofol either as anything that can leave you awake and obedient, but screw with the memory pathways is suspect.

My thinking is that if these kids are old enough to rip their tubes out as you suggest, so are old enough to see if you can manage them with information and NURSING care. I think that a nurse is so much more than a drug pusher. (or should be) I know you guys are busy, but maybe not so busy for a comforting word and a little explanation? With Versed they are LIVING THROUGH the torment, but unable to do anything about it. Helplessness is horrendous I don't care how old you are. Maybe they can remember it later and maybe they can't. YOU DON'T KNOW! Can you imagine being trapped inside your own body, unable to move and perhaps not having amnesia? Can you? How BORING it would be if nothing else? How grinding the pain might be while your nurses ignore you, give you scant pain meds etc. because they think you may not remember, or because you are immobilized with a Versed drip? The scariest thing for kids and you were one John, are the things that go bump in the night. FORCING them not to remember much is like feeding the monsters.

I know you think I am the worst kind of horrible moron, but *I* had the experience with this brain damage drug Versed. I have had experience with other benzos, so whatever they did to the rings on the Versed molecule acted on my brain in a severely detrimental fashion. I know that others may not or perhaps mostly do not have the same reaction as I have had. The problem is that I would NEVER EVER risk this kind of reaction. Especially not with formative brains.

You ask me what *I* would use. Have you tried Stirifentol? Oxycarbazepine? (Using Versed for siezures is an off label use, not approved by the FDA, be very careful with that John) How 'bout just plain old Valium, which is not usually an amnestic unless you are giving it in way high doses. I am still not sure what exactly it is that you want out of the drugs. It SHOULD vary case by case, but the way you present it is that you use Versed for everything and anything. I think you want AMNESIA in these kids and the sedated part is a copout. Or, you want to not be bothered with them and so want them totally immobilized. If they are in such pain, why have them "conscious" of it, amnesia or not? Let them sleep.

Fentanyl "sedates" me (normal usage of word, not medical terminology) and keeps me pain free. I have not become addicted to any pain med. Aleve (NSAID) works better for me than Oxy. Everybody is different. BTW I have ALWAYS awakened from general anesthesia struggling and in restraints. This was so much better than the Versed awakening where I was loose and out of control in the PACU trying to kill people. The side effects with the Versed were also way, way worse than just having regular g/a. The kiddies may prefer having their mind intact, but their body restrained as well.

What I mean by my long explanation is this John. It's not enough to treat the physical body and ignore the most important part of being human. The mind. Don't wreck the brain for some transient easing of YOUR job. Especially not kids who are pretty much weak, helpless and small anyway. You claim to be providing excellent care and yet you insist on destroying kids brains with Ketamine and Versed. It's not possible to do both. I think you like these drugs because it's easier for YOU! That's why all the vitriol. Most of the time your posts just drip venom.

As far as doing "grand rounds" I think not. I don't have the training for that. (I know you are being facitious) I would however always be available if your hospital wanted a lay person to teach some sensitivity classes from my unique perspective. If you stop swearing at me and treating me like I'm a sub human, mentally challenged individual, I'll give you my phone number and we can set it up. Always a pleasure hearing from you.

pps. What would YOU DO if you couldn't get Versed? Let those kids move and kill themselves? Do not even TRY to go there with me honey. You and I both know there are better drugs for each individual case than Versed. Versed is just easier for medical workers for a variety of reasons, all of which I have heard before.

4th PS; John, grow up.

An E-mail

2011-08-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

I got this e-mail from a friend of mine who has also been the victim of Versed. This was in response to a certain person who comes here (and everywhere I've been apparently) and swears at me, takes exception to my dislike of Versed etc. He thinks he is all that, but I am not the only person who objects to his graphic language and quasi-literate rants. (Yes we do talk about this stuff behind medical people's backs...)
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"Oh, Jackie: What an example of a person working in health "care". I have been seriously disgusted before, but this is a new low. Apparently he has never been held accountable for his behavior.
Of course, I am astounded by the hostility that would drive continuous attacks like this. It is also amazing that a person would repeatedly call you a stupid bitch when you clearly are not dim nor intellectually deprived (flowery way to say you aren't inferior in learning and expressive skills!)
While I can cuss with the best of the dock workers on Lake Erie, I must also point out that the same old insult displays a lack of thoughtful debate skills. It also indicates a deficit in awareness of the effectiveness of one's communications. (like that? learned it years ago) The intended recipient of the insult (you) will usually become immune to the intended slur after too much repetition and numerous errors. Where is his creativity if he perceives himself to be so clever? Where are his brilliantly crafted sentences? You've done some excellent writing: that must make him furious. But it didn't make him any smarter or more insightful. Helped me a great deal, though.
I still want to slap him (not creative of me) and that Mike weirdo and all the doctors and nurses that think they are the apostles of amnesia and we are anxious to be converted to their demented faith in versed. They all seem to think we former patients are overly anxious if we expect to be treated with human dignity. Right. We know this answer: we are all stupid and dumb (their beloved chemical renders us unable to speak so this is true) and therefore we deserve to be treated like rodents. Chemically caged, and rendered helpless. These are bad intentions no matter what spin Connor and his cronies want to project.
I will keep my blood vessels and colon to myself, intact and as far away from those bozos as possible.
How can they possibly question this is a set up for PTSD? I am eight months out from my abuse and still having nightmares and intrusive thoughts. I've been diagnosed. The worst part? I have the personality structure that is supposed to help people recover from trauma. What in the name of God does this drug do to people that are more vulnerable to developing the crippling after effects of trauma?
I like Gin's idea. then maybe someone would get interested in a documentary film. That would scare the crap out of people too. But I don't think they make any money either, darn it. The number of anti-versed comments isn't decreasing, that is for sure."
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I feel vindicated! Thanks!

Book Anybody?

2011-08-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Gin, just suggested a possible book idea! She thinks that we should do a compilation of our horror stories and have it printed up. I wonder if it would sell? Non-fiction horror stories! She states that maybe with the profits we could hire a class action attorney to go after these lawless Versed pushing thugs in the medical field.

Anyway, Gin also suggests that we all contact Ralph Nader's group about Versed. I have done this, years ago, but along the way we Versed haters have picked up more and more "members" of our group. I think it's worth a try! Let's inundate Nader's office with complaints about Versed. Not just the horrible and long lasting damage it causes, but also the sneaky way it's used. By LAW, these people must tell you the nature of the drug, it's effects and side effects, the risks, benefits and alternatives! Anybody get ANY of this information? How many times has ANYBODY in the medical community admitted that Versed is a problem for lots of patients? NEVER?

Medical folks will defend their use of this brain poison to their dying breath. They will never admit that they are deliberately subjecting their patients to enormous risks just to make their own job easier. Like it's really hard to start with... They will never admit that they are circumventing the law as it pertains to informed consent so that they can obtain "patient compliance" and amnesia. That's illegal! Let's get something done about it!

There is no reason that we need our delicate BRAIN toyed with and wrecked so that over-paid under-worked medical people can have their way with us... Why should we have to have long term emotional and memory problems just to get a simple medical procedure done? There is no excuse for being battered by medical practitioners.

Sedation NOT Necessary For This Doc!

2011-08-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is from www.KevinMd.com Specifically here; Experiencing the professionalism of nurses and medical residents This Doc wrecked his nose in a swimming pool. They had to do some painful things to it, but even HE got through it without the evil poison called Versed! Enjoy!

Lorazepam, NOT Midazolam or Propofol

2011-08-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here's the article; Continuous infusions of lorazepam, midazolam, and ... [Crit Care Med. 1999] - PubMed result That's right, Midazolam sedation is EXPENSIVE regardless of the cheap cost of the drug itself. Once again this article focuses on cost and doesn't say a word about how well these patients survive the hospital stay in regards to their mental health. But, you know me, anything that points to Versed being bad, regardless of whether it is just the cost, makes me happy!

PubMed Article States Propofol Cheaper!

2011-08-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Despite the cost of Propofol sedation, the quicker recovery time actually negates the additional cost of the drug over Midazolam. This article doesn't go into any comparisons between the POCD issues with each drug. Course we all know that the patients mental progress through ICU stays doesn't matter. Success is that the physical body survives, not that the brain does as well.

Prolonged sedation of critically ill patients with... [Crit Care Med. 1997] - PubMed result

Not A Big Fan Of Propofol...

2011-08-21T12:44:00.001-07:00

I am NOT a big fan of Propofol, but given the choice of Midazolam/Fentanyl and Propofol/Alfentanil as proposed in this study; Give me the Propofol please, if these 2 protocols are the only choices.

Propofol-alfentanil versus fentanyl-midazolam in c... [J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 1996] - PubMed result

So you see that Versed is NOT a necessary ingredient in "balance" anesthesia. Nor is it the ONLY drug for sedation. Here's hoping that everybody begins phasing out the horrid drug Versed!

Amazing Isn't It?

2011-08-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here we have yet another patient trying to figure out how to prevent the use of Versed. This person has ALREADY HAD a LIFE THREATENING adverse reaction to this poison and wishes not to have it. Look at the Yahoo Question in situ; Limiting anesthesia consent? - Yahoo! Answers
Here is the post...

Ed Smith

Limiting anesthesia consent?

I'm having outpatient surgery (elbow with a Bier block) and a colonoscopy. Due to previous severe reactions to sedation I need to have these done without sedation and nobody has a problem agreeing to this verbally. I'm adding: "I'm not consenting to sedation or general anesthesia" to the anesthesia consent to make sure that I don't end up with a life-theratening adverse drug reaction (again). My question is: who should I have sign the modified consent; the anesthesiologist or the crna or both? thanks

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Here's one of the answers;

by Pangolin

Good luck with that.

I wouldn't sign anything that limited my ability to take care of you.

Bier blocks use a lot of local anesthesia, and if the cuffs fail, you will have local anesthetic toxicity and probably have seizures as a result of it. The treatment for that would be to give you drugs used in sedation/anesthesia. I would not restrict my ability to save your life.

What is the anesthesiologist supposed to do if you become combative, or out of control in some other way? Very unlikely, but not unheard of. What if you have some other complication, such as a perforated colon during the colonoscopy (I've seen that happen personally 3 times)? That requires emergency surgery with a general anesthetic.

Tell your anesthesiologist what your reactions were, and to which drugs. We can work around that.

Source(s):

I'm an anesthesiologist.

---------------------------------------------------------

I am not a Dr., I'm just a patient who has been damaged by the same arrogant ideas as have been put forth by the person calling herself Pangolin. She LOVES Versed and constantly is looking for posts such as "Ed" put up, so that she can tell everybody how wonderful Versed is. Look at how she says she will refuse to provide medical care if you don't allow her to use Versed! Really? She won't sign something that restricts her use of Versed! There is no way I would allow this. Cancel surgery and get another MDA who CAN help without using a drug that has already caused a life threatening reaction.

Look at the next to last sentence if you don't believe me. "Tell your anesthesiologist what your reactions were..." DON'T DO IT! Not unless they have already signed the legal document to refrain from any use of Versed. Here's why; They will decide that your reaction isn't a reaction to Versed. They will probably decide that there is no "allergy" or anything else to Versed. It's the "ABV Syndrome" again. Then you will get Versed. They will claim that you became "combative, or out of control in some other way." She's telling you ahead of time what the excuse(s) will be! Listen to her.

I have had a Bier block for wrist surgery. I did NOT receive sedation as well. I got Fentanyl for pain (tourniquet pain gets pretty rugged after a while, no pain from Beir block area at all) which doubles as a very mild sedative. My alternating tourniquet malfunctioned and I could feel the bubbling effect up my arm. I did NOT have the "anesthetic toxicity" that Pangolin baldly states you WILL HAVE! I did NOT have a seizure. I did NOT panic! I did NOT need sedation (and amnesia) for this problem. I did NOT have to have general anesthesia because my tourniquet failed. Are you getting my drift? All problems encountered in an OR have alternatives to Versed. It truly isn't needed at all. It's simply DESIRED by your medical team. The desires and WHIMS of anesthesia providers should not be the PATIENTS problem! Pangolin stated on another of her posts that it is the WHIM of the anesthesia provider which dictates what you will get. That is unacceptable to me! What about you?

Also, anybody who has any empirical evidence that the (ONLY) treatment and or reversal for "anesthesia toxicity" due to numbing agents in extremity surgery being Versed, please send me the documents. I have seen where providers WANT to use Versed to treat seizures... That's an OFF LABEL USE of Versed, as in NOT approved by the FDA! (in my opinion Versed should never have been approved in the first place. Not after all the deaths associated with it) I am very cautious about that. There haven't been enough studies to warrant this off label use. Along with the awful side effects of Versed, it doesn't stand to reason that Versed is the ONLY drug for seizures. These people are after the amnesia, not the anti-siezure properties that Versed may or may not have. So once again Versed isn't NECESSARY!

Pangolin goes on about colonoscopy perforations. I have read that there are zero perforations without sedation. I mean you'd think that SOME perforations would occur without Versed and/or Propofol in use wouldn't you? I'm not seeing data to support that you are at risk of perforation due to lack of sedation. The opposite is true as far as I can tell.

I AM, however seeing anecdotal comments about it from health care providers! It's that whole "relaxing" lie again! Oh yes, it will "relax" the colon and prevent perforation. Or maybe not... If you are screaming, fighting, writhing and trying to escape the torture like you do while on Versed, that might not be the best thing to be doing if you want to avoid perforations. I'm after scientific empirical PROOF that Versed sedation prevents perforations.

Sedation-free is the only way *I* would go on the colonoscopy. It reduces the risks associated with sedation, which are many, regardless of what medical people say. Look it up. Here's my theory; no sedation=no perforations=no g/a. For Ed, no sedation=no life threatening reactions as well.

Be careful out there! Have the crna, his/her supervising MDA, any other "witnesses" such as the OR or Endo nurse sign the Versed refusal, as well as the Dr. who is performing the procedure(s) at point of service. Read everything, right down to the manufacturer of the document itself. Strike anything that has to do with "Dr. can decide," anything that says anything at all about g/a or sedation etc. You may want to interview the person who will be doing the anesthesia PRIOR to meeting the first time in an intimidating place like a hospital. They WILL call you on the phone ahead of time if you insist. That way you can make sure you don't get somebody like the above anesthesiologist. I have no problem demanding that MY needs are met and that the person I am going to enrich with a LOT of money realizes that I'm in charge, not them. There are medical people out there who consider the patient important. I know because I managed to find one. I'm in charge of what happens to me, which means NO VERSED! (It also means no G/A unless extant circumstances arise which *I* will determine necessitates G/A. Not the anesthetist or surgeon, endo doc, whomever.)

NOTE; I speaking of ELECTIVE procedures of the non-life threatening sort, not an emergency. I cannot have Versed under ANY circumstances (medical jewelry tells them that) but it is conceivable that I might need G/A if I'm crushed by a horse, crash my motorcycle etc. BUT, I will never, ever need Versed.

Offshoot of Midazolam Poisoning, Medical COSTS

2011-08-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

I got this in my inbox. Feeling Poorer? Health Care Bears Some Blame I have opined that Versed/Midazolam adds millions and BILLIONS (trillions over time) to the cost of health care. Everybody is getting this poison for just any little pretext. Proof is even in the people who come here to badger me! They claim Versed is safe BECAUSE it's used millions of times per day. Let's examine their claims.

The lowest estimate I have been able to find of the additional cost of sedation is $300. (this is a ridiculously LOW number! Normal is 1 or 2 THOUSAND dollars for Versed sedation.) If you multiply that $300 number by just one million, what do you get? That's PER DAY! The actual cost is much, much more at least in my case...

First on the "additional cost" list is the whiney crybaby crna. Mine cost an additional $800 dollars. These little anesthesia nurses are all over the web moaning that $250,000 a year or so isn't enough for sedating people and forcing them to submit! Then factor in the cost of your other nurse(s). That cost goes up for each level of care. So once you are sedated the medical center can charge you MORE MONEY for the same damn nurse(s). Next on the list is the ability for the care-givers to claim you gave consent for more procedures and drugs than you did. In my case the cost of G/A is a direct result of the Versed injection. This is purposeful. If they can't get permission beforehand they give you Versed so that they CAN get permission after Versed. You would probably even SIGN SOMETHING while under the influence of Versed. In my NEVER TO BE HUMBLE opinion, all of these costs are can and should be laid at the door of Versed.

I would sure like to see a study about how much our costs for medical care have accelerated since the advent of Versed! I would also like to see a true report on the additional costs associated with using a crna. After all, the cost seems to be the same whether using a nurse or an MDA and often the nurse is required by law to have an MDA "supervisor." (careful with medical terminology because "supervision" is another word which means something different to medical people than it does to us.) I believe that the number associated with just these 2 things would end in a LOT of zeros.

Ok, so what about those of us who have a severe and long lasting reaction to Versed? How much have we spent on counseling subsequent to Versed? How much have we spent on prescription drugs to combat the long term effects of Versed, PTSD, panic attacks and the like? How many people have ended up in an extended care facility or nursing home because of POCD brought on by sedation with Versed? How much does that cost? What about the loss of productivity because of the slowdown of mental accuity due to Versed? A lot of people I've talked to have lost their job because their brain never returned to their pre-Versed condition.

(Stats on iatrogenic problems here; THE LEADING CAUSE 0F DEATH IN THE US IS THE HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM I take exception to the "inadvertant" medical harm done in re Versed because medical people are INTENT on injecting Versed, so it really isn't "inadvertant" harm is it? Just think of all the extra money that the medical people rake in because of their mistakes! The charts on the above link are shocking! If you don't like the numbers on this particular site, I invite you to look at many, many other sites where the stats remain pretty much the same. I'd like to see stats on ONLY Versed, as opposed to the medication mistakes in total, by reputable post medical care investigations.)

What a windfall this Versed has turned out to be for the profit margin of medical care!

Blurb

2011-08-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

I found a little nugget here; ASA: Patients demand physicians provide anesthesia care At the very bottom is an obvious crna extolling the virtues and perfection of, well, crna's of course. Here's the statement that I find disturbing...

"But most important - the American public believes that their attending surgeon is probably in the OR..." This is from "NShort"

How many times have I said that I am not sure that my alleged surgeon is who actually performed my crude surgery. Given the amount of nerve damage and all those screws sticking out everywhere, I have often (almost) jokingly claimed that the janitor tried his/her hand at ORIF distal Radius surgery. I am not convinced 100% that a janitor DIDN'T do the surgery. The surgical outcome for my arm doesn't demonstrate even a basic level of skill.

If I had had my instructions followed and had been given the nerve block, pain meds and nausea meds as I PRESCRIBED I would have known who was performing my surgery wouldn't I? But no, I am not allowed to dictate to these superior beings what is acceptable to me! Well, my outcome is not acceptable to me either.

Medical people, I detailed that IF the extremely dangerous and unpredictable axillery block (according to the crna/phony MDA) didn't work, they had my instructions to perform an additional block (Bier) or use lidocaine, procaine or whatever to infuse the area of surgery. That's it. NO conversion to G/A! Not only did I get everything that was expressly forbidden, my surgery was so poorly performed that I will never completely believe that an actual doctor did it.

Now I see the quote above and I wonder; What the Hell are you people doing? Do we patients have to demand a video tape of our surgery? Really? What a bunch of scum-bags you are if this type of patient oversight is required! Stop trying to give us amnesia so you can substitute beginners for doctors! Stop trying to give us amnesia so that you can "obtain consent" from drugged out people! Obviously patient monitoring and recording is REQUIRED to make sure you guys are doing the right thing.

I am not a training cadaver. Whomever *I* decide will do the surgery MUST do the surgery. Interns, residents, PA's and janitors can get somebody else. Another thing, if *I* am going to be used as the training cadaver, then I demand a huge reduction of rates, or maybe these trainees should be paying me a fee for use of my body as a training tool. I would be taking unnecessary risks by allowing trainees to work on my body and I believe I should be entitled to some kind of remuneration for this. If my surgeon chooses to be golfing when he is supposed to be performing my surgery, I need to know this and I certainly won't expect to PAY THIS PERSON, for work performed by somebody else.

What an alarming statement this piece of work made. And apparently HE has no problem at all with this kind of thing going on wherever HE works. So all that crap we've been given about the safety of numbers of people working together in a medical situation are bogus. They are all in collusion to rob us of our money, rights, dignity and health etc. aren't they?

AWESOME Article on Dr. Kevin's Site

2011-08-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

I got this article from my inbox. I subscribe to KevinMD.com and every once in a while he puts up an article that is so insightful I feel it belongs here... Here is the link;

What this doctor learned when he was a patient

I have taken the liberty of reproducing a couple of quotes from Dr. D, the author of the above article. Mainly as a way to get you to read it. (My remarks are in parenthesis)

"Just a few days as a hospital patient cleared my mind of any misconceptions. Abject helplessness combined with severe pain trumps everything. And helplessness is far worse than pain. Dr. D had never done anything as a doctor that caused more stress than allowing myself to be put to sleep for a major operation with a surgeon I had only spoken to for 30 seconds."

(Does this sound familiar? It's the HELPLESSNESS combined with rude arrogant jailer-like health care workers that was so devastating to me. Versed is the worst drug in the world for making us helpless. We have no control over our bodies, our memories, (most of the time) and we are subjected to torture. I wonder how this Dr. would feel if he DIDN'T 'allow himself to be put to sleep' by a NURSE and was put to sleep anyway. Talk about HELPLESS!)

"The real surprise was realizing that duration of pain was far worse than intensity. I had a throbbing pain during my recovery that I could rate as a 4 if I’m generous, but it lasted for weeks and nearly drove me insane. Low-intensity pain that won’t leave can make a person much more miserable than 10 out of 10."

(The pain from a tourniquet applied at pressure and unrelieved for 70 minutes, when it actually could have been alternated, was more excruciating than the surgery itself. And it lasted longer than the pain of the incision. This doc is correct, the constant pain is MUCH worse than high pain that doesn't last in my case as well. The same thing happened with the pain from my ORIF femur!)

"3 weeks of lying on my back absolutely helpless and unable to do anything had me at the lowest place I’ve every been. One night I—a generally tough dude—cried myself to sleep."

(Been there, done that. I am so tough and un-emotional in emergencies that I reset my own arm. Couldn't let my daughter see it all deformed... I did an excellent job too. My Femur was another story. I tried to reset it, but it folded backward at mid thigh and I was sitting on my knee with my foot protruding behind me, flat on the ground. My unbroken leg was straight out in front of me where I sat. The grinding, ice clinking sensation when I tried to drag the leg and foot back out in front of me, where it looked normal, reminded me that there was a Femoral Artery in there just waiting to be cut. Since I could already feel the bleeding inside my leg (major warmth followed by swelling) I decided I needed professional help immediately. Like Dr. D, helpessness is NOT my friend...)

"Okay, I have to admit something a bit embarrassing here: We doctors sometimes think of our patients as a completely alien form of human life. It isn’t intentional. We wouldn’t even admit it out loud. It’s a weird psychological quirk that happens like a reflex."

(Oh I can't believe that! (heavy sarcasm, facetiousness, whatever) After my debacle with my ORIF distal Radius fracture and my experiences running this blog, I have said this about medical workers many times. Maybe not in the same funny way, but pretty much my take on the attitude of medical workers. "...weird psychological quirk..." Yup!)

"Doctor D has spent a lot of time educating you on how to deal with difficult doctors. One of the worse maladies plaguing the medical field is piss-poor communication, and Dr. D’s orthopedist has about the communication skills of a mentally-retarded clam."

(Ya THINK! LOL How many of us have these same complaints, but when we say ANYTHING about it we are verbally attacked by medical workers. This man has such insight, and conveys his knowledge with a sense of humor. I hope you guys can enjoy him. "...piss-poor communication, ...a mentally-retarded clam." Oh LAWD, that just about sums it up with my surgeon as well. Wiping eyes.)

More On My Personal Experience With Versed

2011-08-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Most of my friends know my story, but by now it's buried way back in my blog.

I went to the outpatient treatment center at a big medical center. My surgeon had conned me into doing this ORIF thing for my broken arm. Supposed to be a simple surgery with very little risk associated with it. The surgery was supposed to allow me to return to work almost immediately. The surgery is easily done with a nerve block. This is what I consented to. I consented to a low risk surgery and a nerve block for anesthesia.

Enter the crna Aaron. He pretended to be my MDA. At no time did he reveal that he was a nurse OR that he was going to perform my anesthesia. I needed to know one or the other of these important facts. I would never have allowed a nurse to perform any anesthesia upon me at all. Not a nerve block and not any of the rest of the stuff he did to me against my will and without my consent. I clearly stated that ANY drug that would incapacite me was strictly forbidden and no G/A. (Nurse or not, this was NOT allowed!)

The next problem is the substitution of a PA whom I had never met as my Doctor of record. At no time was Travis identified to me as my substitute surgeon. There I was waiting for my surgeon to come in and explain things, but Travis was there instead. Of course I had no questions of Travis... Who the Hell was he and why was he in the room? I didn't know enough to ask that question. Stupid me, I had CONTRACTED with a specific person as surgeon and HE NEVER APPEARED PRIOR TO SURGERY. He sent a complete stranger who never identified themselves as my new surgeon. Tricky!

Upon injection of Versed, which I am pointing out is an INCAPACITATING DRUG, the first thing I noticed was an inability to speak. In my head, everything seemed normal, except that when I tried to talk, gibberish came out. I was very puzzled. Had to think about THAT little item. Unfortunately as I was trying to figure out why I couldn't get the words to form from my mouth, the nurse was busily injecting more poison into my body.

The next thing I noticed was that I was very obedient. I had a desire to obey them and I did. At least my body did. There was a peculiar disconnect from my brain to my body. I could not stop myself from obeying their every command. Trust me, this is not comforting at all. In the TRAPPED part of me, my soul if you will, I was frustrated, infuriated, horrified, aghast, etc. that my body was obeying THEM and was completely beyond my control. I have never felt so helpless and humiliated in my life. My blood pressure and heart rate shot up.

I couldn't do anything about it by this time... I was too uncoordinated. I tried to keep them from touching me, but they just laughed at me. I was an object of scorn and derision. At the time I had NO IDEA that I was supposed to have amnesia. The slurring of words is supposed to be the clue that you have amnesia. You would not believe the change in attitude that slurring of words brings on in a medical suite. Like that song "Carnival" which I quote in an earlier post, it was if "Makeup on their faces, actors took their places, next to me." The complete change in their behavior was uncanny. In a way, I wish the amnesia had worked. I wouldn't have the memory of their callous disregard for me, and their hateful statements, once they felt I was helpless and had amnesia. But I was cognizent, trapped in an insane asylum that was called medical care.

Whenever my surgeon finally got around to seeing me, over an hour late, he immediately flipped my arm over backwards and began trying to see how far he could bend my wrist into unatural shapes. He called it "manipulating" the arm. Is this good? I was scared that he would do some nerve damage among other things by doing this. Since I had no idea that the incision was going to be throught the tendons on the underpart of my arm, it was a mystery as to why he was bending it backwards to start with. Then he nastily said "Put her out."

I swear to you I was being as still as I could. Absolutely motionless. I was afraid that they would do even worse things to me, like give me G/A against my will. They had already drugged me with a "date rape drug" against everything I told them and now I was afraid that if I did or said anything, that they would knock me out. So I stayed still and silent, but my horrible surgeon ordered them to "put her out" anyway.

At this time I truly expected my team to say something like "But Dr. this patient has refused G/A, we can't give it to her." My mind must have been addled because they had already beaten me over the head with Versed against my instructions, why would I think they would follow the rest of my directives? Why in the world would I still have hope that they would follow the law about informed consent? I knew I HAD NOT SIGNED any document to allow the use of Versed or G/A, but this didn't matter.

My body continued to obey them as they prepared to do what my surgeon wanted. I couldn't believe it! I still can hardly believe it. I was totally trapped in a part of my brain, watching, listening and enduring. Bad, bad, BAD experience.

Also of note is the stories they all made up about what happened. I kept telling them that I know what had happened and that they were telling me falsehoods. Finally that witch Dorothy, the "patient relations" nurse told me that "You can't possibly know what happened as we gave you a little something to cause amnesia." WHAT! I felt like I was in the twilight zone. After everything I told them and the LEGAL boundaries I had placed on them, they tried to create AMNESIA! What the bloody HELL! Wow! I had to repeat their nasty talk verbatum and create a timeline for them before it finally began to soak in that I didn't get amnesia. Then the REAL stories started.

Since they couldn't refute the reality of my experience they began backing down from their stories. Suddenly, I WASN'T screaming in pain after all... "You lifted your shoulder." Aaron said. Liar. No I didn't. I was deliberately being corpse still.

All of a sudden my surgeon NEVER works on conscious patients so the whole thing was lies to justify the fact the HE is uncomfortable with cognizent patients. His excuse also went from "You were screaming and wouldn't hold still" to "You said ouch." What a LIAR! This is something that should have been revealed by Doug (surgeon) when we had that "significant discussion" about G/A that he CLAIMS we had in his office. Actually I told him that G/A was out of the question. That was our "significant discussion" about G/A. He even tried to claim that he told me that I would have to take it up with anesthesia. Liar. He NEVER said anything of the sort! Sheesh, I wasn't even on Versed in his office and he tries that crap on me? Can you say pass the buck? The crna claims that he only did the G/A because the Dr. wanted it. Passing the buck back to the Dr.

Neither one of the people, not Aaron nor Doug, ever considered that I had said NO to the entire thing. Aaron started it by giving me an incapacitating drug against my will. Doug finished it by demanding that I be put out. They are both equally culpable in the vicious attack.

Latest Post

2011-08-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am re-printing one of the latest posts from here; Midazolam Sedation Is Not ALWAYS Safe - Forum Thread Page 2 I am absolutely guaranteeing that this is exactly what will happen if ANYBODY tries to give me Versed again... I was violent and dangerous in the PACU from Versed and if I hadn't been so shocked and surprised when I was injected with "Vitamin V" the simple muscle relaxant, I would have become violent in the preop area. The duplicity and anti social behavior required to attack somebody with this kind of drug against their will is shocking. I had no idea. Now that I know the score, the minute I can't speak anything but gibberish, or I feel a deep burning desire to obey, WATCH OUT! I mean it. I will lash out violently, anybody near me will be fair game as you all will be in collusion to drug me with a drug which I will clearly state beforehand, is unacceptable in any amount and for any reason. Not a single molecule of Versed is to be injected into my body. There will be no confusion, just as there was no confusion the first time. But I'm on to you people now. Anyway, here's the post.

Given Versed Without Consent

posted by mike on 12 July 2011 at 5:33 pm

I specifically told my gastro doc that I didn't want Versed since so many of my nurse friends have horror stories about this drug. Just before my procedure, an arrogant nurse told me that "everyone gets Versed" and argued with me about my choice. Without any consideration for my consent, she started to push the Versed into my IV and I grabbed her hand, but she tried to inject the rest. The test was never done and by the time my double vision cleared, my heart was racing and everyone was in a panic...the endo suite was a wreck. I have never been violent, but I remember holding the nurse by the hair and punching her repeatedly in the face....evidently for quite some time. Everyone kept telling me not to worry (she was pretty banged up), it was her fault for violating my wishes. I had my hand x-rayed and got an appointment for the hand clinic. This was terrifying for me; the nurse was home for 2 weeks and nobody would tell me how badly she was hurt..just that it wasn't my fault. Nice drug. The doc told me that she needed some sense knocked into her..I felt badly until I had the Versed nightmares. I found out that she had a broken zygoma(?) some bone in her face.

From My Inbox

2011-08-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

My health care debacle went far beyond the administration of Versed and G/A against my will. My surgery was botched as well. After reading this article, I realize it could have been worse... Suppose my surgeon had chosen some other procedure to perform instead of my ORIF distal Radius fracture? Now if I had been allowed to remain "awake and alert" as I demanded, this couldn't have happened to me, but alas they deliberately and maliciously diregarded my precise instructions and gave me the very things which I had declined. I have said often in this blog that I feel that patients should stay awake (NO Versed) and monitor their health care staff whenever possible. It really is safer for the patient to keep track of what is going on. It could save your life, or at least prevent some mistakes. You can't tell me that working on a cognizant patient doesn't cause the people involved to be more careful! Anyway here is the link; (love the title)

Careful where you swing that axe, doc "Maybe my standards are unreasonably high — but I fully expect every surgeon in the country to be able to find the body part he’s supposed to operate on. Apparently, this is too much to ask…" (First sentences of the article from Dr. Douglass)

Thank you Dr. Douglass. You confirm my theory.

Unsedated Colonoscopy

2011-08-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

I searched this term and here is the very first article I found on this subject. There are lots of them... Sedation-Free Colonoscopy: Why Isn’t It the Standard? Gut Check on Gastroenterology There are actually several comments on this article which point DIRECTLY to the comfort level of the doctor. Should this be a reason to allow a brain scrambling drug, which increases the risk of perforation (not to mention the risk of developing devastating mental effects from sedation) and allows the doc to go really fast? Just how good IS an exam where the docs' most pressing problem is how to go really fast? This isn't health CARE is it?

No Midazolam

The Versed Song!

Fair and Balanced!

Dragged From My Archives

Textbook FAIL; 2nd paragraph

Textbook FAIL! First paragraph.

Another Nurse "Gets It"

More From Glenn; Versed-a recollection

Textbook FAIL of Medical Care!

Glenn's Experience Part 2

E-mail From Glenn Part one

New Post in Comments

Some Mid Level Providers "Get It!"

Dr. "Discussions"

E-mail From A Versed Sufferer

Smart People; BEWARE VERSED/MIDAZOLAM

Brasscheck

Be On A Show?

Complain About Versed

Procedural Pain

Read Before You Decide

Admissions At Last!

Health Care Costs (doctor blogging)

Thought Experiment

Does She Sound Like A Pansy?

Another Victim

Now where was I?

Comments

Drug Shortage; Good and Bad

A Special Hole In Hell!

Good News For Colonoscopy Patients

Dr. Kevin's Blog Again!

Reduce sedation in critically ill patients

Inadequate Pain Control? You Bet!

Seattle Times Exposé on Inadequate Pain CareAction Requested

Comment Gleaned From Versedbusters

Dr. Appointment

Medical Workers! Heed This Warning!

Response From A Reader!

Trust

From My Inbox

Another Inane Comment

Another OMG What Are They THINKING?

More Homework; Dr. Bremner

More on DEMENTIA and SEDATION!!!!!

Treating Drug-Induced Diseases…

PROOF! AT LAST!

Anesthesia and Learning Disabilities

Mid-Level Wages For Medical Personnel

Obama's Fiery Rhetoric Reinvented

The EBP Process

Unnecessary Tests

While I'm on The Subject of Torture

Letter From Reader

We Think You Are LIARS! (Today's rant)

SCREAMING!

The Prescott Daily Courier

Doing More Homework

Change Doctors?

Physician Associate or Physician Assistant

Frida Writes!

Off topic, one of my short stories; "Mouse In Boot"

"Why I Hate Anesthesia" by Frida

Friday, March 7, 2008

Why I Hate Anesthesia

Vaccines, Medical Denial and Other Problems

"Emergence Delirium in Children"

DNP Suggests "Avoiding this drug..." (Versed)

Well Written article

Versed For Hair Transplants; I kid you not!

Post From Jenny's Mom

NP's and Big Pharma

Define Better

New Term For General Anesthetic

Zombies!

"Keep Versed Out Of Your Head!"

More On Pediatric Sedation W/Versed

Neonates and Midazolam/Versed

Plain language summary

Intravenous midazolam infusion for sedation of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

Seattle Times Exposé on Inadequate Pain Care
Action Requested