New Post in Comments

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!