OK Garfield!

Garfield has left a new comment on your post "Medical Worker Takes Me On!":

I neither ridiculed nor insulted you. (Oh really?) I took issue with your statements, which are factually incorrect. (Says who? You? I'm quoting statistics from studies, not making things up! I also gave you a bunch of citations from the body of medical knowledge which refutes what you say is true and correct.) I didn't call you "Honey," either, Honey. And I don't wear panties. Why are my facts "biases" and yours are the pinnacle of enlightenment? (The difference comes in because *I* am not the person claiming that a bad drug is perfect and that people who object to its use and/or are harmed by it are stupid, the studies are wrong, blah, blah, blah. It's not a "pinnacle of enlightenment," which is an amusing bit of hyperbole by the way, it's a factual discussion about what happened to me and others in re Versed) By they way, I am and always have been a non-drinker. You don't have to drink to know how a person gets drunk. (I am really happy to hear this. Seriously.)

As far as clinical trials to prove a point, you should know by know that there is a clinical trial available to prove just about anything you like. (So you agree to disagree? I have proved my side by factual studies, clinical trials and personal experience. You say the opposite and I have also seen those studies. My personal experience differs from the establishment position on Versed, so I have cited those studies which correspond with my view. My view is the correct one. How's that for arrogance?)

If you don't want to take Versed, that's your right. (Garfield, it IS my right not to have Versed! Thank you for agreeing with that. Do you know why I started this blog? It's because somebody, probably a lot like you, decided unilaterally to inject me with Versed, without warning or permission and in defiance of my wishes. I have a history of bad reactions, called "paradoxical" reactions to drugs. He decided, after his 250,000 dollar (so you say) education and 15 years of his life, that HE, NOT ME was in charge of what drugs would be used and what procedures *I* would endure for *HIS* benefit. If he had listened to me and followed my instructions which were perfectly within reason, I wouldn't be here! All he had to do was explain what HE was going to do to me. All of it. This is required by law BTW. I would have politely refused and he could have either done it as *I* wished and gave permission for, or I could have signed out AMA and found somebody else who could do my procedure the way *I* wanted it done. No harm, no foul. Don't tell me that's not possible because I had to have a repeat of the same surgery and guess what? My new crna didn't even have Versed in the same room with me. There was no problem whatsoever with doing the surgery with a bier block and Fentanyl on demand. I'm alarmed that you wouldn't have a problem with what crna #1 did to me. Add in the extreme reaction to Versed and you have a freakin' DISASTER of medical care for me PERSONALLY. Obviously crna #1 thought it was just fine, as do most of the crna's which have come here to ridicule me.) But save your vitriol for some other non-issue. A 90% O2 saturation is not dangerous. Any first year student of anesthesiology knows that. (Garfield, the article I mentioned lists an O2 saturation of less than 90% as an adverse event. I DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST! Jeez you people can be obtuse!)

I pointed out your misspelling (you left out a syllable, not just a letter) of "apoptosis" simply to indicate you are unfamiliar with the term. You obviously don't have a clue what it means. ( Garfield, one of my favorite sayings is that you can learn about anything if you can read. I have never in my life spoken the word "apoptosis." I have never heard the word spoken. I probably would mispronounce it as well. Obviously I read, so what's the problem? Of course I know what it is! Did you look at the articles I cited about anesthesia and apoptosis? My spell check still says I'm spelling apoptosis wrong! You do realize that a statement like "You obviously don't have a clue what it means" is a slur don't you cupcake? In this case "cupcake" is a pejorative, just like "honey" and the "panties in a bunch.")

"KNOW YOUR ENEMY. KNOW THE LAW" You are on a witch hunt for bad guys, and there are no more bad guys in medicine than in any other field. (I don't need to go on a witch hunt for bad guys as you suggest. They come to me, now don't they? I think that there may be just as many "bad guys" in medicine as there are in any other field. There is a problem with this. People are at their most vulnerable with medical care and the attending personnel. Can you see how this would be much worse than say, your grocery bagger being a bad guy? You medical workers have unparalleled opportunities to harm people. Your mistakes have a far greater significance than a shoe salesman's mistakes. You people can drug us, give us life threatening illnesses (MRSA etc) perform poor surgery and a host of other things all of which *I* experienced. Most other job descriptions don't include this kind of power. Your mechanic isn't going to bankrupt you with poor medical care either, is he/she?

Everybody needs to know that the informed consent laws are being routinely broken. Did you read the part where my hospital was cited for numerous violations? This was unfortunately NOT an isolated incident. There are so many patients complaining about the total lack of consent for anything like Versed, that it's alarming. It's a pattern of abuse. We are not prisoners of the hospital to be dealt with like lab rats! Versed isn't the little innocuous drug that medical workers would have us believe, if they mention it at all. There are serious mental and physical effects of being poisoned with Versed that are not being revealed by medical workers. That's part of their job BY LAW! If I could ban it I would. At the very least we have to stop with the adversarial positioning of medical professionals when the patient limits intervention. They ARE the enemy if the patient wants to be treated like a human being. (and avoid Versed) It's doubly bad because all of us will need medical care at some point. Even if we avoid doctors like the plague, there will still be a time when we will have to deal with them. I have to see one every 2 years in order to keep my job. As far as I can see Versed incites passions in medical people that I had to see to believe. They are dispensing with informed consent in order to use this drug. The "know your enemy" quote comes from my submarine veteran buddies. I like it and I use it. )

There is another problem with your statement. Studies have shown (here we go again) that ACCESS TO DRUGS (free and potent in this case) can lead to addiction at a much greater rate than the general population. This leads to addiction in the medical field in greater numbers, in particular anesthesia. This is according to ALL studies I've read, no ambiguity. As I've said before, I have no personal knowledge of this. Do I want somebody drugging me with Versed, knocking me out and/or performing surgery all the while on drugs? Nope. I want a sane, sober person who accepts that I am a unique individual and can CUSTOMIZE MY CARE! All that training and all those years of your life, for what? So you can perform like an automaton? I might as well have a high school student with rote training like 'paindoc' suggests.

Maybe you should spend a quarter of a million and 15 years of your life investing in a medical education before you start a blog such as this. You are WAY over your head. (I'm way over my head if I want to PRACTICE MEDICINE! I am not in way over my head to remark on the current state of medicine, the lack of informed consent and the overuse and misuse of the absolute POISON that is Versed. I don't have to have a medical degree to obtain safe, sane medical care! Or do I? You do realize that saying that I'm in "way over my head" is yet another insult right? So are you saying that I need a medical degree before I can assess what happened to me and form conclusions? You sound lucid sometimes and like the other megalomaniacs in the medical field some of the time. Which is it?)