A** Backwards

The irony in this piece is sort of amusing.  Versed is causing problems with patients remembering their physician's instructions and interactions post procedure.  My idea (which is the correct one) is to TELL the patient about Versed/Midazolam PRIOR to adminstering it.  Then there would be none of the problems which this article points out would there?  Postendoscopy Syndrome: "The Doctor Never Talked to Me" : Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

Ummm, why would these patients be angry and upset with their physicians if they had known ahead of time that AMNESIA was the primary aspect of sedation.  Wouldn't it follow that there would be no hard feelings because the patient would be aware of the chemically induced Alzheimers?  But NO, medical workers want to keep this a secret until AFTER the procedure!  I'm not kidding, just take a look!

The article starts right out with this;  "Many patients complain after [medical procedures] that the gastroenerologist did not discuss the results of the procedure with them."  My first question is "Why is the gastroenterologist trying to discuss things with a patient whose brain has been fried with drugs that the gastroenterologist is responsible for?"  I don't get it.  Medical people give patients a drug to cause amnesia without informing the patient of this and then get all shocked and perturbed that the patient can't remember the conversations with the God-like doctor either, and the patients don't know that they were given dense amnesia.  Seriously?  Note the "MANY" patients.  Hmmm.  Why would there be so many if they were being properly consented in the first place?

"Consequently, the patients feel neglected, leaving them with a negative opinion of their doctor."  These patients have every right to feel neglected.  They were deliberately and maliciously excluded from their own care by this phony "sedation" drug.  Nobody informed them that they would have amnesia and be wide awake, walking and talking with absolutely no memory of it.  They are not expecting this or they wouldn't be of the opinion that nobody talked to them.  They would be aware that they were unaware.  See the logic in this?

Fortunately in this article they name the culprit.  "Most of the time the culprit in this situation is the administered sedative, particularly midazolam."   Midazolam is probably 100% responsible for this.  So why aren't these patients aware of the amnesia?  Midazolam isn't a sedative, it's an amnesia drug.  I was NOT calmer or sedated by this drug I was just incapacitated by slack muscles so that I couldn't EXHIBIT much movement.  Almost every single person who has recall will tell you this.  The very idea that a so-called sedative would lead to spikes in blood pressure should inform these medical workers that Midazolam is NOT a sedative.  My thought is that medical workers know full well that this drug isn't a sedative.  Sedation sounds better and is more palatable to patients than AMNESIA. Medical workers are after 1) amnesia 2) obedience.  That's why they don't consent us, and that's why they are searching for ways to 1) keep using it, even with unhappy patients 2) ways to trick patients into thinking they give a damn about us.

So on it goes.  At the end, it describes some ways to alleviate this problem AFTER THE DAMAGE IS DONE!  Here's a quote from the suggested procedures AFTER...  "A prepared written document about the potential effect of midazolam, highlighting the anterograde amnesia..."    The "ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA" needs to be highlighted BEFORE the injection of Versed, NOT afterward.  Tell patients ahead of time what devious plot you have to completely erase their memory of everything, possibly for days, and let them decide if they want "sedation."  Notice in the "before" instructions they babble baby talk about maybe not remembering everything...and then afterward the AMNESIA paper. I absolutely guarantee that what patients like the very least is a nasty surprise about what was done to them in re sedation AFTER THE FACT!

Medical people are getting it backwards.  The emphasis should be on informed consent up front, not trying to fix the damage later.  If they don't like patients thinking that nobody talked to them after their procedure than by all means GET RID OF THE AMNESIA DRUG!  Very simple.