Posting on this Blog

Sorry to any reader who wants to post on this blog.  From time to time I have to block "anonymous" postings, mainly because of one nurse who has some kind of obsession with me/this blog.  This person must come here daily and try to post...   I recently allowed anonymous postings again and IMMEDIATELY I got a nasty post.  So we are back to only identifiable postings.  You may also email me at nomidazolam@aol.com  I will NOT post the contents of your email without your expressed consent.  I will not reveal your identity on this blog.  I'm sorry I have to do this because many of you want to share your thoughts and experiences with Versed without worrying about vicious personal attacks.  All it takes in one creepy stalker of a nurse to wreck it for everybody, right? Oh well.  We may have to deal with these people in our daily lives, but NOT on this blog.

Surgeon Scorecard

I found this on ProPublica.  I suggest you look at the surgeon you are planning on using for your surgery.  Too bad they don't have this for other specialties...like anesthesia.  Anesthesia can screw you up just as fast as the surgeon can, yet we can't research and/or select the anesthesia provider.

Surgeon Scorecard | ProPublica

Controversy Over Midazolam/Versed Back in Court

There is a huge controversy over using Versed/Midazolam to execute prisoners.  Apparently the powers that be don't want to disseminate this information, but *I* do.  The convicted killers have seen/heard of the botched executions using Versed and they don't want the drug used on them.  I have found maybe the one thing that criminals and I agree on.

Here are a couple of news articles on this subject:

Judge upholds Tenn. lethal injection method, Miss. executions blocked | WREG.com

Death Penalty Case Inflames Supreme Court Passions - NBC News

As I have previously stated, I have zero sympathy for these people, convicted of heinous crimes, but I do agree that Versed should not be used...on anybody.  If it's "cruel and unusual punishment" for a criminal to be conscious (as in conscious sedation) then it is even more cruel to use Versed on INNOCENT PATIENTS!  I cannot understand why this drug could be considered cruel and unusual for people who are going to die, but absolutely fine for trusting patients who are going to live. (hopefully)  The same arguments used by the convicts can be used by the rest of us.  This poison leaves us awake and aware, just unable to remember it later. (in many cases, but not all)  So, Versed forces the death penalty recipients to be awake and aware, able to respond to commands etc. but unable to resist the people they KNOW are going to execute them.  Can it get any worse?   Maybe this is exactly what they did to their victims.  Does that make it right to subject any human being to the horror of Versed?  

Should patients also be rendered helpless, awake and aware while the medical minions torture them and laugh at their pain and helplessness?  A civilized society should never stoop to using such a diabolical drug.  It is a clue as to how degenerate society is today that a drug like this is used, even for the death penalty.  My opinion.

Have you calmed down yet?

I hope that I have given enough time to let medical people calm down after their last little tizzy.  I had to shut them down for a while by changing my blog to accept only identifiable people.  They were always welcome to email me instead.  Know what's weird?  All those hostile (alleged) anesthesia nurses who were posting to this blog INSTANTLY retreated once they found out that I wasn't allowing "anonymous" postings.  Isn't that odd?  Well, not really.  If you remember that they use Versed amnesia to cloak their anti-social leanings, is it any wonder that they also want to hide behind "anonymous"?

The COST of Anesthesia Nurses (from a reader)

I got another email from the reader I recently wrote about, AJ.  Here it is.

"Hi Jackie

Just a follow-up to our recent exchange of e-mails.  Even though I had a colonoscopy without any sedation or pain relief last month, my insurance company paid the anesthesiologist in excess of $800.  Apparently, he/she gets paid for his/her time regardless of what is required during the procedure.  I understand that the anesthesiologist may be required at some point during the procedure and that they should be paid something for their time, but I feel this amount is ridiculous. I wish someone would pay me $800 to take a 30 minute break.

Maybe sometime, someone from the medical field can explain to me how doing a colonoscopy without sedation keeps the costs down."

I find it alarming and aggravating that this reader was charged the same $800 that *I* was.  For NOTHING!  Here we are in this day and age, worrying about the enormous cost of medical care and we find that "anesthesia" is charging $800 an hour (or less time) for the mere presence of a crna in the suite.  A crna whose purpose is to administer...what exactly?  Versed?  

I have read the self righteous whining of many crna's about other inferior people, like regular nurses, administering the poison that is Versed.  Really, if Versed is that dangerous, may I opine that maybe it shouldn't be used at all for routine procedures?  Why, even when the services of the "sedation nurse" are declined, do we have to pay them anyway?  This is an outrageous example of the way medical care pads the bill so as to maximize profit.  It isn't about the patient, it's about the medical behemoth making obscene amounts of money.

I have advised this patient to dispute the bill.  The little nursey poo who made $800 dollars to stand there for half an hour doing nothing should not be paid for "services rendered".  I have successfully gotten spurious charges like this removed from my bill...  If the patient declines the services of the specialty nurse, whose job in this case was to administer "sedation" (which anybody can do) then there should be no CHARGES for this nurse.  

I agree with AJ, an 800 dollar charge for a crna to show up is ludicrous.  Next time AJ, show the nurse the door.  Accidents only happen during a colonoscopy if the patient IS sedated.  I have read copious amounts of data and haven't found a single instance of a perforation occurring in an unsedated patient.  I'm not saying that it can't/won't happen, just that the data doesn't support the idea that an unsedated colonoscopy requires the presence of a specialized anesthesia nurse.  You know me, I don't want one in the same room with me regardless of the procedure.  I had a heart cath done without an anesthesia nurse...