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
Friday, October 7, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
While I'm on The Subject of Torture
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.)
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
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)
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
SCREAMING!
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?
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
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;
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. |
Monday, October 3, 2011
Doing More Homework
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?
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?
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