Of drama, drugs and democrats…
At the risk of revealing an identity…
I had some elective surgery last week. I did a little homework prior to the surgery, and found out that a series of exercises would be helpful for a quick recovery. Yes, very helpful.
When I got out of hospital I handed the scripts to my spouse. Eight meds, only one of them for an actual threat—warfarin. The rest were pain meds, and some of them very dangerously interactive with the warfarin, others very, very addictive.
My husband didn’t know better. He just handed the list to Walgreen’s. Eight bottles. I now have to figure out the best way to dispose of that trash. I WILL NOT use a single one of them.
So why were they prescribed? Pressure from others? Pressure from previous patients? My PT said that the drugs were potentially very dangerously interactive.
There are at least two morals here. First, the drug industry may have totally corrupted medical practice. To send a patient home with eight drugs she does not need and no warning (other than that 8 pt text) about how to use them is criminal malpractice.
I’m listening to my idol, Rachel, right now, talk about my ideal of a total idiot, Paul LePage. He thinks addicts deserve to die. Who made them addicts? I know as a scientist that addiction is a disease, and that we abet it when we make very powerful drugs easy and cheap.
But even more so, the national problem of addiction will never be addressed if medical science doesn’t resist this sort of crap. To some extent, the GOP is correct. If we do not inform patients, the tendency to buy “free” (with copay) medical services will kill us all.
Anyone have a similar experience? I’m fine, drug free, but worrying about my country!