Posts tagged ‘drugs’

On Sunday it dawned on us that Max need his drug levels tested. His psychiatrist had been asking for weeks for a report. She needed to know how much Depakote was in his system. Too much can cause liver problems. It had been difficult to schedule because we had to take him before he had gotten his morning meds.

Today appeared to be the best day to get him up to the hospital. When he first heard our plan Max dug his feet in. He was not going; he hates having the needle stuck into his arm. We were able to persuade him that the last few times things had gone really well and it would be quick. Ha, ha, famous last words.

Once we were there it looked promising. The parking lot was empty and there were no patients in Admitting. We sat down with the intake person and handed over the order from Max’s psychiatrist. In the process of filling things in the girl noticed that the doctor’s full name wasn’t available. We didn’t know the first name and the hospital wasn’t willing to accept incomplete information. They looked the name up in the hospital directory but couldn’t find it.

I left my wife and son to drive home to get it. Just as I pulled into the driveway I got a call that the hospital had found her correct name. By the time I got back the paperwork was done and everyone was ready to walk over to the blood labs. There we turned in my son’s records and then had to sit and wait.

This wasn’t going well. The longer Max waits the more he starts thinking. We knew that if the technician didn’t get us quickly he would decide he really didn’t want to do this. But he was good. When he was finally called he went into the lab without a problem.

All the way down he talked about how he had done this before and he wasn’t afraid. He hopped up into the chair and presented his arm.

But this is where the fun started. Sadly, I am being facetious here. As the girl took his left arm he asked if someone could hold his hand. The supervisor came over and grasped his right hand. At the same time she took his left hand and held it down. After this two mistakes were made.

If you have ever had blood drawn you know that when you stretch your hand out there are several steps they follow:

• They wrap an elastic tourniquet around your upper arm long enough to find a vein.

• Once found they clean the area around it.

• You now clench your fist.

• The needle is slid into the vein. You might feel a pinch.

• Once it is in place you are told to unclench your fist. This allows the blood to run freely.

• The technician attaches a tube to the needle and takes some blood. She will repeat this step until the required number of tubes are filled.

• When done, the needle is removed. A cotton swab and band-aid replaces it.

• You are finished.

The first mistake the technician made was with the needle. She slid it into the vein after having him clench his fist but rather than leave it there she began to move it.

Imagine your arm lying stretched out on a clock; your hand is pointing towards the 12. The needle is inserted from the 12 in the direction of the 6. Being dissatisfied with the positioning she turns the needle to the 9 o’clock position. Nope, it didn’t work. It is now switched to 3 o’clock before settling back in the 12 to 6 position. In the process she lifts and lowers it a couple of times. Imagine how that would feel.

As could be expected Max howled and we were stunned. We had never seen such a botched job.

Once the needle was in place and the first tube was inserted Max was never told to open his fist so the blood trickled out slowly and painfully. He cried the whole time.

When it was done they congratulated my son on how brave he had been and gave him some graham crackers. Just before we left my wife turned to them and told them that we had never had problems bringing him in for blood tests but he would probably not want to do it again. He had never been in so much pain and in fact until now he had only ever felt “the pinch”.

I am convinced they sent someone new down to practice on my son. Why else would a supervisor offer to hold his arm down while she was working? That had never been done previously. It is true the first time Max gave blood he sat on my lap and howled but that was before the needle ever came near him. He was very young at the time. It took over an hour but when it was finally completed I think he was surprised how little it hurt.

Even though he has never liked having it done the only struggles we had were when we tried to get him there. Once he was in the seat he would always sit through it without a whimper.

And he always gets a prize when it is over. Today he got a pen with four different inks inside. He can switch to whichever color he chooses at any one time. He has been asking for one of these for awhile and today he got it.

Even though he has his prize my wife and I know it is going to be a real struggle from now on to get him there. Why do they have to let novices practice on our children?

Frankly, I would like to get Max off any drug that requires blood tests anyway. And I would be much happier if he could get off of the drugs all together!

I saw a story on Good Morning America recently. Two years ago a report came out that claimed that people should be regularly using statin drugs like Lipitor or Crestor. This includes anyone that might have a cholesterol level that is only slightly above normal.

This was exciting news at the time. It was believed that less people would suffer or die from heart attacks and strokes. But based on a review of the report and other studies that have been done we have “discovered” that taking these statin drugs does not reduce the number of deaths from heart disease.

This made me take notice. My Father-in-law has been on Lipitor for his cholesterol levels and I have been worried about it. The drug has lowered it somewhat but there are issues:

• To keep it down he is going to have to stay on it for the rest of his life.

• He has been losing his short term memory which is one of the side effects of this drug.

In the report if you can get passed the part about whether drug companies should be paying for their own drug trials and the discussions in the comment section there are things that can be learned here.

For example, several of the people that commented mentioned that they have very high cholesterol levels. One man is living with 600; another is at 800. Both stated that their parents all had very high levels and lived to be in their 80s and 90s. None of them have ever taken these statin drugs. And all have lived a healthy life.

Why are they surviving so well if cholesterol is bad for us?

First of all it is not just the cholesterol that is causing us issues. The problem results when it is combined with “inflammation”. This is when the body’s immune system attacks the cholesterol. When this happens it actually increases the speed at which the cholesterol accumulates. This builds up the body’s defense mechanisms even more. And then cholesterol builds up even faster which in turn keeps this circular attack-defense continuing at an ever increasing rate.

But people with normal levels of cholesterol die just as often from heart disease as those with higher levels.

Why do others survive?

We’ve all heard it before:

“Eat healthy foods.”

“Exercise regularly.”

“Don’t smoke.”

If we can do these things then we will be able to keep our levels in check.

The take away from this is that statins at the very least do nothing to improve our health and at most can kill us. We should be careful and do our research before trying any of these. Talk to your doctor about these findings. In some cases whether through genetics or another reason someone may still have to use them.

Now if I could only convince my Father-in-law to stop chewing tobacco.

I received a question today on a post I wrote called Alternatives.

“I’m studying alternative medicine for sociology at school and was wondering why people chose to use alternative medicine when modern medicine is available.  Even people with cancer, chose to use alternative therapy instead of rely in doctors. I am just very unsure why.”

There are a lot of reasons why people use alternatives.

Some don’t trust drug companies. They believe that these outfits are only in it for the money.  They point to examples where the companies have suggested long term use of medicines ostensibly to prevent possible problems.  For example, taking one aspirin a day can prevent heart attacks.  Even some doctors are calling this a myth.  If it is, then some companies are making a profit on this.

Still others worry about drug testing. Up until the 1970s it took about 20 years of testing before a drug was approved for use.   Today tests are completed within a year and then if there are no immediate problems it is released to the public.  Have you ever noticed how your doctor’s office hands out free samples?  This is a way of testing it in the field.  Have you noticed how a lot of drug ads list side affects that, in some cases, outweigh the benefits?  Some drugs have been taken out of circulation when it was discovered that they can cause death.

Some people don’t trust doctors. Are these doctors getting kickbacks from the drug companies to push certain drugs?  It seems like everyone is on at least one drug nowadays.   They see other doctors as being close minded.  There has been a lot of study on omega 3 fatty acids and how they can help the body. Some doctors actually consider the results of eating fish or taking omega 3 supplements to be more of a placebo rather than a benefit.

People look at their country’s healthcare ranking. According to the World Health Organization the United States ranks 37.  To give you an idea where we are on the list, Cuba is 39, Morocco is 29.

They listen to prominent doctors. When a particular harmful drug was removed from the market a few years ago the then surgeon general was asked if drugs actually cure illness.  His answer was that they only address symptoms.  When asked if these drugs are safe he responded that drugs will kill you.

Why do these same people trust alternatives? The same surgeon general was asked if alternative medicines are safe.  He said that the worst they could do would be to give you diarrhea.

Do alternatives work? Modern medicine is fairly young, perhaps 50 years old.  A lot of the “natural medicines” have been around for thousands of years. Some work, some don’t.   Evidence is strictly anecdotal; there haven’t been many formal studies done.  If someone is going to go in this direction they should do a lot of their own research.  Some of this stuff is just “snake oil”.  You can end up spending thousands of dollars for something that doesn’t work well or at all.

I believe in using both alternative and mainstream medicine. One prominent MD, Medical School Teacher, and author, Andrew Weil believes in Integrative Medicine which combines mainstream medical treatments with alternative treatments for which there is some scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness.

Both mainstream and alternative medicines have some very beneficial parts to them.  Just as people should research alternative practices before utilizing them they should also study mainstream methods before discounting them.