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Messages - bandit1978

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1
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 21, 2006, 01:09:20 PM »
Sure we could manage.  Do whatever you like... you want to skip out on vaccines and live without ibuprofen and risk having your newborn's head stuck in your pelvis and baby suffering brain damage... well, thats your choice.  

Fine if you want to do things "as nature intended".  Just be prepared to deal with the consequences.  

Personally, I'm not interested in enduring an excruciatingly painful 20 hour labor.  Fuck that.  I want pain meds.   Lots of them.   And interventions.  And a proper obstetrician.   And a healthy baby.

2
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 21, 2006, 02:25:10 AM »
Let all women push babies out themselves... you'll see who's "healthier".

3
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 20, 2006, 10:45:09 PM »
If a doctors fear of a child having brain damage is reason enough to not use doctors services, fine!  Thats your choice.

If you do not respect the doctors' fear of lawsuits, fine, then stay away!

But FYI, fear of lawsuit is going to effect the care you get everywhere, from the doctors office to the ER to the ICU.  Thats not our fault.

Go ahead and "birth the way nature intended".  Thats your choice, I can only make that choice for me.   But be prepared to accept the mortality rate that nature intended, as well.

4
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 19, 2006, 08:46:47 PM »
The fact is that midwives in this country do not take high-risk cases.  Call some and ask.    

I would also propose that many women who seek out a midwife and a natural birth also may be more health-conscious and take better care of themselves than the many women who seek free obstetrics care at one of the many clinics (which obstetricians kindly lend their time and practice to, with little or no financial compensation).

I am not going to spend time researching statistics to prove a point to someone who appears to be a fanatical nutcase.  

Midwives are great, sure, for women with low-risk pregnancies who don't mind long labors with lots of pain.  

Anyway, here is some information from my Maternal-Newborn textbook from nursing school :

*indications for c-section include-  herpes infection, nonreassuring fetal heart rate patterns, prolapsed cord, breech or transverse position, hypertension, and feto-pelvic disproportion.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every woman must decide for herself what risks she is and is not willing to take.  

If there is concern that the baby is not getting enough oxygen or is not going to fit through the birth canal (both of these things happen naturally, don't try to pin them on medical interventions, they have been happening forever), then most women would err on the side of "better safe than sorry".  

That is, those women who believe that having a healthy baby is more important than fulfilling her own ego by proving to that she can push that baby out herself.

5
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 19, 2006, 06:07:14 PM »
I don't feel like reading every single link.  

So either you see a Western doctor, or you don't.  Plan to have your baby at home/birthing center, or plan to have it in a hospital.  Assume the risks associated with taking drugs, or don't take them.  Use some of your other treatments, which you think "post no risk".  Seriously, could you elaborate on these treatments of which you speak?    Go ahead.  

Leave Western doctors alone.  They work hard and with the best intentions.  

I'm not just defending my boyfriend's work.  I say these things because I am a nurse, and I see it first hand.  

So if you think hospitals are so bad, stay out of them.  

If you want to know how a surgery is less risky than a vaginal birth, well, I assure you, most of the time it is.  I do have one friend who developed a nasty infection after a C-section, which I believe she got from maybe a contaminated OR.  I do see more than one side of this, Deborah.  

But her baby's heart rate was decelerating (a symptom of distress or low oxygen, and a common indication for C-section).  It only takes minutes for an oxygen-deprived baby (or person) to suffer brain damage.  Better safe than sorry.  My friend may have had to deal with this infection, but her baby is healthy.  


So if you want to birth your children at home, the choice is yours.  But in the hospital setting, the doctors and nurses are not going to take those kinds of risks.

6
The Troubled Teen Industry / How Big of an Asshole are YOU?
« on: July 19, 2006, 02:21:31 PM »
The only generals in any such "War on Traditional Marriage" are all of the traditionally married folks who have gotten divorced.

7
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 19, 2006, 02:17:39 PM »
If you think it's a bad thing that 6 of your friends had C-sections, then why not encourage them to birth at home, as you did?  Are all of their babies healthy?

A few reasons why the mortality rate could be higher with hospital, MD assisted births (versus home births):  hospital deliveries include most of t he high-risk pregnancies, mid-wives will not accept these cases (it's difficult enough for mid-wives to practice in the first place).  Also, there are just more germs in the hospital, and we all have to take that risk when we decide to go into a hospital for whatever reason.

The 1:5 mortality rate because of childbirth was a long time ago, like a couple hundred years ago, this was before we had safe C-sections and antibiotics.  This is what I read in nursing school, and it's pretty much common knowledge.

I am not saying that it is "fair" for a patient to form a blood clot.  Many times, particuarly with newer medications, we are not aware of all of the risks.  Just look at Celebrex.  And that laser eye treatment- the long term effects of it have yet to be seen.  

I do think patients should sign waivers.  Either that, or we just need  serious malpractice lawsuit reforms.

As I have said before, people need to understand that our bodies are not computers, they will not always respond as we would like.      

Additionally, there are risks in everything, including herbal treatments, ect...    Just what "safer methods of treatment that carry no risk" are you talking about?

While I do not know specifically how much cash is paid out every year in malpractice awards, I do know the effects that malpractice suits bring on each and every doctor, healthcare provider, hospital, clinic and practice.  

By the way, do you know the number of lawsuits brought against doctors/hospitals each year?  I don't, but I figure that with the sort of money awarded to the plaintiffs in these cases (such as Celebrex, manufacture ordered to pay $250 million to one person)  we only need one or two cases a year to have the kind of effects on healthcare that I see every day.  

About billing fraud... I know one doctor who was investigated by Blue Cross Blue Sheild for "erroneous" billings.  Yeah, the guy was a greedy jerk.   I went to see him once for a suspected UTI... he wanted to do an abdominal xray (to rule out kidney stones), plus give me iv fluids!  Totally ridiculous.  

As I have said before, if you are a greedy jerk looking to make tons of money, medicine is not the field to go into.  Most doctors know that going in, they don't expect to become super-wealthy, just to have a stable, challening career with a comfortable income.

My boyfriend (who is a doctor) was told that all doctors should expect an average of 2 lawsuits brought against them during their careers.

Most of these lawsuits are frivilous or not legitimate, so as a result, most of these lawsuits are dismissed.  However, these lawsuits can have a profound effect in the psyche of the doctor, shaking their confidence, weakening the trust and relationship between doctor/patient, and driving up malpractice insurance rates.

I do not think that George Bush has honorable intentions in wanting to reform malpratice.  He (and you too, Deborah) understands nothing about the actual practice of medicine.  No offense.  And by the way, if you were to come to my boyfriend's practice, I would advise him not to take you as a patient.

8
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 19, 2006, 12:59:38 AM »
Deborah,  I am not saying that suiing over a mistake mastectomy is running up the cost of malpractice insurance and thus the cost of health care.  

Just how many malpractice lawsuits do you think are as serious as a mistake mastectomy??  

I was not aware of Bush making any changes to the malpractice suit issue-  just tht he wished to, but I wasn't aware that he actually managed to pull that off.  

But seriously...  if really, God Forbid, your loved one had died possibly because they took some drug which made them form a blood clot, or something along those lines... should  you really receive $250 million for that??  

Regarding C-sections-  if you are so sure that these births could have been performed vaginally, then why not just birth babies at home?  Years ago, death rates during childbirth were 1:5.  You want to take your chances??  Go ahead.  Maybe it will reduce the incidence of malpractice lawsuits and thus reduce the rates of malpractice insurance, and then there will be enough obstetricians to go around to deliver babies for those of us who consider a safe birth to be more important than our own egos and our ability to push a healthy baby out vaginally sans intervention.  

If Americans weren't so sue-happy, then more obstetricians would be willing to forego a C-section and allow the mother to keep trying with the vaginal birth.  But obstetricians must protect the baby as well as their license, both before the mother's ego.  Otherwise, who will deliver all the babies to come after?

If you have that little faith in obstetricians, then birth your babies at home, without their help.

9
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 18, 2006, 01:18:20 AM »
The reason teachers, and social workers, and nurses don't get paid well is because those jobs are traditionally held by women.

10
The Troubled Teen Industry / I used to hate people. but now...
« on: July 18, 2006, 01:12:03 AM »
Deborah-  doctors charge "exorbitant" fees so that they can cover  the cost of their malpractice insurance, which is so high as a result of so many frivilous lawsuits, as well as legitimate and quasi-legitimate lawsuits demanding "exorbitant" amounts of money.

In fact, malpractice rates are so high, many doctors cannot afford to practice.  There is now a shortage of obstetricians, as many doctors refuse to practice OB now (they just practice GYN rather than OBGYN),  because the risk of lawsuit and the malpractice rates are just too high.

And because of all these lawsuits, health care providers are forced to spend less time at the bedside because we have to document, document, document, this and that and this and that, and fill out this form and that form, just to fullfill JCAHO requirements and make sure our asses are covered in the event of a lawsuit.  

Why are you so angry at doctors?

FYI, most doctors I know work for hospitals, and make only about $100K a year, maybe 120K.  This is after 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, and 3 years of 100-hour workweeks of grunt work as a resident.

Unless a doctor can come up with some new, high-tech procedure, they do not make huge amounts of money.

Surgeons, in addition to 8 years of school, go through a 7 year residency program, just to be a general surgeon.  If they want to specialize in something (like bypass surgery), thats several additional years of training.  

Talk about "delaying gratification".

And may I point out that doctors, do, in fact, save lives, and they do so every day.  And they certainly do have effective treatments for many disease.  I'm a nurse, okay, I see this shit first hand all the time.      

I don't think you know the first thing about doctors and the practice of medicine.

11
The Troubled Teen Industry / Provo Canyon girl had stroke?
« on: June 23, 2006, 02:30:00 AM »
I should have realized this a long time ago...

I may have previously posted about a girl who was at Provo canyon with me (in the 90's).  She went on a home visit and did a bunch of speed.  

Her therapist had gone on this home visit with her, and was actually staying at her parents' house also.  Apparantely, he knew this girl had gotten wasted, and convinced her to return to PCS by promising her she would not be in any trouble.  

Silly girl actually went back... and we were all shocked at what we saw.  Her tongue was paralized (well, pretty much her entire mouth), and she was unable to talk!  She was in a huge amount of trouble, and was not allowed to speak to anybody for a long time (other than in our weekly therapy group).  

Several months later, she was allowed to speak to us, but was physically unable to!  Her mind was still there (I think), but she would struggled just to speak a few words!  Her speech never did improve much, and she went home like that, somewhere around her 18th birthday.

Geez, this girl clearly had a stroke!  We know she did a whole bunch of speed, which probably resulted in her blood pressure going through the roof and resulted in a stroke.  

She received no medical attention!  This girl should have been an inpatient at a hospital for a few days to assess the damage;  she should have had an MRI, a CT scan, and a swallow test.  She should have been in long-term speech therapy.     WTF???

12
Technicians take vital signs and report them to the nurse.  Technicians do not interpret vital signs, and they certainly do not write progress notes!  

At PCS, the staff write SOAP notes and other progress notes.  At a legitimate facility, this could never happen!  Only licensed staff (RN, MD, PT, ect...) may write progress notes.  

Not only that, a child's advancement in the PCS program is based on these progress notes plus whatever other claims the staff may have regarding the pt's "progress".

13
I don't think parents realize just how underqualified the general staff are at these places.

No legitimate psychiatric/hospital/medical facility would hire these people to do anything more than take vital signs.

14
Open Free for All / Fucking hispanics
« on: May 12, 2006, 08:38:00 PM »
Um yeah, you're right, none of them spoke English.

But in another part of town, the uninsured "clinic" patients would mostly be African-American.  

In another state, they would probably be majority Caucasian.  

I guess you just have to think about, in which groups have the highest ratio of insured vs. uninsured and the rate of birth per capita of different groups, or something like that.

15
Open Free for All / Fucking hispanics
« on: May 09, 2006, 12:43:00 AM »
Many of the illegal immigrants are NOT from Mexico, they are from other countries south of the border.

Here in Dc, most hispanics are NOT Mexican, they are usually from El Salvador, also Nicaragua, Columbia, , ect...

The ones from El Salvador tend to cause a lot of problems.  Not all of them, of course.  I know several who's parents made them learn English, go to college, ect...  But far too many of them go the other route, know what I mean?  Gangs, violence, teenage motherhood...you know the routine.  

Anyway, most of them take a bus from El Salvador to somewhere in Mexico, then walk the rest of the way.  

And yes, they do have a devastating effect on our healthcare system (though they are not the only group who does so).  

However, young doctors and nurses who work with them (in maternal medicine, that is) get to learn a whole lot real quickly;  it's very "hands on" learning, a sort of "baptism by fire", as these women do not pay and must rely on student and resident doctors to deliver their babies.  When I was a nursing student, the first birth I saw was attended only by me and a medical student.  

Sure, there was an older doctor present on the floor somewhere, but he can only be in one place at one time, and there were probably 6 other uninsured women in labor at the same time.

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