Brad Ideas - Health - Comments

The point is, the sequencing is getting cheap

brad — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:10:59 -0800

In a few years, full genome sequencing will be quite cheap. But even today, if a DNA target is identified as the cause of a side effect, one can design a test for just that DNA which is very cheap. However, before long, people will just be getting a sequence as a routine part of their medical regimen (though hopefully keeping possession of the data.) Besides, if you are about to take a new expensive heart drug, a DNA test to see if it will work properly or not makes sense because it’s still cheaper than the drug.

Re DNA sequencing for participants in trials

PlanetHabitGal — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:05:41 -0800

This is an intriguing idea that I've never considered before. It could explain a lot. One problem I see with this is, even if the DNA sequencing determines specific DNA markers of persons who should not take a particular drug, every person would require DNA sequencing before taking the drug...or run avoidable risks.

Perhaps, if everyone's insurer offered to pay for one-time DNA sequencing just as they require a physical exam before coverage is permitted, it would work. But, otherwise, the situation would devolve into where the wealthy who could afford DNA sequencing would benefit from tested drugs, and the have-nots, unsurprisingly, would not. Nevertheless, it seems an excellent idea for pharmaceutical companies to, as you suggested, do the DNA sequencing.

Versed

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:40:38 -0800

I have been doing some research becasue a few years ago I was scheduled to have an elective, but highly drastic surgery and the day of surgery, I was at the hospital with my husband, mom and sister, and I was fast realizing I still had some unanswered questions, and that the decision to have this surgery was one I had made because I felt pressure by the waiting list, but I mentioned I didn't want to go through with it after they had started my IV. I was anxious and with my family all supporting me in whatever I decided, I told my mother to give me my clothes, I wanted to go home and I didn't want to have this surgery, and I was quite certian I was leaving. I asked the nurse to remove my IV and told her I didn't want to have the surgery. I was obviously embarrassed by doing this at the last minute, but the nurse told me I needed to speak to the surgeon before I went. He came in a few minutes later and in his best bedside manner, held my hand, reassured me I didn't have the typical problems that cause others to have complicaitons, and didn't have any reason to be overly anxious. He told me that they had given me an antacid to prevent aspiration in surgery and in some people it causes a strong reaction of extreme anxiety, and he intimated that I should let him give me something to counter that and calm me down, and he would return in 10 minutes and then looked me right in the eye, said, and if you still don't want to have the surgery, we're not going to make you do anything you don't want to do, okay. I said okay, but if I still don't, you're not going to be mad at me? He said no we're not going to be mad at you. I was thinking in my head, well I have inconvenienced everyone and I feel like I can't refuse to let him do this so I will just give him the 10 minutes so I can prove it isn't some reaction, which I knew it wasn't. So he left, and my memory starts to get a little foggy there but my last one was watching the nurse inject into my IV, and asking if I was being given a Valium. I was thinking that since I have never taken drugs for anxiety, I knew that I didn't want whatever he was giving me to counter the anxiety reaction he claimed, to knock me out and my family to have to wait on me to come around to go home. That was my last memory. My next memory is a feeling of tugging, which I now know was my being sutchered, and then I heard a nurse trying to wake me and I was in recovery. I immediately said, "they did it without my permission" and I kept repeating it, but I thought I was saying it only in my head. I was trying to focus on a clock I could make out on a wall to see how much time had passed, and my next memory was my husband telling me, after I told him they did it without my permission and I was so upset, and he told me that I did give my permission and was fine with it. Because my husband wouldn't ever decieve me, I just figured I must not be remembering because I also can't remember the surgery, so I was thinking the anestesia must be affecting my memory before the surgery too. Years went by and I have had the same conversation so many times with my husband trying to retrieve a memory of how I could get from where I was in my head at my last memory, which was, "ten more minutes and I am outta here" to sure doc, lets cut me open. He would tell me that just like the doctor said, after they gave me the calming medication I did relax and became very happy and comfortable with everything around me. And he didn't recall my exact words, but when the surgeon returned as promised in ten minutes he asked me how I was feeling and I was all fine, and when he asked if I was ready to go, and I answered in the affirmative. I would ask how I sounded and over time, it became clear to him that there was something a little odd, but he just assumed it was the lack of the anxiety, but he said when they rolled me away I was waving and smiling and almost exhuberant. That has led to my really trying to remember because I knew that was a bit uncharacteristic of my personality, and the conversation eveolved over time to where I started wondering if what they gave me to relax me had anything to do with my giving my approval to go ahead with the surgery after I had stopped it. But then i would do the mental math and you know how things need to add up and I would say, okay, the nurse would have to be in on it, and the well renouned surgeon, and hospital, and they would have to know that the drug they were giving me to calm me down would make me change my mind and say yes, and to make sure they would have to know that the anestesia would erase my memory so I couldn't be upset with them, and since they can't predict how a person will react so specifically especially right there in front of my family, it just would have to be such a conspiracy, I couldn't see it and would think, I guess I had to have changed my mind. Even though I can't find any way that I could have gone from where I was in my head that I didn't sya out loud to the surgeon, which was that I was feeling obligated to let him prove to himself that I wasn't under some medicine reaction anxiety that was making me decide against the surgery. I knew it was too drastic for me and I wasn't doing it under any circumstances.

Fast forward to a few years later. Now just short of 2 years post op, I started developing a lot of health problems. My other doctors were diagnosing me with hormonal issues, perimenopause, and as they got worse over the next few years, as I had a complete meltdown of my entire central nervous system and started having "true" anxiety. This wasn't nerves or stress. This was something I had never experienced in my 42 years to then, and I began having complete panic meltdowns eventually just from a ringing phone. I also developed severe blistering on my nose, lips and face, and a million other things that alone might seem minor, but it was becoming clear I was very mentally ill. Then one day I was having a phone conversation with a cousin about her half sister who was having a lot of troubles and when she listed everything, I thought wow that sounds a lot like what is happening to me. Then a day later, I get a call out of the blue from a lifelong friend I hadn't spoken to in a long time and her husband was about to be put on permanent disability and she rattled off efverything he was dealing with, and I heard the same series of problems I was having, plus the person I heard about the day before and then I tried to figure out the common denominator. They had the same surgery that had been performed on me. So I started researching fiercely and started finding many things that prove that there are studies showing all of the problems are from the surgery, and that even though it claims many benefits, turns out, they have been and still ar hiding a really serious problem that a high percentage of people have, but it happens so far down teh road, few people put it together with the surgery, just like me. But I had my studies and after three years of agoraphobia and the loss of my ability to work, we lost everything we had, cars, house, to bankruptcy and my inability to work, adnthe side effect issues are expensive because you can't get the medical profession to listen to you because they jsut want to prescribe you more drugs and keep the process going. But when I finally saw my original surgeon, and remember, I still think I gave my permission and just couldn't remember it even though I was disturbed by how that could happen, but I just wanted to get well, and the surgeon admitted everything I was experiencing was valid. He told me I needed to go see specialists, and they were, a psychiatrist because I will have to have medications to treat the many mental illnesses I have developed. I would also need a Psychologist for therapy to help me overcome the problems I have developed from the years of mental decline because you can't get a psychiatrist to provide therapy, an endocrinologist to test my thyroud and other hormone levels, and since I mentioned I had been told I might be perimenopausal, a gynecologist. So I left feeling relieved that I finally know what has been causing my troubles and I could get doctors to finally start listening becasue I have been treated so badly before that and I asked the doctor to be prepared to give me a letter for my doctors to listen to me because nobody would listen to me before. And then I continued to research and the more I learned, I have come to the knowledge that the life span for people after this surgery is between 9 years and 13 years when they have the problems I have, and the numbers are much higher than they thought, believed 20%. Think fo that and let it sink in. Now I have the documentation that they knew that all of this was a big problem back in 1983 and yet to make it mainstream and a big money maker, they chose to leave out the complete truth that would make it cost prohibitive to insurance companies to keep rubber stamping it because the patients would be coming for regular blood work that so far by my tests, would run about $15,000 per year for the rest of you life. By not telling, they save the money form the other things they were paying for later, and this pretty much makes them eventually uninsurable, and many commit suicide, and that is a formal study I have. I had tried myself jsut 4 months before those phone calls told me where to look for relief because I had already lost so many years and my poor husband had lost the wife he married, and we were the most happy couple you could find before the surgery, but now the love is there, but I knwo the burden must make him miserable even though he would never say it. We have lost everything. My business that I had started, we lost the entire investment because I got sick to where I couldn't do anything and everything went to medical bills $4,000 a month out of my pocket, and I couldn't do anything. Then, my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and was having to have surgery. I hadn't been able to leave my house but for rare times when I got lucky that the date landed on a day I was able so long as my husband took off work and took me through it all. We were standing in my mother's room just after consent and before sugery and the anestesiologist finished the consent questions and mom signed, and then went into t his almost "legal definition" of a drug he was going to give my mom, and he told her that she would remain fully awake, and be able to talk and seem lucid, but basically it was the "I don't care" drug and that she wouldn't remember anything because no matter what she said or did, he would tell her secrets, and she won't remember anything she says anyway because it erases your memory. My husband was across the room and both our eyes locked and I started getting dizzy at the accuracy of his description because it was the same scenario I ad described to my husband that would ahve had to exist for my surgeon to fool me into having the surgery that I now knew was killing me and had already taken everything from me, including my life as far as quality, and I have been mostly bedridden for the last three years. And now you know what I was thinking. I was so angry because I just really suspected that is what happened. So I immediately called an attorney and everyone was uninterested because of the statute of limitations. But I was within the extention when you learn something material within the final, no exceptions deadline. But I thought I jsut wanted to get well and I knew I didn't have it in me to go through what I would have to probably. I would die before I could get any recovery for all that had been done to me, if I could prove it,a dn I believed that if he did it, he certainly wouldn't put it into the medical records. But I finally got through my moms ordeal nad it ate at me and I had to know. I just got my records this week and ther eit was. But it didn't tell that I changed my mind on the surgery, and it also didn't have that the nurse gave it to me, but the anestesiologits did. There were no normal notes that the nurse does before and after the surgery that I saw in the records for my gall bladder surgery at the same hospital and same surgeon. Everything else was the same but no nurses records like my other surgery. They, 100 pages in, they had buried her 4 pages in with the nurses records that were all in date order, but hers were with the inpatient notes 4 days after and I held my breath, and there it was. She noted my anxiety and t hat I was changing my mind about the surgery. Then that was it. nothing written ever again by her before or after the surgery. But she had made notes on everything every few minutes, and made her entry of my decision at 11:20am. Then on the page there was a square that they put the time to the OR. 11:40am. That covered the 20 minutes for her to get my surgeon, convince me that I was having a reaction to the antacid so that he could conivnce me to allow them to give me someting, and he needed permission to give me an injection obviously because I was leaving. In my records, there was nothing given me to calm me down for him to come back and see if I still wanted to leave. And I looked up the antacid they gave me and there is no such thing as an anxiety reaction. I was given Versed by the nurse. And I have the documents to prove that they chose to not make any n otes for 20 minutes before the surgery when the last note was that I was restless and anxious and wanted to cancel the surgery. So I am filing as soon as I decide on my attorney since they find their way when you have so much documentation and such severe losses as me, but also I have proof so many have killed themselves because they are hiding that the surgery can cause permanent brain damage that will make you die. Andn of course, I can guarantee you that this is going to be the next big class action lawsuit we hear on the national news like the boob implants years ago. But trust me, if you are reading this before a surgery, if you change your mind, don't feel guilty and if you choose to allow any doctor to give you something to calm you down, speak up and ask the nurse and doctor to make notes in your record that you have decided to not have the surgery, and that you are going to accept a mild sedative if you think you are really having a reaction that is causing you to be unreasonably anxious. But I say, if you don't want it, LEAVE. You can come back any time. You can't undo it once done no matter the sugery. And now I see that Versed is becoming so popular from my research becasue it erases your memory. I never imagined there was a drug you could be given that would erase your memory but leave you appearing lucid. Well, there is. And thankfully I didn't know until I heard that other doctor tell my mother what he did or I still wouldn't know. I truly believe, because I had been praying tearfully to God to help me either find what was wrong with me or just let me die in my sleep. I don't want to be dead, but I don't want to continue in this state of living dead either. We have lost nearly 9 years to this greedy surgeon that played God that day. And I fully plan on nailing his license and hide to the wall. He has been making millions and millions and gained fame with his fortune for being the one that was teaching other surgeons this surgery because it was becoming the fastest growing specialty in the nation. It is a real money maker for the healthcare industry, and the insurance company has to be in on the "keep quiet" part or they wouldn't be rubber stamping the sugery like they are. So I plan on taking them all on. I mean the insurance company for collusion, the hospital for not having a protocol for what to do if a patient changes their mind about surgery. The surgeon, I fully plan on taking every dime he has earned since he did this to me because he stole my entire life from me. I went from living a wonderfully happy life with financial security to losing everything and a mental invalid except for the part of my brain that used to be known for its amazing creativity and ability. Now it still works, but I have to try to teach it to stop inventing things for me to act on because the part of my brain that does the followthrough can't do anything anymore. I have to give myself daily injections. I have to force feed myself daily. I have to take fist fulls of vitamins and minerals to stop all of the oddball things that were happening to me that I didn't knwo were all related, but I was able to help with my own research.

I dont' know why I am posting htis except that I feel like I will explode if I dont' tell someone that you can have your life stolen from you by people who are greedy and will sell their soul and yours to the devil for money. And Versed might be a good thing if you don't want to remember your surgery. But you had better make sure you discuss it before any surgery if your surgeon is planning on using it at all.

Best to anyone who is in either situation as me. The post surgery that you weren't told the whole truth about, or given the equivalent of a date rape drug to force you to do what you don't want to do and have the right to decide you don't want to do.

Any surgeon who would give you a psychotropic drug when implying he is giving you a mild sedative to counter some kind of reaction he says you are having that might be causing you to make an irrational decition, just dont' trust. I used to trust all doctors. Now I can't trust any. Ruined for life after the hell I have lived through following htis and the horrid treatment I have been through with the many other doctors who could have all helped me early enough to prevent the permanent brain and organ damage I have now, but they were all too quick to jsut give hte fastest diagnosis, ignore what I was crying and begging them to do which was test my nervous system because something was happening that was really bad and I couldn't understand what it is, so please test. No looking back, it was all ther ein my blood work but nobody would listen or help me unless I would sign on to their chosen misdiagnosis that I kenw in my heart was wrong... Go figure. I think we need a major healthcare overhaul and remove the opportunity for surgeons to make extreme profits for unnecessary surgeries.

RE:

day1 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:01:45 -0700

del

I agree clean environment plus good hygiene

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:34:41 -0700

I agree with the one who said -

- "We need simple things:

1. Unpolluted environment (air, water, food, house...)

2. Strong and well regulate immune system"

For the others blaming sterile upbringing think about this:

The problem is over taxing of our immune systems by all the chemicals , pollutants , stresses and so forth of an overworked chemical and caffeine fueled modern life combined with poor diet (processed hormone antibiotic, injected, meat), and now no wonder our immune systems are worn down. Any doctor will tell you after you have been sick your immune system need time to recover. With some exceptions most inherent immunities take generations of evolution to favor they don't pop up or the children of isolated native populations in the past when faced with colonists arrival from the east and who were suddenly exposed to new diseases would not have died along with the adults. Also as sterile as one may try to make short of bubble boy or total isolation and home schooling a kid, if a bug is going around or a germ out there and common in the world the kid is most likely to face it anyway no matter what these parent's think. Ever want to meet a grown man with the flu , a rash and recurring pinkeye every other week? spend some time with a father who has a kid in pre school or an elementary school teacher. Kids are still to spite their parents best efforts by the time they enter school a magnet of germs acquiring and trading them like pokemon. It's only these parent's hopes to instill habits like washing their hands that will last a lifetime and keep from getting mauled themselves. It's the adults who need to worry as sometimes that 7 year olds bug can put them and their older workaholic latte drinking chain smoking butt in the hospital. You'll be glade when you grab a door knob at work or food at a restaurant if hopfully the adults around you grew up learning hygiene and how to not spread disease. What happens when you are exposed to disease ? Well you tend to unintentionally spread it and if you are not smart enough to avoid unnecessarily getting infected you will not likely to have the hygiene sense to keep it to yourself. From what I've seen people have grown up to spite this supposed sterile hygiene focus some people claim has been prevalent to still mostly be careless thoughtless fools. I've seen them come to work coughing so hard they can't talk and pass out from fever before being sent home, like they think they are doing anyone a favor coming to work so then half the office can be out and sometimes maybe even one person gets pneumonia and croaks but I can't help thinking about them "thanks for sharing your germs with everyone you meet as since your sick why shouldn't they be too, regardless of their health or medical conditions, your a hero of vaccination and your poor hygiene is a public service really.":) I see adults leave the restroom without washing their hands and then go around shaking hands in a meeting. I've known women to eat food (snacking) while sitting on a public toilette. People lean over into your cubicle and tell you they are dog sick with flu as they curl their tung into a make shift germ cannon and cough spasticly in your direction then when done cough into their hand use someones desk phone and slime the door handle with their palm on the way out. What is the problem however is antibiotic overuse. Use in hand creams, use in healthy animals kept in filthy disease ridden over crowded conditions as antibiotic preventive care because it's cheaper then caring for them properly.It server to can weed out the weak bacteria and create antibiotic resistant strains form every bacteria they contact in your body not just what you took them for. It's the best way to selectively breed things like MSRA and other super bugs since they evolve a lot quicker than we do through our slower natural selection.

?

Czes Kulvis — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:18:40 -0700

Vaccines are needed by pharmaceutical industry - to make huge multi-billion business.

Vaccines create lots and lots of serious unexpected problems.

We need simple things:

1. Unpolluted environment (air, water, food, house...)

2. Strong and well regulate immune system

heya brad, i have been under

Jhette — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:26:25 -0800

heya brad,
i have been under versed and totally lost hours of my life. one woman lost the whole day. well, this certainly reminds me of the movie
"total recall" and i can't wait until drugs can put good memories in my mind so i can overcome the tragedy. maybe for those of us who believe in God, this is what God does to us.

-- food for thought

You don't actually need

gordman — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:35:33 -0800

You don't actually need references to make such statements, these are facts that we can see daily, plus there are plenty scientifically researches that say the same thing. I am actually worried about that and many parents don't see the danger. The immune system is created in first years of life, that's why it's better to let our children play in the ground or experience "non-sterile" environments so their anti corps learn to protect them. This is the mechanism. From what I see, many children and also many grown ups are facing immune system problems because their lack of defense. This is the case of my cousin, now he is taking immublast to strengthen his system.

autoimmune disorders and "sterile"

Anonymous — Thu, 24 May 2007 19:03:32 -0700

I'm 100% with person who submitted "Bovine Manure." I also grew up on a farm with my hands in the dirt being exposed to every germ in the book. I developed an auto immune disease at 14. So the theory is crap. The best information I have found is that the root trigger for this is eating gluten and genetic predisposition. I have a parent, grandparent and brother with other autoimmmune diseases but different from mine. So don't eat wheat, barley, rye and maybe oatmeal and after about 1-2 weeks you will see improvement. I already have. So there!

Versed

Jackie — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:45:54 -0800

Thanks John! After months of trying, I finally got the Hospital Board in my state to do an investigation into my mistreatment. As I believed, these people did administer this drug and others without that pesky "informed consent." I have an attorney now that is looking into it further. The anesthesia nurse says I "did not object" to the anesthesia AFTER he had already injected me with Versed. Maybe he won't be doing this to others who would prefer not to have their memory tampered with. One can only hope!

Dealing with a pandemic in the post-internet world

Askanio — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:35:30 -0800

As the tail of the online inventory of books grows ever longer, what is the point of bricks-and-mortar bookshops? If we can choose our own favourites online, and often pay less for them, do we really need vast book emporia on our high streets carrying only a fraction of whatâ€™s available? At QI we think itâ€™s time for a new model bookshop. Books are important. Every human activity finds its correlative in a book. Books change lives. They are tactile, moveable portals to an infinity of new worlds. Instead of dull warehouses, bookshops should become high street academies, enriching people with knowledge and leading the campaign to make the world more interesting.

Dealing with a pandemic in the post-internet world

BiSHoP — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 05:05:49 -0800

You may remember that I'm working on a presentation to the eHealth Forum in September which has as its focus the role of ICT in dealing with a pandemic. But the more I think about it from the information perspective, the more it looks like a pitch to unwind the repressive reporting environment that is being constructed around the terrorist bogeyman.

Not sure about this

Paul — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 01:40:22 -0700

Hi Brad

Interesting idea - but I'm not sure just how important it is that patients receive calls - I guess they are in hospital to get better, and that often includes rest...

Having said that, the phones are there, and there to stay.

What about using an RFID patient tag? Given its primary use is to avoid Wrong Site Surgery and provide other more basic medical/care info to staff, maybe it could be linked to the phone. If the read range of the phone's RFID reader was a couple of yards and its by the bed, maybe it would only receive calls when the patient is in bed/in their chair. Then you just have to add a tiny sensor to communicate if you are asleep or not - when you are, calls would be barred. The only other situation is staff examining you - maybe you just have to ignore the phone in that case ;-) Or maybe it sees their tag is present and also bars calls....?!

Cheers

Paul.

DND

brad — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 10:40:42 -0700

The phones in hospitals are rarely PBX phones with such a button, but I have not seen one with automatic timing and an easy and simple UI.

DND

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:16:31 -0700

Isn't this just a DND (do not disturb) feature, already present on most phone systems and SIP phones?