Our synthetic future

An emergency room experience

My aunt [the age of 55] recently was admitted to the emergency room. She was admitted to the hospital under conditions of a painful stomach (later known to be gull bladder issues). While in the emergency room in a upper to middle class area she waited a total of four hours before a final conclusion of her issue had been made by the doctor on staff.

In the middle of this experience my aunt was semi-delirious. She was over heated, sweating and also with conditions of chills. The lead nurse came into the room at the time when I was in attendance and asked my aunt if she could give her pain medication. My aunt [similar to my entire family] are somewhat worrisome of such medications due to our lack of knowledge on them. Essentially, we don’t ingest substances we don’t understand (foods, supplements, and more are included).

Before agreeing I asked the nurse a question in favor of my aunt doing the logical thinking at 3am on a Wednesday morning, “Before we say yes to the pain medication, can I ask what the long-term plan is?” The head nurse stopped for a moment and baffled my question saying, “There is no long-term plan right now, your aunt is in pain.” I asked the nurse, “Well don’t you think that’s unintelligent then? Aren’t we suppose to have long term plans before we create short ones?” The nurse had a rebuttal I couldn’t believe. She said, “This is modern science, your aunt is in pain and we’re going to fix that.”

Modern science. Immediately I understood that this “head” nurse had absolutely no basic understanding of her profession. Morphine, opiates and many other narcotic substances have been documented for medical use since the Civil War [1865].

Morphine, cocaine and opium are all considered illegal inside the United States. Most of these drugs have been created & used for medicinal purposes since this time (Civil War — 1865). And a continuation of that until this day. My aunt was prescribed three types of narcotic drugs on behalf of the medical staff during her short four day total stay. Dilaudid (hydromorphine), Hydrocodone Synthetic (opiate) and Vicodin (hydrocodone opiate). Her request for Ibuprofen was denied on multiple requests from the physicians.

Doing quick research on Hydrocodone creates some baffling discoveries. 99% of the worlds supply of this substance is being consumed inside The United States. In 2010 producing more than 16,000 overdose deaths and climbing year over year. With a mere five victims cited in the same year from Ibuprofen overdoses.

My question is how on earth this educated, somewhat ranked physician could call this act modern. While our names for these substances have evolved, our intentions have only been dramatized and have lacked innovation for the proceedings in nearly 148 years.

So go ahead my friend, you can take the magical mystery bus medication given by the endowed god-complex doused physicians. But you’ll be happy to know my aunt has since recovered from her gull bladder issues and has humorous stories like this one to tell from her emergency room experience.

The lesson: don’t stop asking questions. Even to those we are socially educated to trust.