med people are so annoying "This family's 8 year old child who was about to go through a major surgery and kept crying that she was hungry so they pitied her and gave her food, she then had a heart attack in the surgery. They're so stupid 😒" girl they didn't know that could happen or why it happens. it takes so little time to explain to them that will happen instead of telling them "no food" with no explanation 10 times
"Before surgery, your body’s reflexes that protect your airway are relaxed by anesthesia. If there’s food or liquid in your stomach, it will near certainly come back up and go into your lungs, which can cause choking, a severe lung / heart infection or even a heart attack. That’s called aspiration, and it is life-threatening. It's hard, but it's only a single day to prevent near certain death. Not eating or drinking beforehand massively lowers the risk and helps prevent these life threatening situations under anesthesia." <- TIP: patients have brains which allows them to receive information just like you
I have four kids. I’ve had one or another of them need some kind of surgical procedure that requires anesthesia four or five times over the past 15 years.
This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.
I’m not stupid. I understood that just fine. Hell, my kids would have understood that just fine. But no one bothered to tell us.
I have a lot of rare diseases so doctors tend to have students with them when they see me, and I am never not confused by how shocked they are that when they take their little aside to explain something to the student I lean in and listen because like....why wouldn't I want to know how my body and illnesses work? That's important information for me to have so I can take care of myself and convey my needs to other doctors when the time comes.
Sadly a lot of doctors and medical professionals seem to think patients need to know very little about their own health, hell I've had doctors add entire diagnoses to my chart and never say a word to me about it. Very concerning, especially given how often doctors will say one thing to me and then not write it in my chart so other doctors don't believe me about what was discussed!! Hate this shit!!
