The Medicinal Dilemma

I'm currently taking a medical anthropology class, and last week's discussion made me very angry... angry enough to send my GSI a SUPER long email about how I was so upset but I didn't want to say anything out loud.  I don't want to be known as "that girl".  (She was touched enough by my email to ask me to come to her office hours so we could discuss everything.)

Anyway, we were talking about different types of medicines that are used for different illnesses and the cultural contexts involved.  The conversation veered over to how doctors in the Western medical system are all terrible.

Why make this generalization?



Because apparently all doctors are just stupid prescription pushers who know less than the internet.  All they do is unnecessarily dole out drugs to patients, and all they do is exacerbate the problem of the increasing number of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.  Patients may as well use their fancy 4G phones to WebMD themselves because then that way, it's free and they'd probably be better off.  Doctors miss stuff all the time, and when they do they are just stupid and did a terrible job.

I am REALLY irritated because it seems like more and more people actually have these kinds of opinions.  Where did all of the respect go?  Whose fault is it for over-prescribing drugs?  Is it the doctor's ignorance?

Or is it actually the patient's, who see commercials on television telling them that they need all sorts of drugs to make them feel happier or better, younger, etc.  Perhaps the patients are the demanding ones, and doctors are just trying to do their job to satisfy their patients.  It's the innate fear that these people have of death and pain that is really the root cause.  Who isn't going to get an epidural during childbirth?  Do you really need one?  Did we always need them?  Doctors are trying their best to prevent bad things from happening, whether it is pain or infection.  If these preventative measures aren't taken, then doctors will get in trouble.  So what are they supposed to do?

Someone in class said something about how drug companies are just trying to prey off of people's fears, which is why drugs are marketed so heavily these days.  He went so far as to say that the entertainment industry is doing the same thing by making a lot of movies about zombies and other scary terrifying diseases.  He stated that such things are impossible, and that the entertainment industry is just exacerbating the germ-phobias.

I am going to have to TOTALLY disagree there, buddy.  We are the problem.  I'm sure nearly everyone has hand sanitizer, uses lysol, or antibacterial soap.  All of these things are contributing to the problem.  We are so afraid of getting sick that we use all of these things that kill 99.9% of bacteria.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER .1%?  Those are going to be the worst, nastiest things because they will be resistant to EVERYTHING WE HAVE AVAILABLE.  There are already strains of nasty viruses and bacteria that are resistant to every single antibiotic that we have.  What are we going to do?  Who's to say that it is impossible for a brain destroying virus or bacteria to evolve and spread, like a pandemic, and become unstoppable?  That whole 'zombie apocalypse' thing may be a bit extreme, but the concept behind it is ENTIRELY possible.  And you know what?  If something like that happens, I'd say that we totally deserved it.  This is what we get for trying to manipulate nature to our will and for trying to avoid things that are inevitable.  Nature will find a way, and we will be f*cked.

So don't even think that something like that is impossible, and don't even blame this nonsense all on doctors.  It is the entire system; the combination of potential liability issues that doctors may face if they miss something (which is STUPID, because most of the time it's not as though the doctor was actually being a negligent a$$hole), the society's fear of death, pain, and disease, patient demands, and the media.  No one has the right to blame it on a single entity.  Everyone involved is at fault in some way.  And it is unstoppable.

Hopefully no one catches Cabin Fever.  That looks SICK.

Unrelated:  Happy first anniversary, sweetheart!  I love you so much (even though you have never read this because you are so bad at the internet).

Christmas card!!