Medicinal Empathy

Hi all,

Apologies if you were offended in the slightest by my last blog post.

After nearly a year of being completely acne-free, my face has flared up again. Went to the doctors today and got a prescription of the same medication that seemed to help most after my first affliction. More of a trial-and-error thing really; I've been prescribed loads of stuff to try and alleviate the spots. It's nowhere near as bad as it was when I first had it back in 2009, but it needs to be 'nipped in the bud' as they say. I'm starting to think that perhaps certain medication that is prescribed by doctors is more of a placebo than an actual drug. I guess there's a lot of health treatment that focuses on reassuring the patient's mind rather than actually providing an improved immune system. I guess it's to keep costs down, but with the overwhelming amount of people doing medicine, you'd imagine that there'd be a better way of alleviating symptoms. I could be wrong; I'm no psychologist.

My Mum recently went for an (pretty serious) operation at St. Bart's Hospital, and she was telling me how she was waiting for ages on the operating table to be given anaesthetic by the younger assistants in there. Apparently, they were more interested in discussing their social life than my Mum's welfare. The surgeon started operating, but they still had not given her any anaesthetic. Needless to say, my mum was in a lot of pain. At first, I felt angry at the assistants (likely to be medical students), but then I thought 'hold on, which idiot is giving them responsibility to be present at an operating procedure?'. Quite frankly, it's disgusting that such people should be kept in their government-supported courses, when clearly they don't give a damn about other people. To them, my Mum was just a bunch of meat on the table adding to their points record. Disgraceful.

You'd think that people going into medicine would actually do it more to help people than the money. It's a crying shame. Perhaps this was a fairly isolated incident. I really do hope so, because if I were that surgeon who operated on my Mum, I'd kick each and every one of those students off the course. They don't deserve it. People may complain that 'you can't be nice to people all the time blah blah blah' - but the point is, don't go into medicine unless you're willing to help people whenever you can, and have at least some empathy in your duty.

Until next time.