Anyone catch Glenn Beck tonight?

[IDBasco]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Glenn Beck apparently underwent surgery a couple of weeks ago. He had quite a story to tell on TV tonight. I have linked an article that parallels his broadcast, though there were more details on TV. He elaborated on some of his hallucinations, which were truly bad. It sounds as though everything was a disaster from the end of the surgery on. He seemingly is not blaming his doctors, and frankly, if you read the linked article, it seems his biggest beef is with the nursing staff at the hospital.

I'm just looking for any kind of comment from residents or attendings. As a soon to be medical student, this story is a bit disturbing, yet interesting to me. I chose to post the story in this forum as I figured you folks probably have the best understanding of the drugs involved, post op concerns, etc. Any thoughts you have would be interesting.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/3502/

 

[IDBasco]

Well, when I started this thread, I thought this might be a topic nobody would want to touch. Looks like I was right. Oh well.

 

[Coastie]

Well, when I started this thread, I thought this might be a topic nobody would want to touch. Looks like I was right. Oh well.

Yeah, because we're busy, and Glenn is over-dramatic.

Fentanyl patch = "medicine for the near dead"? Come on.

It would be nice if someone called him and explained to him that Anesthesiology is entire pre and post-op care, including pain control, and how it's very important to have a board-certified physician at the helm.

 

[bigeyedfish]

"The anesthesiologist told me later, he said, I didn't want want to say anything but this is the worst case I've ever seen. He said, and I've never had anybody wake up on the table before. He said, as soon as I turned you off, as soon as I turned all the juice off because we were done, he said, you woke up and turned around and said, I'm in pain. He said, so I turned everything back on. It took three hours to stabilize me on pain."

WTF? This makes no sense. Either beck is a drama queen, or he was already using and has the highest tolerance ever. I wonder if a pain physician was consulted. A good old epidural would have probably decreased the drama. He was suicidal over his hemorrhoid for god's sake.

 

[Planktonmd]

"The anesthesiologist told me later, he said, I didn't want want to say anything but this is the worst case I've ever seen. He said, and I've never had anybody wake up on the table before. He said, as soon as I turned you off, as soon as I turned all the juice off because we were done, he said, you woke up and turned around and said, I'm in pain. He said, so I turned everything back on. It took three hours to stabilize me on pain."

WTF? This makes no sense. Either beck is a drama queen, or he was already using and has the highest tolerance ever. I wonder if a pain physician was consulted. A good old epidural would have probably decreased the drama. He was suicidal over his hemorrhoid for god's sake.

I can't believe that this guy was trying to politicize his hemorrhoids!
He seemed to imply that some how his hemorrhoids pain was connected to some liberal conspiracy.

 

[dara678]

sounds like he's a bit overdramatic with fentanyl being an "end-of-life" drug and whatnot, but at the same time you can't discount the fact that he was treated kind of poorly by his healthcare system. he didn't seem like he was blaming the doctors, more like he felt there was a lack of compassion from the ancillary staff, which is kind of sad.

 

[Coastie]

Beck is:

a) a HUGE drama queen
b) a HUGE recovering alcoholic. Maybe his liver remains ramped up after all those years? haha

He never says what surgery he had, but the two docs named are colo-rectal and urology guys in Stamford, CT.

"The anesthesiologist told me later, he said, I didn't want want to say anything but this is the worst case I've ever seen. He said, and I've never had anybody wake up on the table before. He said, as soon as I turned you off, as soon as I turned all the juice off because we were done, he said, you woke up and turned around and said, I'm in pain. He said, so I turned everything back on. It took three hours to stabilize me on pain."

WTF? This makes no sense. Either beck is a drama queen, or he was already using and has the highest tolerance ever. I wonder if a pain physician was consulted. A good old epidural would have probably decreased the drama. He was suicidal over his hemorrhoid for god's sake.

 

[tussionex]

was that supposed to be a transcript of his radio program? because his accounting of his near-death hospital horror show is in serious need of an english teacher or two. his grammar and syntax actually made my eyes water.

 

[IDBasco]

WTF? This makes no sense. Either beck is a drama queen, or he was already using and has the highest tolerance ever. I wonder if a pain physician was consulted. A good old epidural would have probably decreased the drama. He was suicidal over his hemorrhoid for god's sake.

This is along the lines of what I was hoping for. It seems strange that they would give both fentanyl and morphine, for example. This type of thing is interesting to me. Was the way his pain was managed typical?

I don't think he was suicidal over the hemorrhoids, but rather the hallucinations he was having coupled with the pain. He said that he was having visions of dogs biting children's faces off and other things one might see in the movie Saw. In any case, as has been mentioned, he is a bit dramatic. I only rarely see any of his show, so its ironic that I caught this particular story.

Anyway, anyone have anything else to add?

 

[Coastie]

His visions sound like he dropped some bad acid.

I wouldn't blame the fentanyl patches or morphine for breakthrough pain.

This is along the lines of what I was hoping for. It seems strange that they would give both fentanyl and morphine, for example. This type of thing is interesting to me. Was the way his pain was managed typical?

I don't think he was suicidal over the hemorrhoids, but rather the hallucinations he was having coupled with the pain. He said that he was having visions of dogs biting children's faces off and other things one might see in the movie Saw. In any case, as has been mentioned, he is a bit dramatic. I only rarely see any of his show, so its ironic that I caught this particular story.

Anyway, anyone have anything else to add?

 

[Ferdie]

This is along the lines of what I was hoping for. It seems strange that they would give both fentanyl and morphine, for example. This type of thing is interesting to me. Was the way his pain was managed typical?

Fentanyl and morphine can be used together - they have different durations of action, but you want to look out for oversedation.


From the article:
"Now, I'm in massive, massive pain. I still have these patches on me, these fentanyl patches which is at the end of life when you have been on morphine for a very long time and you have cancer and you're going to die from it, they put these fentanyl patches on you. I found out later, or I read the directions on the box that they stop your breathing. They can kill you. They're as serious as you can possibly get."

Yes, there is nothing more serious in this world than a Fentanyl patch.... From the "directions" on the Fentanyl box: "indications: for at the end of life when you have been on morphine for a very long time and you have cancer and you're going to die from it." I had to stop reading after this, the article was written too poorly.


Here's a different article about this dude's hemorrhoid on CNN, written much better:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/10/beck.healthcare/index.html?eref=rss_health
it's great that we have people who so clearly know a lot about medicine telling us what needs to be done to fix the system...