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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1nWmOjV:
He is sitting sideways in the overstuffed armchair like the giant weirdo he has been for the nearly two decades I’ve known him, and he is staring at the ceiling and gesticulating as he lays out his massive annoyance with people on Facebook having Medical Opinions backed up by zero facts but a lot of conviction.
He is an anaesthesiologist, and I have known him since the first month of our freshman year, when I found him lying on the floor at a party. (”How much has this poor bastard had to drink?” I demanded, indignant. He answered me, “Two whole beers,” and he was serious. He’s got a much bigger tolerance now. Ohhh, has he ever. I also have a Large Number of Stories to go along with this. Some of them involve personal injuries on my part.)
So I ask him, because I’ve seen that Tumblr post too, “Is it true that if you’re a pothead and you go in for surgery it can massively affect your anaesthesia?”
He laughs. “Well,” he said, “I mean, yes, the cross-tolerances are pretty significant. I mean, in general, you ought to tell your medical team about all your drugs, recreational or otherwise. But especially your surgical team, because we couldn’t really have any less interest in turning you in, we’re really just here to probably take something out of you that shouldn’t be there.”
“So it has an affect,” I say.
“Yeah,” he said, drawing it out thoughtfully. “I mean, I gotta adjust some dosages. Oh, last week. I had this guy. I ask, and he says, ‘I smoke marijuana occasionally,’ and his wife says ‘what do you mean occasionally’, and he says, ‘you know, occasionally throughout the day.’ The guy basically hadn’t not been stoned in years. It took over three times the usual dose of induction medication to get him under in the first place. Yeah, it was pretty good that he told me or we’d’ve had some problems.”
So I guess those indignant Tumblr text posts aren’t always wrong.
(Unconnected, but related: he looks somber and says, more gently than is his wont, “Well, you know, the thing is, people aren’t addicted to drugs because they want to be.”)
He is sitting sideways in the overstuffed armchair like the giant weirdo he has been for the nearly two decades I’ve known him, and he is staring at the ceiling and gesticulating as he lays out his massive annoyance with people on Facebook having Medical Opinions backed up by zero facts but a lot of conviction.
He is an anaesthesiologist, and I have known him since the first month of our freshman year, when I found him lying on the floor at a party. (”How much has this poor bastard had to drink?” I demanded, indignant. He answered me, “Two whole beers,” and he was serious. He’s got a much bigger tolerance now. Ohhh, has he ever. I also have a Large Number of Stories to go along with this. Some of them involve personal injuries on my part.)
So I ask him, because I’ve seen that Tumblr post too, “Is it true that if you’re a pothead and you go in for surgery it can massively affect your anaesthesia?”
He laughs. “Well,” he said, “I mean, yes, the cross-tolerances are pretty significant. I mean, in general, you ought to tell your medical team about all your drugs, recreational or otherwise. But especially your surgical team, because we couldn’t really have any less interest in turning you in, we’re really just here to probably take something out of you that shouldn’t be there.”
“So it has an affect,” I say.
“Yeah,” he said, drawing it out thoughtfully. “I mean, I gotta adjust some dosages. Oh, last week. I had this guy. I ask, and he says, ‘I smoke marijuana occasionally,’ and his wife says ‘what do you mean occasionally’, and he says, ‘you know, occasionally throughout the day.’ The guy basically hadn’t not been stoned in years. It took over three times the usual dose of induction medication to get him under in the first place. Yeah, it was pretty good that he told me or we’d’ve had some problems.”
So I guess those indignant Tumblr text posts aren’t always wrong.
(Unconnected, but related: he looks somber and says, more gently than is his wont, “Well, you know, the thing is, people aren’t addicted to drugs because they want to be.”)
