Science In My Life

Hello everyone if you are reading my blog I'd like to both welcome and thank you for your interest in reading my musings on my average life and the role science has played in it so far. As far as how science has defined my life so far two things things jump to the forefront of my mind, Aderol and the development in the past decade of medical procedures to correct back imperfections caused by scolliosis (natural over-curving of the spine).I've been prescribed Aderol to sharpen my attention span and cut down on fidgeting. ( Anyone who has sat next to me will notice that I am at no point during class sitting perfectly still, I am always moving a leg or tapping a finger and or foot ).
I can speak to my experience with surgery as well as when I was a junior in high school I underwent intensive back surgery which grafted several long screws into a base of metal which was grafted and implanted onto my spine which partially corrects the curviture of my spine, at my Scolliosis' worst point I had a 60 degree curve at the worst part of my spine. Before surgery I would have to sleep every night and go to school wearing a back brace which restricted my range of motion but for the most part was very discreet under a few layers of clothing. To the day I die I will live with the 2 foot scar running along my back that reminds me each day of how lucky I am this surgery exists as at the rate my scolliosis was developing I would not have survived past 25 according to the doctors projections, the curviture of my spine would have eventually caused lethal internal hemmorhaging.
To relate this to material we covered in class I suppose the first topic I would relate to is Etiology, or the study of a source of a disease and how treatment should be applied. Etiology is important in both the cases of science in my life. One of the controversies of Etiology is wether as a medical professional you are treating merely the symptoms of the disease or the underlying causes, In most cases if you can cure the underlying cause it will be of greater value to the patient involved in the disease compared to keeping them on regimen of treatment through prescriptions or physical therapy. In the case of my back surgery we at first tried remedying the symptoms themselves by merely sticking me in a back brace and hoping that would fix things, but as I kept going in for x-rays it was discovered that the rate of curviture was progressing at too quickly a rate, in this case the half-measure failed. After surgery relearning to walk took me two days and I was at home by day three. By the fourth day after surgery I volunteered to quit the regiment of vykoden and hydrocodeen they prescribed me, I found it rediculous that I was given four weeks worth of pain killers for a surgery that had me in the hospital for less than five days.
My other major experience with science in my life today comes from the Aderol epidemic which our nation is faced with. A plethora of scientific articles have been published on this topic which claim that overdiagnosing is encouraged by insurance companies who want recurring revenue by treating a symptom of the mysterious ADD/ADHD disease which has been claimed to be caused by everything from mercury to steroids present in our water supplies which has crept into our country and caused parents to prefer medicating rambunctous children who in previous times would have merely been considered excitable kids into calm scholars so they can be dealt with in school and at home more easily. Another question this has often made me ponder about is wether the drugs are causing worse side effects than the problems they are curing, before I was medicated with Aderol I was easily distracted and very flighty but now I am very calm and reserved when medicated, this however doesn't come without cost. On days when I am medicated eating becomes a chore, I can go for a half to an entire day without eating simply because the meds make me lose all appetite add to this the tics it causes occasionaly combined with the reflex of gritting my teeth and it causes me to frequently ponder switching prescriptions and praying that the alternative is covered under my insurance. Personally I feel that drugs are for the most part overprescribed today in most forms, this isn't to say that I don't see the need for pain management options for patients or Aderol in specific cases but the number of specific cases should not be as high as it is today.