Circular reasoning
This afternoon, I asked mentisiterinvit's nurse if it might be possible to flush her drains with an antibiotic solution instead of just saline. It's become clear that some of the antibiotics aren't getting around as well as they should.
The nurse told me "No."
I asked her why not. She told me that it isn't done.
"But why not?"
"I've been nursing for more than thirty years, and I've never seen it done."
I didn't pursue the matter any further, just left a note on the whiteboard asking the doctors about it. I forgot to raise the matter with the night-shift nurse this evening; often the doctors don't bother reading the messages when they do their morning rounds unless someone points them in the right direction.
"No" is not an answer to "why?". "I've never seen it done" doesn't mean "it isn't done", and "it isn't done" doesn't mean that there's a good reason. I've spent too much time reading screeds from cranks and crackpots to have much faith in the "brilliant amateur has the fresh perspective to see what all the experts have missed!" meme, but I have still less faith in the "there must be some reason, otherwise someone would have done it before!" meme. We've been burned by the latter too many times, too badly, lately. And sometimes there are reasons that just don't apply in some circumstances.
Added the following day: I asked the surgeon this morning. He told me that some of the components of the antibiotic solution (e.g. preservatives) can be irritating/damaging if tissue is exposed to them for long periods. Thinking about it later, it seems to me that that problem must apply to the solutions in the concentrations used for injection, so they're okay after dilution by mixing with all the blood in the body. There ought to be a concentration that would work safely for flushing. At the moment, the issue is moot.
The nurse told me "No."
I asked her why not. She told me that it isn't done.
"But why not?"
"I've been nursing for more than thirty years, and I've never seen it done."
I didn't pursue the matter any further, just left a note on the whiteboard asking the doctors about it. I forgot to raise the matter with the night-shift nurse this evening; often the doctors don't bother reading the messages when they do their morning rounds unless someone points them in the right direction.
"No" is not an answer to "why?". "I've never seen it done" doesn't mean "it isn't done", and "it isn't done" doesn't mean that there's a good reason. I've spent too much time reading screeds from cranks and crackpots to have much faith in the "brilliant amateur has the fresh perspective to see what all the experts have missed!" meme, but I have still less faith in the "there must be some reason, otherwise someone would have done it before!" meme. We've been burned by the latter too many times, too badly, lately. And sometimes there are reasons that just don't apply in some circumstances.
Added the following day: I asked the surgeon this morning. He told me that some of the components of the antibiotic solution (e.g. preservatives) can be irritating/damaging if tissue is exposed to them for long periods. Thinking about it later, it seems to me that that problem must apply to the solutions in the concentrations used for injection, so they're okay after dilution by mixing with all the blood in the body. There ought to be a concentration that would work safely for flushing. At the moment, the issue is moot.