Our perspective is wildly skewed. You think, "What about polio, TB, etc.?" They are for all intents and purposes, cured in this country, but they are not in any way definitively cured. Haiti is riddled with antibiotic resistant TB. Polio is breaking out again in India. Cancer, of course, continues to massacre folks the world over, and where infectious disease has been stamped down, social disease runs rampant (obesity, heart disease, depression, homelessness, substance abuse, etc.). Nutrition has improved such that people don't frequently die in their youth. Clean water keeps us safe from a host of bacteria and parasites, and when that fails we have our beloved Penicillin. And when we get diabetes or heart disease, we have insulin and statins to manage us.
But these are not cures.
Remember that a cure is defined by who is still alive 5 years later. For many transplants we see that 10 years down the road, half of recipients have rejected their organs. So despite these miraculous advances, we are not God. Despite our desperate desire as a species.
Two experiences today reminded me of these things: 1) I went for my yearly mammogram (and lemme tell ya, there ain't nothin' quite like gettin' yer boobs smashed between two plastic plates). This is an experience directly tied to my "cures", and is one symptom of many that suggest to me that even in a remarkably successful case like mine (alive and cancer free now 7 years after cancer #3), we are never really cured. The disease is instead replaced with constant hypervigilance and various emotional after-effects. 2) A friend of mine from college has endured a much rougher road in the last few years with different forms of lymphoma that have left the best oncological minds scratching their heads. She is in the middle of an autograft bone marrow transplant (she donated her own cells). While this may relieve her of her current disease (and we will delight in that), even she will not be cured. If I think I've got it rough, she'll have it much worse. Her immune system must rebuild from scratch--even a newborn has more protection than she does right now. She's at risk for more cancer from all the transplant prep procedures. Mammograms will probably be low on the priority list.
As thankful as we are that modern medicine exists, the things they do to a body in the name of a cancer cure will be considered barbaric someday.
Wow! The blog you wrote brings to the front of my mind, that no matter how hard we all try to stay alive, we are born to die.
ReplyDeleteThe importance of "living for the moment"- that cliche also comes into play but only when one has gone through "their" hell.
I am grateful for modern medicine even if it is temporary. It can keep us alive longer to contemplate, worry, and to finally resolve and teach- just how important each of our lives are, not only to ourselves, but to all the other lives intertwined with with "who we are".