TGIF
When we get together or talk with friends these days, we typically discuss (complain) about our medical condition and, of course, coronavirus. We discuss (complain) about our reduced energy and all our pains and stiffness, we compete to see who is taking the most pills, we bemoan our loss of cognitive ability, and also our serious diseases and conditions that make life more difficult in our later years of life. It seems that things only keep getting worse as we age, and we have more to complain about. Yet there is also a bright side to this aging dilemma we face.
This week Cindy had her first cataract surgery, and she will have her second eye done next week. We left our home at 9 AM the day of surgery and were home shortly after noon. Cindy had no discomfort from the surgery and the next day was already seeing almost 20/20 out of that eye. Cataract surgery was developed because our eyes, like the rest of our body, also diminish over time. Our lens becomes clouded, so we have more difficulty seeing which reduces our ability to drive and read and, in general, enjoy life less. Yet, now we have this opportunity to have our vision restored to near perfect condition, and also being able to have additional vision corrected through the surgery to potentially reduce the need for glasses that we may have used all our life, and to possibly reduce the need for reading glasses that we all need later in life. What a wonderful opportunity to have something in later life return to the condition we experienced in the prime of our life – our vision!
While Cindy was in surgery, I had some free time so called one of my dear friends who I don’t get to speak to very often. He had a bout with cancer a few years ago, but was able to have it treated and his doctor told him it would, hopefully, not return. I heard recently that it had returned again so called him for an update. Again, they caught it early and, hopefully, can treat it successfully. He told me that he will get chemotherapy in the form of a daily pill, a new form of cancer targeted therapy. It will have much more direct impact on the “bad” cancer cells and let the “good” cells alone, resulting, hopefully, in more effective treatment with fewer side effects. He was also concerned with how they could measure the effectiveness of the targeted therapy without numerous body scans that could miss it or cause damage from the exposure to radiation. His doctor said not to worry, because a brand new “blood biopsy” method had just been developed. Because my friend’s genome had now been mapped, a simple blood draw would be able to be used to test for the presence of this specific cancer rather than the more invasive standard surgical biopsy or body scan.
My sister also was diagnosed about 10 years ago with “chronic” multiple myeloma. She was told at that time that although the condition could not be cured, but it could be managed by medication throughout her life and should not lead to death from this condition. For a number of years she did not even take any medication, it was simply monitored. Now that she does require medication, she takes a form of targeted chemotherapy and can simply switch to a new chemotherapy agent when her current one stops working.
So what is my point in today’s “medical TGIF” message? The point is that man has made many important medical discoveries throughout our history but especially in the past 20 years that have greatly improved quality of life in our older age and have also extended the length of our life! Our church body is living proof of all these gains that have been made, that have benefitted us greatly.
The great advances that our society has made and continues to make in many areas of our lives are all due to God’s provision for us.
Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
We are like God in that we can reason, we have intellect, will, and emotion. We can do whatever we set our minds to do, but we always need to remember that we can do it because of God’s gift to us. We need to thank God every day for this powerful gift he has given to us, that is described in the very first chapter of His Word.
God is good ….. all the time!!! All the time ….. God is good!!!