Now that's progress

Is medicine like “House,” where no matter how rare and catastrophic a malady you have, a full team of doctors devote their efforts to you, and administer a cure within sixty minutes? Or, is it more like, “it could be this, this or this” and “this works for some people, but not others?”

Probably somewhere in between. About forty years ago, I blew out a knee. Surgery on this was more of a hacksaw and chisel affair back then. I spent a week in the hospital and three on crutches, and was left with a long, ugly scar. I had a few other procedures in that era, with similar results.

This morning, I ran a couple miles and lifted weights at the gym. This evening, I spent over an hour rolling a kayak in a pool. I’m somewhat amazed because two days ago, I had surgery to remove a long-embedded fragment from my chest, and repair the residual damage. It’s been grinding around in there for a while. Thanks to current technology and procedure, collateral damage was minimized, and I was returned to near-normal function. I’m impressed.

That’s progress.