medicine

I've always been almost healthy. I was nearly constantly ill when I was a kid with strep throat or whooping cough or the like. I spent many a good hour in the doctors office in dearborn and I always hated the unique architecture of the building. Every time I saw it I either was feeling HORRIBLE or was soon to be feeling horrible as they were going to do a procedure on me or experiment or what not.

But on the other hand going to the doctors made me feel better with that magic potion they gave me. Penicillin was the good stuff - it tasted like bubble gum and was pink. Amoxicillin on the other hand was dreadful. It was red and I think was suppose to taste like cherries. It didn't. At all.

But it wasn't until a most unfortunate incident in 7th grade when I - first hand - stumbled upon how incredible these drugs really were and how fortunate I am to be living today as I watched the IV slowly drip into my system.

Bacteria (particularly staph) is in the process of evolving - it's becoming stronger and resistant - and in some terrifying cases immune to our gambit of drugs. I'm just imaging a time maybe 100 years ago when looking back on this magical time where we as a species, if for only a few decades had the distinct upper hand in the biological war. For a few magical decades we were winning the fight against so many microbes. Imagine telling your great grandchildren about this time where all we needed to do to get over an illness is to take a pill and within days you're feeling all better.

I fear the sunset on our victory is approaching. It might be decades out it might be a century. It might never be - maybe we'll find another magic bullet that will keep up winning maybe the natural balance will never be restored but I somehow doubt that. We're facing off against another form of life and one things that biology has taught me: life is wants to keep living. Killing via environmental changes is very difficult. It's actually one of the reasons I find the whole "global warming" scare hilarious. Life will adapt and adapt quickly.

We're living in a magical time where a pill can cure most any common disease. You don't have to fear the fever anymore, you don't have to fear getting ill. We can fix you. For the time being.