Christmas Day – a good time to put things in perspective

Christmas Day – a good time to put things in perspective

            I occasionally mention to friends that I was in medicine during the Golden Years: after penicillin and before HMOs. Medical advances continue to explode and HMOs no longer seem to have the dictatorial power that they had for a time. Things were good for physicians during the Golden Years, less so for patients. I am truly grateful for the advances that have made it possible for those of us who have endured bladder cancer to survive and to continue with life as usual for most hours of the day.

            The Indiana Pouch and similar procedures, including the neobladder, have only been around for a little more than one generation. Before that, bladder cancer victims had to deal with surgical procedures that increased the risk of infection and left them with limited social mobility. 

            Anesthesia was much different when I began my medical career more than 50 years ago. I recall dripping ether onto a face mask, and had none of the instantaneous readouts of a patient’s vital signs that have made intraoperative complications rare now. . Post-op nausea was common back then; hospital stays lasted many days.

            Today, radical cystectomy and construction of an Indiana Pouch take several hours but the anesthesiologist has an array of drugs and equipment that make an 8-hour procedure safer than ever, with post-op nausea only an occasional problem.

            This Christmas season, let all of us IP-ers rejoice. We were born at the right time!