Medicine is getting better all the time…

By | May 11, 2007
5 Comments

I’ve been very busy this week going back and forth between work and the hospital. My mother had a mass removed from her digestive track. We were all very concerned that it might be cancerous. We just got the news today that it wasn’t. We are so thankful.

Benign or not, this was a dangerous tumor because it was fast growing. When it was discovered a month ago it was the size of a golf ball. It was closer to a tennis ball by the time it was removed. Fifty years ago people would just get sick and die from an obstruction like this. There was really little that could be done. Up until about five years ago surgery to take care of this problem would have involved a major abdominal incision – with all the risks and complications and difficult recovery that comes with that.

My mother’s surgery was done arthroscopically with no external incision at all. We’ve been told to expect her home by Sunday – Mother’s Day.

  • Phil Bowermaster

    Great news, Stephen.

    I had a rapidly growing lypoma removed from my back about ten years ago (golf ball sized when first detected; football sized when removed), and I have an enormous scar on my back to prove it. A few months ago, my gallbladder was removed and I have three tiny scars triangulated on my abdomen. Quite an improvement!

    How long before these things can be done with no incision at all, I wonder?

    BTW, I like that phrase “better all the time.” Wasn’t Ben just suggesting that we should do something with that? I think he’s right.

  • Michael S. Sargent

    Stephen,

    Glad to hear about your mother’s positive prognosis. Hope she has a happy Mother’s Day weekend.

    Phil,
    How long before these things can be done with no incision at all, I wonder?

    Well, according to New Scientist, some surgeries can already be accomplished with no visible incisions:

    “Appendix-removal via the mouth leaves no scar.”

    The technique is referred to as transluminal surgery.

    On the other hand, Peggy’s cadio-thoracic surgeon has quit performing minimally-invasive heart valve transplants since he regards the benefits (three smaller scars as opposed to one large, central scar, a small decrease in the chances of infection and a somewhat-shorter recovery period) don’t outweigh the additional complexity and increased length of the procedure.

    Mike

  • http://www.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    Phil and Mike:

    Thanks for your well-wishes. My Dad was able to take Mom home today. She looked relieved. The hospital is no place to get rest.

    Had she had the external incision surgery that doctors were doing just a few years ago, she’d be in the hospital at least another week. Probably longer.

    By the way, this surgery was done without any external incisions – even small incisions. Everything was done internally.

  • MDarling

    Glad to hear mom is doing better.

    As for medical progress- in the Denver metro area we’ve been reading headlines and announcements from the county health departments about squirrels, rabbits and other animals with plague. aka “Black Death.” 75million deaths worldwide- 50% of Europe. Now rarely fatal and easily treatable with antibiotcs.

    I dream of a day where the basic function of human immunity -determining self from not-self – can be magnified and programmed. And when that basic function is enhanced to “self, rightly functioning from not self or self misfunctioning.”

  • http://triticale.mu.nu triticale

    My father, who made his living with his eyes, suffered several detached retinas. The first one, in the late ’50s required seveal months recovery in the hospital from the breakthru procedure of removing the eye from its socket and stitching from behind. The last one, in the late ’60s was an outpatient procedure. They dilated his pupil and welded things up with a huge water cooled, lens collimated strobe light. Now the procedure is similar, but the laser used is smaller, less expensive and no doubt produces far smaller scar tacks.