When The Amazing Become Ordinary

Glenn Reynolds writes:

TEN HEALTH-TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS. And here's one that's not even newsworthy: My mother-in-law had cataract surgery, and now has implanted toric lenses. She says she sees better than she did when she was 12.

I just made an appointment for my annual check-up at the NIH next week. A couple years ago, I participated in an experimental way of donating bone marrow. Basically, they injected me with some kind of hormone for a week which caused my body to over-produce stem cells. Mom and dad drove me into the NIH where they hooked me up to a machine for a few hours and pumped my blood through it -- extracting what they needed and returning the rest. About the only side-effect I had was I felt exhausted that afternoon. Last I heard, the recipient remains leukemia-free.

A few years ago, they would have had to perform invasive and painful surgery to extract bone marrow from my hip. Not long before that and the lukemia would have been 100% terminal for the patient. This kind of progress doesn't make the news either.

P.S. -- If you’d like to learn how to help, the National Bone Marrow Donor program has instructions on how to join the registry, contribute financially, and a list of other ways to help. You can also find out some more info about bone marrow transplants here.